Xmarks shutting down bookmark sync service

[RadioActive]

Two million users with 5 million computers storing 100 million bookmarks doth not a business make.

That's what Xmarks, a company that for a time ruled the technical specialty of synchronizing bookmarks among different computers and browsers, concluded. After four years' effort, it's closing up shop in about 90 days after finding no good way to convert its popularity into profit.

The company got its start as Foxmarks, a Firefox extension, but eventually spread to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Apple's Safari, and Google's Chrome. It let people synchronize not only their bookmarks but also passwords and open tabs, but those features are now arriving in both Firefox and Chrome.

"For four years we have offered the synchronization service for no charge, predicated on the hypothesis that a business model would emerge to support the free service. With that investment thesis thwarted, there is no way to pay expenses, primarily salary and hosting costs," said Xmarks co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Todd Agulnick in a blog post Monday. "Without the resources to keep the service going, we must shut it down."

The company tried various ways to make a profit out of its business, including a "smarter search" idea based on data gleaned from its anonymized collection of 100 million bookmarks. "If you were looking for the Web sites in a particular category, the results were shockingly complete and entirely spam-free," Agulnick said.

Interest in the service fizzled, though, and efforts in the spring of 2010 to sell the company failed. The idea of a hybrid free-premium model seemed doomed by the fact that bookmark sync is a feature being built into browsers. Thus, the company will switch its servers off after January 10.

The company also launched a 99-cent iPhone app to extend sync to Apple's devices and had begun work on an equivalent for phones using Google's Android OS. The former will continue to work with bookmarks cached on the phone, but the latter won't be released.

"Although we made great progress on our Android app, we were regrettably unable to complete it in time," according to an Xmarks shutdown FAQ.

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[Ambrocious]

I use xmarks and it works really well...this is really sad news. But at least it works until Jan of next year...

[RadioActive]

ok they shut down what other sites can we post bookmarks on

Firefox Sync (Mozilla) - Bookmarks, passwords, history, tabs - Free

Chrome Sync (Google) - Bookmarks - Free

Windows Live Essentials (Microsoft) - Bookmarks - Free

MobileMe (Apple) - Bookmarks, passwords - $99/year

[*dcs18]

:( It's going to be a sad farewell in 90 days - BTW, xmarks 3.92 is out. ;)

[Drolz]

its ok with me, im not using synchronization anyway

[RadioActive]

its ok with me, im not using synchronization anyway

That's your loss ;)

[Drolz]

its ok with me, im not using synchronization anyway

That's your loss ;)

maybe not, only using firefox here

[mosaji]

Firefox sync does the job equally well....I suppose

[RadioActive]

its ok with me, im not using synchronization anyway

That's your loss ;)

maybe not, only using firefox here

I think you're misunderstaning the point of bookmark/password synchronization.

Firefox sync does the job equally well....I suppose

Does the job, yes but certainly not "equally well".

[HX1]

I looked for a service last night that would be a replacement.. for this thread.. after looking at all that it actually does.. it would still be hard to do.. its a little more than just a synchronizing service.. and if thse of you who use it ..use it for nothing more than that then there are literally a TON of other options..

[Sheldon]

I looked for a service last night that would be a replacement.. for this thread.. after looking at all that it actually does.. it would still be hard to do.. its a little more than just a synchronizing service.. and if thse of you who use it ..use it for nothing more than that then there are literally a TON of other options..

Alternately,i choose xMarklet.com now.

[RadioActive]

I looked for a service last night that would be a replacement.. for this thread.. after looking at all that it actually does.. it would still be hard to do.. its a little more than just a synchronizing service.. and if thse of you who use it ..use it for nothing more than that then there are literally a TON of other options..

Alternately,i choose xMarklet.com now.

I never heard of "xMarklet" but in any case that link is dead.

[Hottwire]

I will miss this service very much I use it all the time across my Mac and PC and portable firefox as well as on my mobile, guess I will have to find some sort of alternative come January, but until then i shall remain using the best cross platform sync app imo :)

[DKT27]

Xmarks may live on, but in paid form

Earlier this week, free and cross-platform bookmark sync tool Xmarks announced it would be closing up shop come January of next year, but there may be some life left in it yet.

This morning, on the Xmarks company blog, CEO James Joaquin said that the company is "revisiting the idea of Xmarks as a premium service"--something it has never offered, and one of the factors that led to the company failing to turn a profit.

To gauge interest in that idea, Joaquin and the other Xmarks founders have set up a page on Pledgebank where they're hopping to get 100,000 people to pledge to paying $10-$20 a year for a paid, premium service. "This is not a scientific experiment to predict what percent of our base will pay, but it's a data point that will definitely help," Joaquin wrote. At the time of this post, there are 2,122 users signed up, with another 97,878 slots left to be filled.

While there was never a paid version of the service, Xmarks was one of the initial add-on makers involved in the contributions program Mozilla launched in July of last year. Even so, it did not yield the results the company was expecting. "Participation was abysmal," Joaquin said. According to the company, 0.001 percent of Xmarks users actually ended up paying the $7 donation fee--echoing similar numbers to those shared with CNET by Mozilla developers shortly after the program was launched.

In order to keep the service running, Joaquin says the company needs $2 million a year. This amount, he said, goes toward hosting and keeping a full-time staff of engineers on-board for maintaining the software as browser makers roll out updates.

Besides contributions, Joaquin mentioned that Xmarks has been contacted by several companies that wanted to acquire the service and keep offering it. "No guarantees, but we've been pleasantly surprised by the volume of interest," he said.

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