The problem with this process is that the unsorted bookmarks folder is deeply hidden in the Firefox bookmarks folder. Long time reader Transcontinental send me a nice link that makes it possible to add the Unsorted Bookmarks folder to a location that is easier accessible.

Some might say that you could simply move the Unsorted Bookmarks folder from the bookmarks manager to the Bookmarks Toolbar. That however will only move the existing bookmarks with it but it will not add new bookmarks that are added by clicking on the white star.

The way to add the Unsorted Bookmarks folder so that it is automatically updating the folder when new bookmarks are added to that folder is explained below.

To do that create a new bookmark in the location that you want to have the Unsorted Bookmarks folder in. Give it the name you want and add the line “place:folder=UNFILED_BOOKMARKS” (without the “”) in the location field.

Clicking on that folder will always display all Unsorted Bookmarks from then on and update automatically whenever a new bookmarks is added.

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The problem that arises is that the parameter that worked in Firefox 2 to change the location of the bookmarks does not work in Firefox 3 anymore. Currently there is only one solution to move the bookmarks in Firefox 3 to another folder. Before I explain how this is done I would like to point out why someone would want to move the bookmarks to another folder.

One reason is synchronization. Placing them on a network drive for instance ensures that another computer can also access those bookmarks. Another reason might be security, bookmarks can obviously be stored on an encrypted hard disk so that no one could access them unless the encrypted hard disk is mounted. It would also make sense to place them in a location so that different profiles (on the same computer) can access the same bookmarks.

The only viable way of moving the bookmarks in Firefox 3 is by using symbolic links. Symbolic links are supported under Linux and Windows NTFS drives. I’m not sure about Macintosh though. A symbolic link basically is a forwarded link that tells the operating system to look at another place for the file.

The command for Linux is ln -s target_filename symlink_filename while Windows users could use the Junction tool by Sysinternals to achieve the same results.

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It usually lasted for 30-60 seconds and everything turned back to normal afterward. I first thought it had something to do with the Live Bookmarks and how Firefox was updating them but it turned out that this was not related. I read that the bookmarks would be saved in a database and not in an html file anymore which is why I though it could be the reason.

I eventually discovered a thread in the Ubuntu forums entitled Firefox 3 is eating my hard drive which lead to a bug report at the Mozilla website and a fix for Linux. My problem was that I was using Windows and not Linux and had the same symptoms.

The fix for Linux was to change the default value of the parameter Urlclassifier.updatecachemax from -1 to 104857600. The -1 value for the maximum cache size means unlimited and is the default value for all other operating systems while the value for Linux has been set to 104857600 which is 100 Megabyte.

I did change the value of Urlclassifier.updatecachemax from the default Windows value to the default Linux value and have not been experiencing any excessive cpu and hard disk usage since.

The question is: Was I the only one affected by this high cpu and hard disk usage ? What is your experience with Firefox 3 ?

Update:

The Brief Firefox extension, an add-on to view RSS Feeds in Firefox seems to have played a bigger role. After checking the profile directory I noticed regular updates to a 78 Megabyte file called Brief.sqlite which I identified as another reason for the excessive hard disk and cpu usage. I therefor decided to disable the add-on for now.

Update 2:

It still did not solve the problem fully. After exporting my Firefox Live Bookmarks and deleting them in Firefox I can finally say that I’m lag free.

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Firefox 3 adds some great new features to the location bar which will speed up the web browsing experience tremendously. Before that we should take a short look at the features that have been introduced in Firefox 2 and how they have changed in Firefox 3. This will lead to the new features that Firefox 3 is providing.

The keyword function remains more or less the same. Keywords can be added to any bookmark in Firefox. A keyword can be any char which will load the bookmark when entered in the location bar. Keywords can be combined with parameters %S or %s to perform searches from the location bar, for example a search on your favorite blog without visiting that site first and entering the search term. A great article about keyword searches can be found at the MozillaZine website.

It is still possible to enter words in the location bar which will be checked against the history and bookmarks on the fly. This is a new feature of Firefox 3. The order of the words is not relevant for matching results which means that “ghacks technology” and “technology ghacks” will have the same results, as do “ghacks tech”, “gha tech” and every other form that matches a bookmark or entry in the history.

The yellow star on the right side of the results is indicating that the website is located in the bookmarks. A site that would not be in the bookmarks would be displayed with a white star. A click on the white star would give the user the opportunity to bookmark the page. All bookmarks are automatically added to a new bookmark category called unsorted bookmarks. If you do not want this you can click the star, which should be yellow by now, a second time to place it in a folder in your bookmarks.

The above image is showing another new feature called tags that has been introduced in Firefox 3. Every bookmark can be tagged – with one or multiple words separated by comma – and those tags can be entered in the Firefox 3 location bar to list all sites with that tag. You could tag your five favorite online game websites with games and they would appear when games would be entered into the location bar. Basically another way of organizing bookmarks into logical groups. One should not confuse tags with keywords that immediately open one bookmark when entered.

Another new feature is the ability to identify websites by left-clicking on its favicon.

Mostly secure websites are displaying additional information in this first box. If a website provides identity information the favicon button will turn blue and green on sites that tell the user who is running that website.

A click on more information provides additional information like stored cookies and passwords for that website on the local computer.

Last but not least I would like to recommend a useful Firefox 3 add-on that adds search directly to the location bar in Firefox. Awesome Search is the add-on that does that which in my case made the search form in the main Firefox toolbar dispensable.

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