This is a perennial problem for me, I often have multiple browers open – Firefox, Safari, and Chrome on my Mac, Internet Explorer in Windows (via Parallels), often because I need to be logged into the same website as different logins; or because I’m testing browser compatibility.

Chrome is my default browser – a major change I made a while back after Firefox just became too slow, although I still use it for debugging because of the indispensable Firebug.

I have several bookmark folders with lists of web site addresses I access constantly. But of course that’s in Chrome, so when I open up another browser I have to go back to Chrome, grab the URL, and paste it into the new window. All a bit tedious. Once or twice I’ve exported my bookmarks out of Chrome and imported them into the other browsers, but that’s not much chop as a plan.

The other day I came across Xmarks, software designed to keep your bookmarks in sync across all your browsers and devices (eg your computer, tablet, phone and so forth). I’ve installed the software in all my browsers, and it quietly syncs my bookmarks. If I add a bookmark in one browser, after a while it turns up in the other browsers – or if I’m impatient I can manually trigger a synchronisation.

I love tools like this, it might not be a problem for everyone, but for those of us who do need this functionality, Xmarks is the perfect solution.

Image: Enokson