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I've had a hate-hate relationship with Bookmarks since the late '80s. Back then, bookmarks were as important as your dialup phone number. Remember dialup? Internet access has come a long way, but managing your bookmarks has not; not from within Safari. For me, there are two kinds of bookmarks: the ones I use every day and the temporary ones for projects and research. Today, I will be talking about the project and research bookmarks.

At any given moment, I have several projects going on that often overlap. So, while working on one project during the course of my day, I may find information for another project. What is the best way to collect this information without disrupting my workflow? I have tried every kind of information manager know to man, and they all involve me leaving my web browser at some point to organize the data I have collected, thus breaking my flow.

Why not use my web browser to add bookmarks? Well, I use three different browsers at the same time, so...three sets of bookmarks.

There are many online Bookmark managers, but none have fit in well with my workflow. I'm a big advocate of having as few logins as possible. I want to work in as few applications and/or websites as possible. For this reason, I do not use Delicious or any of the other fine online Bookmark managers. I use Google Reader.

Definition of Google Reader - Google Reader is a Web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds online or offline

What many people do not know is that Google Reader is also a Bookmark Manager. You can add any webpage from any browser at any time, and add tags to the URL on the fly without ever leaving the web page you are on. Ahhhh workflow. (For those of you who are going to ask why I don't just use google bookmarks, I spend a good part of my day in google reader, so it makes sense for me to not have to go anywhere else.)

So, let's take a look to see how this works. First I'm going to assume you already have a Google reader account. If not, you can get one by going to reader.google.com. While there, you can subscribe to this blog feed.

The first thing you need to is drag this link to your bookmark bar:

Drag Me To Bookmark Bar

With the bookmark in front of you at all times it is easy to bookmark and tag the site for later reference. If you highlight parts of the page before clicking the bookmark, the highlighted text will be added as the bookmark's description. Once the bookmark is clicked, a window will pop up with several options. See image below:

It is important to tag your bookmarks this will keep the organized  for later retrieval. Tags can be any keyword you decide. If you add tags to any site you bookmark, it shows up in google reader with small tag icons. See image below:





Google Reader will never fully replace your web browsers bookmarks, but for organizing bookmarks based on projects Google Reader is the answer for me. 

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Freelance technical writer and director of Long Island Mac Help - the essential source of in-house macintosh training and support.  Skilled and well-versed in social media promotion, web site and commerce integration.  Currently serves as technical advisor and member of the board of 4eProductions - a multi media production company.  Dedicated to serving and providing perfect workflow.