furl.net

Do you use more than one computer or web browser? Frustrated with bookmarks? Furl.net does a great job of saving your links (URLs) via handy web pages, which you can access from anywhere, but it can do a LOT more... What else can Furl do for you? As their tag-line goes: "Save, search and share your Personal Web. Furl it." Save: You can annotate, categorize, rate, email, save a hyperlink, and even archive your own backup copy of (almost) any web-page. (Useful if a link fails, a favorite page drastically changes, or the host disappears!) Search: You can search your own archive, or browse it: as a chronological list, or by topics (your own or pre-defined). You can see annotated web-page links saved by others that are related to pages you have saved. Like a TiVo® for your web browsing, it can make useful suggestions, based on your archiving history, and that of thousands of other savvy Furl users. Furling a web-page is a bit like giving it a popularity vote. You can text search the public Furl and read notes other Furlers have made about web pages they've saved. There are several sorting options for results. Share: You can selectively share (via email or hyperlinks) your Furl archive, chronological log, specific topics, specific links, or the whole enchilada, with colleagues or friends. You can export/import all your bookmarks between your Furl archive and your web browser -- for mutual backups! (Perhaps, even consolidate bookmarks from different browsers?) Your personal web: Your meta-data is fairly quick to access and easy to maintain: Furl does a very good job on usability, performance, and reliability. I've been a Furl user for over a year now, since mid-2004, and I've had no complaints, simply satisfaction and delight. I've gradually discovered more and more useful features and additions. Like Google™, it's free (supported by very unobtrusive and sometimes even helpful context-based ads) but I'd gladly pay for it, if I could! Security? You can mark any link, or whole topics, as private. Anonymity? You can be as private, or public, as you want -- your identity on Furl is your own choice. Furl epitomizes a new category of web community application: social bookmarking, or "folksonomy." It's become an alternative, customizable view of the whirled-wild-web, a personal web search tool. There are others, but Furl hits the spot for me. (I'll give it five stars when they add a few more sorting options...) Furl it! Furl has become an essential tool, whenever I'm on the web. The more I use it, the more I'm impressed. It gives me a good balance between freedom and structure. It's adaptable and intuitive. Go to www.furl.net and use the Help tab for more ideas. Start simple, just save a few web pages... Beware: Furl is addicting!