Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 13 years and 6 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Earlier this week Xmarks, the cross-browser synchronization service, announced it would be shutting down in 90 days.

I’ve been using Xmarks for years, ever since it was known as Foxmarks, to keep my bookmarks in sync across multiple PCs and browsers (IE, Firefox, and more recently Chrome). It was usually one of the first add-ons I would install, so I was disappointed to hear that they would be shutting the service down in January. Apparently the “give it away free and figure out how to make money later” approach just wasn’t working (according to a recent blog post it costs $2M a year to run!).

Well now, due to the outpouring of sentiment like my own after the announcement, Xmarks is reconsidering turning into a pay service.

… we’re revisiting the idea of Xmarks as a premium service. We’ve set up a Pledgebank page where you can sign up if you’re willing to pay at least $10 a year for Xmarks. No credit card is required, but please only pledge if you are genuinely willing and able to pay:

www.pledgebank.com/XmarksPremium

This is not a scientific experiment to predict what % of our base will pay, but it’s a data point that will definitely help.

Would you be willing to pay $10-$20 a year (~$1.50/month) for the convenience of having your bookmarks synchronized everywhere? I would! Please try to save Xmarks by making a pledge with the link above. They’ve set a deadline of October 15 to get 100,000 pledges and as I write this they still need 95,820.

Are there free Xmarks alternatives? Sorta. There are browser-specific tools like Firefox Sync for Firefox, but nothing that does the cross-browser synchronization I’ve come to rely on with Xmarks. I’ve considered trying to use LastPass, which I use to securely store my website logins (check out episode #256 of Security Now for more details), but it’s meant for logins and not normal browser favorites. Have any other ideas for how I can replace Xmarks if it does go away? Leave ’em in the comments!