I’ve never really been into bookmarks, even if this feature in web browsers was implemented years ago. I guess even Mosaic had bookmarks.
Truth is, I’ve always blamed bookmarks for not being efficient. I’m a keyboard guy. The less I use my mouse/touchpad, the more I use my keyboard to do stuff, and, the more I’m happy. I guess this is the way I’ve been raised, I’m a Mac guy, I grew up with keyboard shortcuts, and they’re so efficient. So why would I waste time grabbing my mouse and moving it to be able to click on what I want, when I just can type a URL much more faster with my cmd + L shortcut? For sure, autocompletion features helped with this choice, too.
I’m bookmark free since 1998. And I’m happy with not having any bookmarks on my computer.
But a few years ago, a revolution happened: touch interfaces, iPhone, and more recently iPad. Thing is, I don’t like to move my fingers to another device, and I think it’s a waste of time. But with an iPhone or an iPad for instance, there’s only one real device, which mixes the keyboard, the mouse, and the screen. So now, it becomes much more efficient when you have bookmarks, since you don’t have to move your hand/fingers a lot. They’re just one touch away, while it’s a much more complicated process to reach a bookmark on a classic computer
And I really thank Apple for this. Because thanks to their touch devices, now I see the real value of bookmarks.
Photo credit: Dave Crosby
2 comments.
With Safari, you can use bookmark to have a better autocompletion. For example, since I bookmarked Gmail as “Gm”, I’ve just to type Gm and then enter. The best result, which is always a bookmark, is usually on top with Safari 5. So even with the toolbar hidden or just few bookmarks, you can have more shortcuts by using them!
By Joffrey, July 21, 2010.
You’re right Joffrey, but since I’m actually a Chrome user, and Gmail being the page I visit the most, typing “g” autocompletes w/ gmail.com
By Bastien, July 21, 2010.