No More Xmarks: Now What?

Update: Xmarks is not dead after all.  Crisis averted.  Yay!  I'm keeping the post as-is below both for historical reasons and because it's still good information.

Xmarks just announced that they are closing up shop because they can't find a sustainable way to make money.  Earlier, I did a post on this blog comparing Xmarks and Firefox Sync.  It appears that now the option has been taken away from us.

What I ended up doing between the two services was using Firefox Sync for keeping everything in sync between my Firefox installations (bookmarks, passwords, etc.), but using Xmarks to keep bookmarks non-Firefox browsers synced, and also to share a few bookmarks folders.

As noted on the Xmarks shutdown page, there isn't a good replacement for inter-browser sync out there.  The closest I can think of is Delicious, but that site is built around sharing, not synchronization.

On the other hand, Delicious does an excellent job sharing bookmarks.  Since I was only really sharing one folder on the web with Xmarks, I installed the Delicious add-on for Firefox and imported that folder's bookmarks.  I made them public and gave them a unique tag, so that they could be shared as a collection. 

I've used Delicious for a while, mostly to collect links that I consider share-worthy.  I did this using the bookmarklet.  For a while, I was importing them into Facebook.  This appears not to be working anymore.

The Delicious add-on didn't work in Firefox 4 beta (which is what I'm running on my laptop).  I installed it, and (after banishing the toolbar and other annoying features) attempted to "import" the folder in question according to this guide.  It simply didn't work.  Literally nothing happened.  The "Import to Delicious" button was in black text on a mostly black toolbar at the top of the window, so they clearly haven't started integrating with Firefox 4.

I still have Firefox 3.6 installed, so I loaded it up, selected the folder, and clicked the button.  Nothing appeared to happen, but this time the bookmarks were uploaded.  Annoyingly, the "imported" column still shows nothing for those bookmarks, but at least it worked.  Well, sort of.  It didn't upload any of the tags I have assigned to the bookmarks locally to the cloud.  It just tagged them "imported".  Maybe this is expected behavior.  If so, there should be an option to upload the tags as well. 

Clearly, I'm not going to be using the Delicious extension for a while, but I don't know that I'll ever use it to keep all of my bookmarks in sync.  Delicious wants you to adopt their system of organization and interaction, and I'm not ready to do that.

At this point without Xmarks, I'm without a good solution to the following problems:

• Cross-browser syncing - Google will sync Chrome; Firefox Sync will sync Firefox; Windows Live Mesh will sync MSIE; but only Xmarks syncs between all three.Bookmarks profiles - Some bookmarks only need to be on certain computers.  Profiles allow you to selectively unsync the ones you don't need on computer A and B, while still keeping them on computers C and D.
• Bookmarks history - Xmarks allowed you to restore bookmarks from any point in your account history.  This came in very handy when I deleted more than I thought I had while cleaning up and only found out about it months later.
• Bookmarks sharing - Yeah, Delicious will let me share collections of bookmarks, but, at least currently, it's a pain to do so.  I've disabled the Delicious add-on.  I intend to keep the list up-to-date, but I will have to do so on the Delicious website, not from my bookmarks collection in the browser, and the two versions of the list will become out of sync.  The Delicious bookmarks also aren't sorted, and there's no way to store an introduction to them: the tag is just a tag, and contains no meta-data.
• Bookmarks favicons - It seems nit-picky, but it's a huge inconvenience if you re-install operating systems a lot.  Hopefully, the Firefox Sync developers will solve this one.  It's most annoying for toolbar bookmarks, because for me those are icon-only.  With Xmarks, all favicons are synced along with the bookmarks.  When you first sync with Firefox Sync, the toolbar icons all look the same.  In order to get the favicons to load, you have to visit each link.
• Bookmarks browsing from non-synced machines - I don't sync my bookmarks at work.  I can't access my bookmarks from other people's browser installations with Firefox Sync.  Xmarks gives me access to all of my bookmarks on the web, and I can even make changes and re-organize using the web interface.

My letter to Groupon after creating an account

Dear Groupon,

I like what you do.  Thanks for being there and doing it.

I signed up in order to take advantage of a recent deal.  In my e-mail inbox, there was a welcome message with the following: "Every morning, you'll find one exclusive deal waiting in your inbox. We can't wait to help you discover huge discounts on all the cool things to do in your city."

Wait, what!?!  No.  No no no no no no.  Nowhere in the account-creation process did I knowingly authorize you to send these deals to my e-mail address, much less every single day.  That's a horrible default behavior, and if I let companies do that my inbox would become an impenetrable pile of junk.

Now, I realize that many people who sign up aren't familiar with RSS readers, or Twitter, or other, more organized methods of receiving periodical offers. E-mail is fine for those people.  It is NOT fine for me.  My inbox is precious.  No offense.

Now relax.  I do know that I can unsubscribe from your e-mails, and I have done so using the link provided in the fine print of the aforementioned e-mail.  What upsets me is that I needed to do this.  I thought surely there would be a setting in the "My Account" preferences to easily manage this.  Nope.  Surely it's in the FAQ?  Alas, no.  Sticky forum post?  Apparently not.

In fact, unsubscribing using the legally-mandated link in the e-mail was the very last thing I tried, because I shouldn't have to do it from there.

Maybe I made a mistake, and I simply missed the checkbox in the sign-up process.  If that's the case, then the checkbox needs to be bigger, and other options, such as RSS, Facebook, and Twitter need to be offered.  More to the point, you need to start thinking of your business as more than a mailing list. 

Violating my trust by signing me up for a mailing list is not the best way to begin a customer relationship.  Please, rethink your account sign-up process and default behavior.  The "How Groupon Works" page made me think I would get to choose how I would be notified of new deals.

Meanwhile, keep offering those great local deals.  I look forward to an increasingly net-savvy Groupon.

Phishing? Probably not, but still...

If you got this e-mail, what would you do?

I hadn't made any changes to my account.  The e-mail headers looked legitimate.

Notice: Changes have been made to your Qwest^® customer profile.

Our records show you recently made these change(s) to your customer profile, either by contacting a Qwest representative, or through your MyAccount page at qwest.com.
Email Address Changes
*The e-mail address you provided for us to reach you.
For Qwest account ending in:####
At Qwest, we value the security of our customers’ information and are sending this notice as a confirmation. As long as this change was made intentionally, no action is necessary. However, if you feel this change has been made in error, please contact Qwest immediately at 1 866-450-6152(Residential) or 1 800-603-600(Small Business).
Thank you for helping us maintain the security of your account.

The first thing to do, of course, is to make sure that the account number matches up.  My Qwest account has been inactive for almost a year, so I didn't have that readily available.  I entered the phone number provided in quotes into Google.  Others had gotten this same e-mail, and they hadn't made changes to their account either.

I certainly wasn't going to call the number and give whoever it was I was actually calling any information so they could "pull up my account".

I pulled up the Qwest website, called the customer service number listed there, and told them about the e-mail, and how suspicious it looked.  The guy was unable to pull up my account because it wasn't active.  He said he would pass my concerns on to his supervisors.

Nickels, Dimes, and Two Dollar Bills

Today I spoke with an AT&T customer service representative about my bill.

On June 30th I had 24KB of data usage in a single instance.  The purpose of this usage was to test my data connection at the request of an AT&T customer service representative who was restoring data service to my phone.  Data had stopped working after I had requested that data be disabled on my parents' numbers.  I had not asked for them to do the same for my number.  I don't use "data" per se, but I do upload Multimedia Messages, which are charged to my Messaging plan along with SMS Text messages, but MMS rely on the phone's data capability.  My parents and wife don't use Multimedia Messaging, and had become annoyed at the few cents charged every time they hit the wrong button.  Getting rid of those charges was the motivation for blocking data on Elizabeth's and my parents accounts, especially since Shoshana had taken to mashing buttons on Elizabeth's phone.

When I got the bill, I called to see what the $2.00 charge was for.  I had previously been on a $0.01/KB pay-per-use plan, but since that plan was no longer available when they added it back, I was now being charged $2.00/MB.

I had begrudgingly come to accept the few cents that I was charged almost every month when I accidentally hit a button or menu item that launched a web service.  These buttons and menu items are, naturally, featured prominently everywhere on the phone.  It's difficult to avoid them. 

But this $2.00 for-the-first-byte thing crossed the line.  This, I would not tolerate.

I called.  I was told that my options were to block data on my phone or just pay the charges:  the plan I was on before was no longer available.  I told them that was ridiculous.  I had not asked them to change the plan.  They had changed the plan by mistake.  I would not pay for their mistake.  I would most certainly not pay month after month.

They told me it was impossible to enter the old code into their system.  I laughed and told them that they were wrong.  Perhaps they did not have the right permissions to do it, but it could be done.

I asked for a supervisor.  They gave me a higher-ranking customer service agent who told me that they would refund the $2.00 as a one-time courtesy, but in the future I would either need a data plan or pay the charges.

I asked for a real supervisor.  They told me they would probably say the same thing, but ok.  I waited on hold for a while.  The supervisor came on and told me that she could have a case written, and they would get back to me.  She warned that if I did that, she couldn't have the $2.00 charge removed as a courtesy.  I told her that it didn't scare me.  She also warned me that I couln't appeal whatever they decided.  I laughed and said I didn't believe her, but just to put it through.

They said I would hear from them by the afternoon of July 30th.

A Change in my Twitter/Facebook/Posterous Usage

Originally, I started using Twitter so I could get the status updates of the few friends of mine with accounts.  Not long after, I set it up so that my Facebook status imported from Twitter, and I have used that mechanism, with a few rare exceptions, to update my status.
I set up an account with TwitPic and used it to occasionally post links to photos uploaded from my phone.  Back then, I didn't have a messaging plan (because I think that text messages are grossly overpriced--they are!), so I would pay 30 cents for each uploaded photo.  I considered it worth the money with Multimedia Messaging, and as long as I sent fewer than 17 a month, it cost less than the lowest plan. 

Eventually, I started uploading more and subscribing to others' tweets via SMS, and I sprung for the five dollar per month plan for 200 messages (text and multimedia combined).  I have other things sending me text and multimedia messages, like Google Voice voicemail "transcriptions", certain Facebook events, and certain e-mail filters from Gmail.

Anyway, most people who actually look at (and certainly most people who comment on) my uploaded phone pictures have always been doing so through Facebook.  When I switched from TwitPic to Posterous for phone uploads, I was able to have the actual pictures (and videos) themselves imported directly into Facebook, whereas with TwitPic, people had to click on the link the external site to view the pictures. 

It occurs to me that this feature obviates the need for me to send my Posterous posts to Twitter.  The exception would be someone with a smartphone who sees the pictures in (or from) their Twitter client, and wouldn't necessarily catch them on Facebook. 

It also would have the effect of de-cluttering my Twitter feed for SMS-only followers.  Someone (like me) with a non-smart phone isn't able (or rather willing) to open links in Twitter posts, because I don't have a data plan.  Posts with hyperlinks are mostly useless, unless I manually transcribe the links into my computer's browser.  If I'm going to be at a computer to enjoy the posts, I might as well just subscribe via RSS, and get them through Google Reader.

Currently, I don't subscribe via mobile to my Twitter followers who tweet a lot, because I'm still limited to 200 messages a month.  I also don't want my phone going off five times an hour.  It occurs to me that if I eliminate the Posterous auto-posts from my Twitter feed, and only--or mainly at least--send text through Twitter, others in similar situations as me will be more likely to follow me.

The down side is that I've been looking forward to Twitter's upcoming "Annotations" feature.  Basically, Twitter is going to let you attach metadata to your tweets if you have a rich client.  They already allow location information to be added, but soon it will be opened up to anything you can think of, which will almost certainly include embedding thumbnail pictures and blog post snippets into tweets.  My guess is that Posterous will write support for this sort of thing into their auto-post feature.

If I quit sending pictures through Twitter, I suppose I can always start sending them again when the Annotations feature arrives and matures.

Right now, each picture I post to Posterous gets posted to Facebook three times: once via Twitter in my status message, once as a picture with a title in the "Posterous Photos" album, and once as a story to my wall, which includes the text of the body of the post.  Eliminating the Twitter post reduces the number of posts to two.  I could actually eliminate the photo method as well, but I like having the pictures inside of Facebook where they can be tagged and browsed and so forth. 

I think what I'll do is keep the Twitter integration intact, but normally just post to the other services.  If I want a post to go to Twitter, I can send it to post@posterous.com or twitter@posterous.com in addition to my new default facebook+picasa+youtube@posterous.com (which I will need to update if/when I add more services).  That way, I still have the option of posting to Twitter in extraordinary circumstances, but it won't happen very frequently.

If you want to subscribe to my phone posts, please do so using the feed at my Posterous site.