It’s simple and fast to use. No sign-up is required; just enter a title for your slideshow and your list of URLs and hit “Create Link.” Here’s an example I created earlier. The buttons to navigate forwards and backwards through the slideshow remain unobtrusive until you move your mouse pointer to one side of the window; and there are also buttons for opening the current site in a new window.

Note: Some webpages won’t work with BridgeURL because certain websites (Facebook, for example) don’t allow their content to displayed in IFRAMEs. It’s worth quickly checking that your slideshow displays all the pages correctly before sharing it.

Found a useful free tool like BridgeURL? Share it in the comments.

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There was some uncertainty as to whether Apple would okay this app, but I’m guessing that it was approved because it doesn’t change the bookmarks in the iPhone’s Safari browser. Instead, one uses it by opening the Home app, and scanning or searching for tabs and bookmarks, which, when selected, open in Safari. Firefox Home doesn’t track or sync your browsing history on the iPhone. The new Xmarks iPhone app (iTunes link), which I haven’t tried yet, looks to be set up the same way.

To set up the Firefox Home app, you’ll need to create a Firefox Sync account if you don’t already have one, and install the Firefox Sync add-on to your desktop browser. Synced data can be saved on Mozilla’s servers, or you can set up your own server if you want more security.

The app’s design is simple and attractive, and does what it’s supposed to do. I found that the initial sync from my desktop machine took a while, but that’s to be expected, according to the app’s website.

Firefox Home doesn’t yet save or sync passwords, although Firefox Sync does, so I assume that this function will be added to a future release. Meanwhile, you can sync passwords to iPhone using such programs as 1Password and LastPass.

How do you sync browser information to your phone?

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The iPhone app does everything that the Firefox extension does, giving you the ability to mark web pages to read later and then catch up on your reading at a more suitable time. It supports offline viewing of downloaded content so you can save pages to view when you might have patchy reception. The interface is nicely designed, and it’s very easy to use.

What’s really cool is that you can sync Read It Later accounts between your computer (or computers, if you have several) and your iPhone. This means that while you’re working you can easily flag interesting content to read later in your browser. Before leaving the office for your journey home or the gym, sync up your iPhone and you’ll have all of that content downloaded and ready to read. Once you read the pages, they’ll be marked as such on your iPhone and on your computer.

This type of functionality is certainly not new (the iPhone app Instapaper is similar, for example) but Read It Later is more fully-featured and has a nicer interface.

The app comes in two flavors: Free and Pro. Pro costs just $2.99 and has some nice additional features, such as the ability to view content full-screen, screen rotation settings and a “Tap to Save” bookmarklet for adding content to your Read It Later list.

Do you use Read It Later?

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I have two computers: a MacBook Pro and an iMac. Even though Firefox 3 is my default browser on both computers, I regularly have at least three different browsers open to do what I need to do in my work day. Certain sites only work in Internet Explorer, while others simply behave better in Chrome or Safari. Other sites are bookmarked in Safari solely for the iPhone.

Foxmarks has long been the free go-to utility for syncing bookmarks between multiple instances of Firefox. I’ve long preferred Foxmarks to Mozilla Weave which, while it syncs more information between Firefox browsers, I’ve found to be less reliable. For non-Firefox browsers, I’ve had to use my.foxmarks.com to access sites using IE or Safari that are bookmarked in Firefox.

No more. Last week, Foxmarks introduced syncing for both IE and Safari (I can’t wait for a Chrome version).

How does it sync browsers that don’t support plug-ins the way Firefox does?

On the Mac, it installs a new system preference:

On the PC, it’s a little application that can also sit in the system tray:

This solution is not quite as elegant as it is for Firefox, where it can work entirely in the browser without requiring any additional system resources. On the other hand, you don’t have to wait for IE or Safari to launch to sync bookmarks, like you do with Firefox.

After a few hours of testing, I’m quite satisfied. Make a change to bookmarks in one browser, and within seconds the files are synced in all other browsers, regardless of the platform. I did notice that the Firefox “Bookmarks Toolbar” is renamed to “Links” during the sync and is accessible through a drop-down menu in the upper right corner.

Limitations:

• It does not appear that Foxmark’s new password syncing is available outside of Firefox. For site password syncing that is available cross-browser, I would highly recommend 1Password on the Mac (works in both Firefox and Safari) and RoboForm on the PC (works in IE and Firefox, among others, not including Chrome).
• On the Mac, it only works in Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5)
• On the PC, it only works in IE 6 & 7 and it’s a bit buggier than the Mac/Firefox syncing. It did crash IE once for me. Of all the browsers I use, I’m in IE the least so this is not an issue for me. But if IE is your mainstay browser, perhaps because a work-related application requires it, you should probably hold off on Foxmarks.

Have you tried Foxmarks? What tools do you use for browser bookmark syncing?

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Beyond that, they have plans to turn this collective intelligence of bookmarking into human-powered search, though those plans are as yet a bit fuzzy. Right now, their drag-and-drop user interface needs some tuning, and there’s not much content on the site yet. But if you’re not already committed to another bookmarking site, they might be worth a look.

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Instapaper is personal bookmarking evolved. You sign up with your email (or anything else you want to use, no password necessary), get a bookmarklet you stick in your toolbar and you’re good to go. Then when you hit a page you need to read later, you click the Instapaper bookmarklet, a window briefly pops up saying “Saved!” then goes away and you’re done. No time wasted going off to some other page; no breaking your train of thought to fill in a form.

Back at Instapaper, here’s what you find:

While you can add a note to a URL, why bother? Instapaper has reduced bookmarking to its absolute minimum, and that means bookmarking can finally scale.

If you’re interested, here’s my very modest hack for Instapaper – don’t just create one account. I created 3 – one for each of the main areas of my life. Now when I’m in surfing mode, I can with one click add a page to my personal web newspaper:

Update: I asked Marco how he came to write Instapaper: “I wrote Instapaper, quite simply, because I needed it myself. Having recently started using a smartphone, I noticed that there were plenty of times that I wanted to read long-form content while idle – I spend about 90 minutes on trains every day. I also frequently find online articles that are too long to read at that moment, but that I’d truly like to read at some point. Instapaper is the simplest possible solution that solves both of those problems for me – and as it happens, a lot of other people have found it useful, too.”

What about scalability?: “I’m really not concerned about scalability. The site costs nearly nothing to run, and its server has plenty of excess capacity. It’s also just a very simple site, so I can serve many times its current traffic without any infrastructure expansion. Exceeding the capacity of affordable hosting is a problem I’d love to have.

Okay, how about new features?: “I’ll add an RSS feed in the coming days, since it’s a popular request and it’s trivial to implement. As for further expansion or advertising, I haven’t decided yet. It’s a very simple tool, and much of its appeal and usefulness is in its simplicity. I’d rather not add functionality unless it’s simple, it fits with the product, and I can implement it well.”

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