.Mac Bookmarks

[Flowbee]

I've been using the .Mac bookmarks today from several locations. While it's not the 'killer' feature that will suddenly make everyone rush out and subscribe, it is very cool and easy to use. I'm hoping it's a sign of more good things to come from .mac.

 

[MacKid]

Originally posted by altivec 2003
I find this relativey disappointing, if this is ALL. I really have no use for bookmarks "on the road" cause I really use a computer when I am on vacation. I would much rather have gained php support and mysql cause I really need that a lot. In fact I might have to not renew my .mac subscription this next year if they don't add it. I was kinda upset when I realized that apple had automatically checked the "renew automatically" box in my account preferences. I thought it was very un-apple and if I didn't realize it I would be paying for another year even if I didn't want to

I personally think it's very any-company-who-wants-to-hold-onto-customers, considering that a great number of people would wake up all over the world this september with no e-mail, no website, and no data.

 

[reedm007]

Re: Permalink for .Mac Bookmarks Window

Originally posted by nbrosnahan
Has anyone figured out how to get the little .Mac Bookmarks window to come up without first navigating to the "Welcome to .Mac Bookmarks" page?

This isn't exactly a solution, but just in case you missed it, you can go directly to http://bookmarks.mac.com. You'll still have to sign in to .mac, so a permlink will be a bit difficult... But that's pretty close!

 

[nichrome]

Originally posted by reedm007
I'm probably just confused here

Yes, you are

but aren't you asking for:

1. Will you be able to edit them on the fly.
Answer: Yes? The new bookmark window allows you to add new bookmarks from any browser anywhere in the world, which will automatically sync with your .mac account... Isn't this "on-the-fly"?

2. Will you be able to use Safari's regular Add Bookmark command...
Answer: Yes? Sure it doesn't add the bookmark *directly* to the site, but, as Panther proves with your synced iDisk folder, you might not always be connected to your .mac account. Or maybe you load a bunch of pages in Safari and then go offline for reading and want to bookmark a page. Good thing safari bookmarks locally, and then syncs with iSync next time you have an internet connection, so it's available on .mac.

Yes! Absolutely! But you cannot, repeat cannot, do that if you store your bookmarks and other data on your own web server, ie. not on the iDisk -- and that was the topic at hand.

I mean, perhaps I'm just unclear on what your point is.

Indeed -- check my post again. I was talking about tny's suggestion of hosting the bookmarks file on your own server, instead of .Mac (to obtain the added benefit of being able to run a MySQL and/or PHP based website). To quote one of my earlier posts in this thread:

With the combo of [.Mac/iSync/Safari], all you end up having to do is hit Command-D. And that's what I was getting at in my post.

My point was exactly what you're outlining in your message. I was talking about how you can't edit on the fly and let iSync/.Mac do the syncing work for you if you host on your own webspace. Apparently you misunderstood and thought I was talking about .Mac's capabilities.

I hope this clears up a few things.

 

[tny]

Originally posted by nichrome
Yes, you are



Yes! Absolutely! But you cannot, repeat cannot, do that if you store your bookmarks and other data on your own web server, ie. not on the iDisk -- and that was the topic at hand.

Indeed -- check my post again. I was talking about tny's suggestion of hosting the bookmarks file on your own server, instead of .Mac (to obtain the added benefit of being able to run a MySQL and/or PHP based website). To quote one of my earlier posts in this thread:

My point was exactly what you're outlining in your message. I was talking about how you can't edit on the fly and let iSync/.Mac do the syncing work for you if you host on your own webspace. Apparently you misunderstood and thought I was talking about .Mac's capabilities.

I hope this clears up a few things. [/B]

Ok, Nichrome, I'll give you credit on most of that argument - inlcuding the "not smart enough" crack on my part. But you seem not to realize that supporting PHP and MySQL involves effort on the part of Apple, and is not a consumer-oriented service: and .Mac most certainly is a consumer oriented service. Web hosting services average about $12 to $25 a month, and MySQL is usually extra to boot; and most of the reason for that is support costs (with of course a tidy profit for the provider), and only some of it "rental" on an IP address (a cost that the .Mac user doesn't have). So you're expecting for $99 a year not only the .Mac goodies (the iDisk interface, for example) but something you'd get from a hosting service that would cost about $250-$300 a year. Add to that the additional cost of support personnel to help .Mac USERS with MySQL and PHP (and before you say it, not all users of these technologies is a pro developer).

 

[sharkfoo]

.Mac Bookmarks in your Mozilla sidebar

You can add .Mac bookmarks to your mozilla sidebar. See

http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/browser/sidebar/

for an example of how to add it.

You just need to add to following to a webpage somewhere and then click on the link:

<script language="javascript">
function addTab()
{
if ((typeof window.sidebar == "object") &&
(typeof window.sidebar.addPanel == "function"))
{
window.sidebar.addPanel(".Mac Bookmarks",
"http://bookmarks.mac.com/WebObjects/Bookmarks.woa/47/wa/FrameContent/openBookmark","");
}
else
{
alert('Sorry, you can only add the tab if you\'re running Netscape 6 or Mozilla.');
}
}
</script>
<a href="javascript:addTab()">Add .Mac bookmarks to your sidebar</a>

 

[altivec 2003]

Originally posted by tny
Ok, Nichrome, I'll give you credit on most of that argument - inlcuding the "not smart enough" crack on my part. But you seem not to realize that supporting PHP and MySQL involves effort on the part of Apple, and is not a consumer-oriented service: and .Mac most certainly is a consumer oriented service. Web hosting services average about $12 to $25 a month, and MySQL is usually extra to boot; and most of the reason for that is support costs (with of course a tidy profit for the provider), and only some of it "rental" on an IP address (a cost that the .Mac user doesn't have). So you're expecting for $99 a year not only the .Mac goodies (the iDisk interface, for example) but something you'd get from a hosting service that would cost about $250-$300 a year. Add to that the additional cost of support personnel to help .Mac USERS with MySQL and PHP (and before you say it, not all users of these technologies is a pro developer).

Yep, thats what I was saying in a later post. I would be happy for apple to make this an option for people so that those who are willing to pay more can have this benefit and the others don't have to pay for it if they aren't going to use it. I really don't see any reason why apple shouldn't do this.

I personally think it's very any-company-who-wants-to-hold-onto-customers, considering that a great number of people would wake up all over the world this september with no e-mail, no website, and no data

I see your point and would be really disappointed if my website and e-mail were deleted without me knowing (even though I wrote my website on my computer and therefore have a backup). I did think, however, that this situation has the potential of making people accidentally continue their subscription if they didn't want to. I think that either way would not be bad for the customer as long as apple gave messages well in advance about the situation as they did last year. It is just that if apple didn't it wouldn't be fair to the customer. Most likeyly apple will but I was just slightly disturbed cause this sounded to me atleast at the moment like something that Microsoft or AOL would do. Don't wanna have apple turn into them, but fortunately I am not too worried....

 

[Wardofsky]

This is quite interesting.

This was leaked ages ago:

For those who have access to the private submissions:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28483&text
(Could a mod move it into public view)

And the image attached was released on Apple's website in April.

 

[robotrenegade]

Works great!!!!!

 

[nichrome]

Originally posted by altivec 2003
Yep, thats what I was saying in a later post. I would be happy for apple to make this an option for people so that those who are willing to pay more can have this benefit and the others don't have to pay for it if they aren't going to use it. I really don't see any reason why apple shouldn't do this.

Precisely. Also note that Apple already provides a number of "pay more, get more" services for .Mac, including more e-mail accounts and more iDisk storage & bandwidth. MySQL and other such services would be easy to monetize, since like tny pointed out, MySQL generally costs extra. So no one would bark at Apple for charging an extra fee. It would still be cheaper than getting dedicated web space from a server plus MySQL support on top.

Originally posted by Codemonkey
This is *not* a service for "web professionals". This is *not* a service for anyone wishing to dabble in scripting languages (other than vanilla HTML). This never was Apple's intention, nor is it their demographic.

Unless you're an Apple employee, you have little chance of knowing what Apple wants .Mac to be in the future. A year ago, for all we knew, .Mac was e-mail, iCards and a WebDAV account and was going to stay that way. Now, there's a backup solution, free software, special offers, roaming bookmarks, roaming addressbook, roaming calendar...

Edit: Forgot to add: no one's assuming .Mac is a service for web professionals. Managing dynamic content sites doesn't have to be hard, "pro stuff". It's not a pro feature, it's a feature that could be wrapped into HomePage. Think MovableType-style features as part of HomePage, with the facilities for manually extending the SQL-driven features of a site. Just like they're doing now with HTML/CSS: either let the user pick from a set of templates or let them build it on their own.

 

[mcduke]

My opinion:

.Mac Bookmarks
and
.Mac Bookmarks Addendum