Xmarks Sync Shuts Down, OpenOffice Revolt

Martin Brinkmann
Sep 29, 2010
Updated • Jan 21, 2013
Software
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10

Two major announcements have been made yesterday, and I thought I pack them into one article for your convenience. First, the news that the popular bookmark synchronization service Xmarks will shut down on January 10, 2011. The very popular service allowed users to sync bookmarks between multiple browsers, for instance between Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer.

Todd Agulnick, Co-Founder and CTO, mentioned that the company was unable to find a suitable business model for their service, and that potential deals with other companies that were interested in buying Xmarks fell through as well. With no revenue streams on the one side, and maintenance (hosting, staff) costs on the other, it was bound to get ugly at one point. The developers hoped that they would either find a revenue model or a company eventually, but since that did not happen they had to pull the plug.

Xmarks users can use the service as usual until January 10, 2011. At this point, the service will no function as the servers are taken down. Xmarks offers information on their shutdown page, and a blog post by Todd. Sad to see such a popular service with millions of users and more than 1.2 billion bookmarks synchronized go away.

In other news, OpenOffice developers have staged a revolt, more or less by declaring their independence from Oracle, and any other single company for that matter. That's likely a direct response to Oracle's neglect of the popular Open Source project. As you may recall, when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems earlier this year they basically inherited the ties with Open Office as well.

The Document Foundation:

  • It is an independent self-governing meritocratic Foundation, created by leading members of the OpenOffice.org Community.
  • It continues to build on the foundation of ten years' dedicated work by the OpenOffice.org Community.
  • It was created in the belief that the culture born of an independent Foundation brings out the best in contributors and will deliver the best software for users.
  • It is open to any individual who agrees with our core values and contributes to our activities.
  • It welcomes corporate participation, e.g. by sponsoring individuals to work as equals alongside other contributors in the community.
libreoffice
libreoffice

The OpenOffice project is now officially named The Document Foundation, and OpenOffice has been temporarily renamed to LibreOffice. Temporarily? The rights to the name belong to Oracle, and while the developers have cut their ties with the company, they have invited it to apply to The Foundation and donate the brand to the community.

For now, OpenOffice is called LibreOffice.

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Comments

  1. Calvin Murrill said on May 19, 2011 at 5:48 pm
    Reply

    The other day, while I was at work, my sister stole my iPad and tested to see if it can survive a forty foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My iPad is now broken and she has 83 views. I know this is totally off topic but I had to share it with someone!

  2. Aiki said on December 14, 2010 at 2:02 am
    Reply

    No need to worry. Xmarks service will not be shut down.

    “In November 2010, Xmarks was acquired by LastPass, makers of the award-winning cross-browser, cross-platform online password manager. The acquisition included a restructuring of Xmarks into a “freemium” business model while bringing Xmarks’ powerful bookmarks solution to millions more users.”

    More here:
    http://www.xmarks.com/about/acquisition

  3. sirmike1970md said on September 30, 2010 at 10:15 pm
    Reply

    Hello All Just incase if anybody is interested here’s a workaorund after Xmarks closes. It basically says if you have a webhosting server with or a server with webdav you can redirect it to there http://lifehacker.com/5651152/how-to-continue-syncing-bookmarks-with-xmarks-on-your-own-server

    1. Martin said on October 1, 2010 at 1:12 am
      Reply

      I saw that post earlier today, just skimped over it. It does only seem to be compatible with Firefox right now, right? Still, a possible alternative if someone adds support for other browsers.

  4. Solaris said on September 30, 2010 at 8:14 pm
    Reply

    Pledge to keep X-Marks Alive: http://www.pledgebank.com/XmarksPremium

  5. Ed Y. said on September 29, 2010 at 8:30 pm
    Reply

    “The very popular service allowed users to sync bookmarks between multiple browsers, for instance between Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer”
    .
    Does anyone know of an alternative that sync’s bookmarks, passwords, etc on a cross browser level?

    I use all three of the above browsers for various reasons/applications and find the cross browser sync in xmarks invaluable.

  6. sirmike1970md said on September 29, 2010 at 2:32 pm
    Reply

    Sorry to here about xmarks shutting down but maybe someone can figure out to sync it with dropbox or gdrive.

  7. @Pijus said on September 29, 2010 at 1:31 pm
    Reply

    Your browser i.e. firefox sync… google chrome… lastpass for your pass****

  8. Pijus said on September 29, 2010 at 11:57 am
    Reply

    Thats sad, whats the alternatives for xmarks ?

    1. FL said on September 29, 2010 at 2:13 pm
      Reply

      Alternative:

      For Fire Fox try out http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/sync/ – unlike Xmarks your data is by default protected by a two factor system of encryption. Unlike Xmarks you do not have to log in to your account online to opt-out of all your bookmarks being shared on an aggregate basis and the apparently helpful search ranking Xmarks uses, meant Xmarks uploaded and tracked details of every web site/page you visit.

      Firefox Sync
      (Mozilla) Bookmarks, passwords, history, tabs Free
      http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/sync/

      Chrome Chrome Sync
      (Google) Bookmarks Free
      http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=165139

      Internet Explorer Windows Live Essentials
      (Microsoft) Bookmarks Free
      http://explore.live.com/windows-live-devices-and-sync-program-settings-ui

      Safari MobileMe
      (Apple)
      http://www.apple.com/mobileme/

      http://www.xmarks.com/about/shutdown

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