Are you having difficulties managing your industry's links between Netscape and Internet Explorer? Do you have bookmarks floating around on your hard disk without files to put them in? We have selected a few useful tools that will enable you to transfer bookmarks between browsers, edit descriptions, and share links in the privacy of your firm. All of the products discussed are available on the Web in the form of Internet sites and downloadable software. Whether you are an information specialist or an individual responsible for tracking key sites for your firm, these products will help you organize and distribute bookmarks with clients and colleagues.

Blink

Blink is a free Web-based bookmark management tool that assists in storing and sharing links, regardless of which browser was used to collect them. Once registered, Blink designs a secure Web account that uploads your existing links on a disk (hard or floppy), lets you sort them into folders, and gives you the tools you need to add new links, regardless of where you have Internet access.

We found that this tool is handy to have when managing a great amount of links that could be used for future reference. If you are a person who tends to lose files among files in directories, you may want to upload old and unused files with links that clutters your "everyday" links on Web file. As a result, you have a place on the Web to access the files by a couple clicks of your mouse.

Bookmark Converter 2.81

Bookmark Converter software provides a quick and ideal tool for transferring your bookmark files between Netscape and Explorer when it seems to be a very time consuming process. Whether you are sharing books among your team members across the hall or colleagues in different locations around the globe, this tool is flexible to users who wish to send important sites on the Web, regardless of the capabilities of the browser's that is receiving the links.

When we downloaded a trial version, we discovered the following important features for medium-to-large companies that wish to manage bookmarks more efficiently:

·        No size limit for bookmark files or favorites to be converted

·        Command-line conversion

·        Remote conversion for multiple users in large networks

·        Easy- to-learn and use in less than an hour

BookmarkTracker.com

BookmarkTracker.com is a free Internet service that will monitor your important bookmarks on a regular basis. With self-created username and password, which you may share with a colleague, this service allows you to take your existing bookmarks in one of the browsers' formats and automatically makes them available in the other format in a matter of seconds. In addition, the service makes it possible to access the files with the links at any computer that is online.

We liked this service based on the following list of features and options:

·        Easy placement of bookmarks into folders (and nested folders)

·        Batch bookmark management functions

·        E-mail notification of updated Web sites

Bookmarker 1.2

Bookmarker 1.2 is a 999 universal Internet Explorer, HTML and Netscape Navigator bookmarks processor, converter, and synchronizer. This tool gives you the opportunity to synchronize bookmarks to ensure that you have copies of important links for the use in your respective profession, regardless of location. Useful for presentations and the ability to be placed on Intranets, Bookmarker permits users to concisely describe any of their bookmarks.

When testing this product, we found it to be very adaptable to several browsers / formats in which you can store bookmarks. You may manage and convert your bookmarks in the following formats, depending on the software package you currently use:

·        Netscape Composer\Navigator bookmarks

·        Internet Explorer favorites

·        Opera Hot List

·        HTML files

·        your data on your own site (using FTP)

VisBookMarks

VisBookMarks is an unique software tool that takes a radical different approach to bookmark management. To avoid the confusion of having two different sites with similar titles, this piece of software uses a visual representation of each page instead of just a plain text link or description. Instead of just saving new pages as standard bookmarks, they are also saved as a small screenshot of that Web page and displayed as a page in your browser. They can be grouped just like standard bookmarks, so you can have a collection of screenshots representing all your "bookmarks" and "favorites." VisBookMarks is presently available to IE 5 users only but Netscape users can expect a version of this tool in the upcoming months.

AcqURL

AcqURL allows you to construct a list of your important Web sites that can be organized and accessed easily from your desktop. With a mouse click, this program will build a setup disk for you that will allow you to install your profession-related bookmarks on any Windows-based operated system. For the real organized person, AcqURL provides the ability to color code, alphabetize, and print your bookmarks. The tool comes with a template of categorized URLs which you can add, modify and merge existing files of links.

If you are responsible for disseminating information from the Web within your firm, we think that the following aspects of this tool are important to note:

·   E-mail capabilities of sending files

·        Password protect files

·        Verify links

·        Check for updates

·        Creation of an HTML Link page

URL Organizer 2

URL Organizer 2 is a relatively simple and easy-to-use software to prepare and present links on the Web. Compatible with versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator or Opera, this tool is ideal for Internet researchers. Researchers are given the capacity to store 10 bookmark lists with up to 10,000 links apiece. To add a link, users are able to drag and drop text and/or shortcuts, or by transferring your Web browser's active URL with a mouse click. If you happen to lose track of a particular link among the files, URL Organizer 2 supplies a search utility where you may base your search on keywords used in the description of the site.

We liked this software due to its straightforward approach to saving and editing the collection of links, which we wished to management effectively. The main features that attracted our attention were:

·        URLs are stored in a 3-level hierarchy so no URL is more than 3 mouse clicks away

·        Comprehensive integrated help notes

·        Automatic and manual backup of URL collections

·        Organizing functions : edit, reorder and regroup titles and URLs

Do you have another tool you like better ? Write to us at editor@competia.com !