Keep Firefox Bookmarks in Sync with Weave
Along with the birth of Firefox 3.0 came the unfortunate death of Google Browser Sync, the incredibly popular Firefox extension that allowed users to keep their bookmarks in sync across computers. While this is still possible with .mac and Safari, the space for a new cross platform solution is vast. (As a side note, I know that you can use Safari on Windows, but it still hardly has any marketshare compared to Firefox and IE). But the lack of a major browser sync tool for Firefox 3.0 may finally have a solution; it’s called Weave and it’s straight out of the Mozilla Labs.
Weave, a new project out of the Mozilla Labs, is installed as an extension for Firefox 3.0. When you go to install the extension, you are prompted to create a Weave account with Mozilla. After installing the extension and completing the obligatory Firefox restart, you’ll be greeted by the Weave set-up window. Follow through the necessary steps to get your account set up, selecting if it’s a new account or just another location for Weave. (Note: If you were using an earlier version of Weave, you must create a new account in the new 0.2 extension.
After accepting the warnings, choose a username, enter your e-mail address, and insert a password. These will be used to create your own specific Weave account that will then be used on other Firefox installations.
After scrolling through a few other setup menus, you’ll get to the Data configuration page. This is the meat and potatoes of your Weave experience. Choose a name for the computer (or Firefox profile) that you’re using with this particular Weave install. Next, you choose what settings and data you want to synchronize. I chose to sync Bookmarks, Cookies, and Tabs (these were all the options chosen by default).
After you click Continue, you’ll be informed that Weave is going to connect and do an initial sync. After it completes, click “Done”, and you’ll be back at your regular Firefox screen. However, there will be a new icon on the bottom of your Firefox status bar. From there, you’re easily able to mess around with your settings and account info. You’re also able to change the Preferences from the Firefox Preferences pane in the Application Menu.
To set Weave up on any other computers, you simply install the add-on on any other Firefox installation you have, be it at work or somewhere else. After installation, click on the option to set it up as an additional computer, and enter your account information. It’s as easy as that!
Weave is a free download from Mozilla Labs, and is currently in beta, but will certainly be maturing and becoming more stable with time.
Thanks, I’ll keep my eye on this. I just installed FoxMarks which seems to do the same thing.
As Jason mentioned, Foxmarks has been around for quite a while and does a fine job of synchronizing everything from computer to computer.
I also use Foxmarks. It’s simple, automatic and works flawlessly. But it’s nice to have options.
At this moment new suscriptions are closed for Weave but me use for a while to Foxmarks. Of course is not the same that Weave features but have the same bookmarks on my Mac at home and the office Windows-PC.
Foxmarks is a great tool to sync bookmarks between computers (Macs and PCs) as well has have your bookmarks available on Foxmarks’ website if you’re using a friends computer. What is different with Weave is that it syncs not only bookmarks but also history, passwords, cookies, etc. While that’s a great idea, I hope they’ll eventually provide selective syncing (do you want *everything* from your home computer synced to work and vice versa?). Also, it’s not clear if Weave provides web access to your info, should you need to log in from a computer that isn’t yours.
btw, what are the items in your firefox status bar?
I resize my window a lot, so I wonder that that extension is that shows current window size?
Thanks
Would like to sync Firefox and Safari as well as be able to find and delete duplicate bookmarks and those bookmarks that are never used. Looking for something that does these simple task. Will Weave do this for me? Does not seem like it will at first look so far. Anyone believe it can or know of something that can do these tasks.
Foxmarks works perfect without risks which is not the case for weave.
It syncs everthing that in Weave are just planning to implement.
The only missing feature is sessions sync as we had with Google browser sync
Complementes sync would be also a good enhancement