For the past four years now, over a million users – myself included – have been using XMarks, a brilliant free service that syncs bookmarks, passwords and other data between other computers – and browsers – automatically, only requiring that the XMarks add-on is installed on the computers and you log in to your XMarks account (which can be made automatic after the first time).
Today, however, I am sorry to report that there is bad news regarding the service. In fact, probably the worst news you could hear if you’ve made heavy use of the service. If you, like me, have been a loyal XMarks user until now, you either already have, or will shortly be receiving the following email which explains what I’m talking about:
PLEASE READ: Xmarks service ends January 2011
From: Xmarks Farewell <notifications@ops.xmarks.com>
Dear Xmarks User,
We’ve always said we won’t email you unless it’s important; this is one of those occasions:
Xmarks will be shutting down our free browser synchronization services on January 10, 2011. For details on how to transition to recommended alternatives, consult this page.
For the full story behind the Xmarks shutdown, please read our blog post.
Thank you for being a part of the Xmarks community; we apologize for any inconvenience this step may cause you. We believe we have the best users in the world, and we hope your bookmarks find a new and happy home soon.
Asynchronously,
— The Xmarks Team
You are receiving this mail because you have an Xmarks account in good standing registered to this email address.
So, there you have it – XMarks is soon to close for good. I’ve actually read the story why it’s closing, and it’s quite a sad story actually – full of ups, downs and roadblocks, and generally making you feel like XMarks just didn’t get the support it deserved to keep it running. Unfortunately the story is quite long and drawn out so I can’t shorten it down succinctly enough to post here – so just click the link above if you want to see it.
XMarks have been kind enough to help their users move on though, suggesting alternatives for all the browsers if you want to keep the ability to sync your browsing data between computers, and explaining how to delete the add-on (and your XMarks account data, if you’d rather move on now than be forced to later). Again, this information is included in your email. And, well, that’s it. What does everyone think of this news? Leave your comments please.