Favorites Management in Firefox 3 and Flock 2
Favorites (also often called "Bookmarks") are one of the oldest and most important parts of web browsing. Favorites are a method of finding your way back to where you've been, a social statement, a library of reference, and sometimes…a hassle. Firefox 3 and Flock 2 address favorites with several unique innovations.
So, what exactly will I see in Firefox 3 and Flock 2?
The backbone of all this magic is what Mozilla has called "Places", otherwise known as the Favorites Manager. This is a central location for all of your webpage-based activity on the web. This dialog contains your history and favorites within Flock 2 and Firefox 3 and allows significant organization options.
Firefox 3 introduces the tags section to the Places Organizer. Flock has always supported tags, but this new interface within Flock 2 and Firefox 3 will make it even easier to add and manage tags for your favorites. Now you can easily dive into the Tags section and choose a tag to see all favorites with that tag. Instead of limiting a favorite to a specific folder, your favorites can live within multiple tag collections!
Firefox 3 and Flock 2 also provide some new algorithms to enhance your experience with favorites. Three new sections allow you to see your most recently bookmarked page, recent tags, and most viewed favorites (the latter also being a widget available in MyWorld in Flock 2).
We know your favorites are important to you, so you'll also be happy to know that the new Favorites Manager allows you to create and restore full backups of your favorites.
You'll also find that removing a favorite is now one step closer. When viewing the properties for a favorite in Firefox 3 or Flock 2, a prominent delete button is displayed, allowing you to instantly erase whatever weird site you favorited.
And, of course, the Favorites Manager in Flock 2 supports the Del.icio.us and Ma.gnolia online bookmarking services, now neatly separated in their own folder.
What is this "awesomebar" I've heard about in Firefox 3?
Most people won't spend that much time in Places, but this structure is important because it powers what Mozilla is calling the "awesomebar" in Firefox 3. When you type anything into the addressbar in Firefox 3 or Flock 2, you will get an instant list of matches from your history and favorites. This dropdown has also been redesigned to provide more information about the page, so you really know if the suggested address is what you're looking for. These results are ordered according to what Mozilla is calling "frecency", based on frequency and recency of visits to that page. Even better, a learning algorithm enhances your future results according to your patterns.
This is very similar to the history and favorites search results Flock has always provided in the search dropdown. Don't stress out; those results will still be available via the search widget…Flock 2's awesomebar just allows one more way to instantly find the site you really want. Over time, the awesome bar in Flock 2 and Firefox 2 gets to know your usage patterns and is better able to anticipate the sites you're likely to be looking for based on your historical behavior.
With Flock 2 and Firefox 3, you'll be the most organized you've ever been. Online, at least; we can't do anything about your desk.
