Foxmarks Becomes Xmarks, Adds “Web Discovery” Features

Foxmarks, the handy add-on that lets you sync your bookmarks and passwords across multiple browsers, has changed its name to Xmarks–and added a slew of new features to go along with the new identity.

A new Xmarks version of the add-on launched today for Firefox only, with IE and Safari versions said to be on the way soon. (Previous versions of Foxmarks will continue to function fine–the upgrade is not required.) CEO James Joaquin describes Xmarks as a “superset of Foxmarks.”

So what’s that mean? In addition to the updated moniker, Xmarks now offers “Web discovery features” separate from the standard synchronization tools. The add-on will enhance your Google search results, adding notes about how many other Xmarks users have bookmarked certain pages. It’ll also allow you to click a special icon while surfing to get information about any Web site from an Xmarks database, along with recommendations for similar sites.

The rebranding makes sense: As Foxmarks has grown and expanded to browsers other than Firefox, one can understand how the “Fox” in the name might be misleading to prospective non-Firefox users. As for the added functionality, I’m not sure I see the appeal–if I’m using Foxmarks for browser synchronization, the last thing I want is a bunch of other stuff I don’t need clouding up my browser. Luckily, though, Xmarks lets you disable the added options, so you can decide for yourself whether you want them or not.

The Xmarks upgrade for Firefox is available here. The upgrade is seamless from previous Foxmarks version and doesn’t require any changes to your Foxmarks account.

Foxmarks