Turtle's Web: Articles

by Eileen Parzek
Turtle's Web Art & Design

(written in 1997)

Writing software reviews is something I haven't done before - in spite of the dozens of apps that I work with every day. However, I recently came across an application that is so impressive to me that I just have to tell people about it.

My introduction to this little app, called Powermarks, came one night when I was (again) organizing my Bookmarks and Favorites. Now, I have to admit I have a formidable collection of URL's, but for a few good reasons. One, I like to get my hands on things when I need them, and so I boomark every useful one I come across. Two, as the ordained web "expert" in my circle of family and friends, and part of the web community, I'm frequently asked if I happen to know of a good source for (fill in the subject) on the web. Rather than tell people "Look it up. Duh!" I try to respond with some good URLs. So my collection covers a lot of subjects, that I might personally never need. Third, I bookmark the addresses of all the sites I've worked on, both complete and staging areas, and that accounts for a couple hundred addresses.

I had a system for this collection of URLs, which consisted of folders nested inside of folders, inside of folders. For example:

Computer/Web Design/Graphics/Tools...
Shopping/Computers/Books...

and so on. Now the problem with this system was that when I came across a URL that could potentially reside in more than one folder (ie., an online computer super store... do I put it under "shopping" or under "computers"?) I usually duplicated it in numerous folders. A time consuming and complicated process, to say the least. Added to the fact that it has to go into both Bookmarks and Favorites if I wanted to be able to get at it from either browser I was in, and neither is particularly user friendly, this system was really starting to annoy me.

So, one night I was daydreaming about my perfect bookmark app. I conjured up a new tool, which would launch in a flash, and allow me to very easily add a bookmark, one time, to any category I wanted. I thought maybe assigning keywords would do the trick... then I could just search by whatever word was on my mind. I wanted it to exist outside of both browsers, so that I could get at it quickly from whatever I was doing. What I was thinking might work would be an app that built a simple column/row database of existing, editable keywords, and let you batch assign keywords... maybe a sort of personal search engine. However it worked, it HAD to be make more sense than what I was currently doing!

I was so excited about my little brainstorm that I decided I would call some programmer buddies in the morning. But then it occurred to me that maybe someone had created such a little treasure already, and I went out looking for it. That's when found, and downloaded, a 30 day trial for Powermarks.

Within a half hour, I knew that this application did ALL the things I dreamed of, plus a dozen little features that I hadn't. Of course, all your Favorites and Bookmarks can be imported in flawlessly, in minutes, to get you started. You designate a preferred browser to launch a URL, but regardless of which browser you are in, you can still add a URL to Powermarks because it is its own application. Not only can you quickly add a URL to this free form database, but you can tell it to "fetch" and it will grab the existing metatags of the URL and put them into keywords and a description for you. It has little (customizable) indicators next to each URL in your list that indicates status, such as whether the site has changed since you last checked, or if the link is dead. You can schedule or manually ask for this status to be retrieved and updated. There is a description field, and a notes field for your own comments about the site. You can do a "Fast Add" when you are in a hurry, and update it later with more detail. If you decide later to change or delete a keyword, doing so in the list of keywords reflects across all the URLs it affects. The thrill, however, is that for a site like the example I gave, I can assign the keywords "shopping, books, computers, tools, hardware, software" and if I begin to key in ANY of those words in the keyword search box at the top of Powermarks, the URL appears. Its just like having my own mini-search engine/database of the sites that I have collected.

I could go on and on about how amazing, clever piece of software this is... how every time I think "wouldn't it be cool if I could..." a quick inspection shows that it IS possible, and right where I thought it would or should be. Talk about intuitive application design! But, the true test was that from that one little "I wish I had..." thought, I ended up staying up for an additional 3 hours, happily organizing my URL collection into something that has been a treat to work with every day since. I know what my next software purchase is going to be... because I've already started to wonder how I lived without it.

(Turtle is in no way affiliated with or compensated by Kaylon, the creators of the software in this review.)

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