Well, it is a sad day in Firefox Extension Land because Xmarks has announced it will be biting the dust soon.  The cross browser bookmark syncing tool will shut down service January 10, 2011.  I am sad to see Xmarks become another failed experiment for the Web, but hopefully the great minds and people behind the product will move on to bigger and better things.

It is totally understandable to have to give things up if the money is not there.  Believe me, I know it is hard to be profitable out there – as the only money I make on my projects is though my website advertisements.  However, even though I have thousands of readers, ad clicks aren’t really making it easy to quit my day job (even if I wanted to). Maybe this will serve as a reminder that it is hard for good things to remain free, and if you enjoy using a product – you should look for ways to give back to the development of the product.

One thing is for certain, the world of bookmark syncing has to thank Xmarks for paving the way.  For Firefox users, Firefox Sync will soon be your built in replacement for the Xmarks-like bookmark syncing.

Todd Agulnick, the Co-Founder of Xmarks sums things up nicely here:

I’d like to thank our investors, who stuck with us through uncertain times; my colleagues, who toiled long hours in search of a scalable business; our localizers, who made Xmarks available in 33 languages; and our users, for their unstinting support and willingness to tell us quickly and candidly when we misstepped. You will all be missed.

So long Xmarks – you will be missed!

Turn off Smarter Search in Xmarks

The first thing you want to do is go to Tools > Add-ons and then click the options button for Xmarks.  Now, under the “Discovery” Tab you can disable Smarter Search.  In your Google search results, Xmarks will highlight the top three sites based on bookmarking history.  Put your mouse over the special icon to the side of the search results to learn more information such as reviews, and rankings.  If you don’t like it, turn it off.

Turn off Site Info in Xmarks

Next, in that same options window, you can also disable the Site Info, which will turn off the feature in Xmarks that gives you more information about a web site in the location bar.  Once your done disabling things, hit the “OK” button at the bottom of the window.

There you have it, now the new features in Xmarks that some people may not like are turned off, and Xmarks starts to act a lot more like Foxmarks did. 

Why make the move?  Well, one would guess that sharing links might be a more profitable business model, more so than bookmark syncing alone.  Via the Xmarks blog, here are some FAQs for those of you who might have questions about the change:

• Xmarks is a superset of Foxmarks – it adds web discovery features to our world-class bookmark sync.
• If you choose to upgrade to Xmarks, it will work seamlessly with your existing Foxmarks account and will sync with your other computers running Foxmarks.
• Foxmarks.com and our existing Foxmarks add-ons won’t change overnight. We expect to have upgrades to all three Foxmarks versions available by the end of March and we’ll provide you with more detailed info once we return from the DEMO conference.
• We’re still hard at work finding better, faster ways to sync more things in your browser.

So what new features will be brought on with the new business model?

Smarter Search – In your Google search results, Xmarks will highlight the top three sites based on bookmarking history.  Put your mouse over the special icon to the side of the search results to learn more information such as reviews, and rankings.

Site Info Lookup – Clicking on the Xmarks logo in your location bar will bring up a detailed box letting you know more information about the site you are on, and help you discover other sites just like it.

Then of course, you have the bookmark and password backup and syncing capabilities that Foxmarks already brought to the table.  The Xmarks browser add-on is Firefox only right now, but they promise to have Internet Explorer and Safari versions running soon.  Firefox fans can grab the Xmarks add-on here to try it out.  It is worth pointing out that you can install Xmarks even if you have the Foxmarks add-on installed on your computer. Xmarks will upgrade your current Foxmarks add-on and continue to sync and back up your bookmarks (and optionally passwords).

So what do you think about the change?  Excited about the new features, or disappointed that an old Firefox friend is changing its ways?

Password Synchronization is an optional feature for the newest version of Foxmarks that allows you to simply and securely synchronize your saved passwords. 

Since this feature is turned off by default, how do you activate it? 

1. Open the Foxmarks Settings dialog (located in Tools > Foxmarks > Settings…).
2. Click on the “Sync” tab.
3. Select the checkbox labeled “Passwords”. You will be guided through a quick and easy password synchronization setup flow.

Big congrats goes out to Foxmarks for making a damn good add-on even better.

Having given it a round two now, I am happy to say I have done so.

After the death of Google Browser Sync, I was looking for a new way to keep my bookmarks on my desktop and my bookmarks on my laptop the same.  Foxmarks does the trick with what they call Seamless Sync.  I have not had to mess with it once since I installed it. It just works.

With a service or extension like this I’d like to pretend it isn’t even there, and Foxmarks makes it very easy to do just that.  Some of the other nice features of Foxmarks are:

• Easy Backup & Restore
• Web Access to your Saved Links
• Mobile Access
• Share Bookmarks with Friends
• Import & Export Your Saved Links

I am delighted to say that Foxmarks has earned a spot on my hall of fame add-ons list for being one heck of a nice addition to Firefox.  If your looking to keep your bookmarks synced up, there is no better solution out there right now.

I know several people who have said it is a little too complicated for them. I don’t think they really gave it a shot though. It doesn’t have to be difficult. For those of you out there that need a helping hand the people at Lifehacker have put together a pretty darn good tutorial on the subject.

Foxmarks lets you easily back up your bookmarks to the Foxmarks server and sync them to any browser with the extension installed. Today I’ll detail how to use the Foxmarks extension to back up and sync your bookmarks to your own personal FTP server, whether it’s with a hosted account or your own home server.

+ Check Out the Full Guide at Lifehacker!

[Try Out the Foxmarks Extension!]