Google Chrome Syncs Bookmarks Almost Instantly

Google Chrome’s bookmark sync has come a long way since I last looked at it. The latest Windows beta build now offers bookmark sync, which by itself may not sound glamorous. But at the tail end of the video demonstration it gets a bit more interesting. If you have multiple computers signed in to Google, adding a bookmark on one computer adds it to the other in a near-real-time fashion. Google is leveraging the XMPP servers it uses for Google Talk to make the magic happen. That’s pretty clever since the first word in IM is “instant.”

While the new bookmark sync feature is welcome, it’s only part of the puzzle. Cookies, passwords, and more is what users will expect. Browser and search history are likely desirable bits of data too, but Google offers the option to provide the search history, regardless of browser.

chrome-bookmark-syncI’d expect most of these additional sync points to be worked out in time for the Chrome OS — the platform is meant to power companion computers, and what better devices would benefit from an immersive browser sync experience?

Although Google didn’t mention this in their blog post, I noticed something interesting when I performed an initial sync: Google is also leveraging Google Docs for the bookmark data. The sync completion screen tipped me off, so of course I had to go look in my Google Docs account. Sure enough, there’s a folder structure there, complete with my shortcuts.

chrome-bookmarks-in-docs

I can’t seem to do much with the bookmarks there — other than click them to go to a favorite site, that is. But I’m wondering if there will be a way to manage or add bookmarks from within Google Docs. It would be a simple way to get at or manipulate bookmarks on a computer that doesn’t have Chrome installed.

Want to use the bookmark sync feature? Grab the latest Windows beta of Chrome and get syncing!

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