Bookmarks need Tags, and search by tags (like Firefox)

Bookmarks need Tags, and search by tags (like Firefox)

Hi,

it would be great to add tags to bookmarks. The idea is not coming from Firefox, but they kind of implemented it.

We could then search by tags, and as well maybe save previous searches (static or re-generable, normal text search or advanced, e.g. regex).

Thanks,

Tibor

Can't we already search by description and can't we already put any phrase (tag if you'd like) into that description field?

(My question is rhetorical. I did test this and it does work.)

Not sure I see the need to rename what's already in place. Am I understanding you correctly?

I agree with TFuto.

But it's not that i guess that Tags are completely missing.

For example i would really like to have a took for searching for dublicate bookmarks...

Moreover, i would recommend to integrate automatically (if wanted, maybe you can change it in the settings) the date of saving the bookmark into your list. >> Usually i delete my temporary data because i don't want to slow my pc down to badly, but then (after a while) i can't figure out which bookmark was saved in which date...

My whole lot of bookmark just gets a mess....

Regards,
Gordan

Yeah, the problem of duplicate bookmarks is tricky.

Of course you could always do a search for something in a bookmark to see if it was duplicated elsewhere, but it would be really handy to have a built-in tool where you push a button and it displays a list of matching url'd bookmarks along with their locations.

Was TFuto really asking about that? It doesn't look that way to me.

Duplicate bookmaks can be eliminated through the opera link web interface. From the Opera dev team blog:

This is also a good place to remind people that we do have a way to remove duplicate bookmarks for all to use. Go to the Opera Link web interface (http://link.opera.com/), then use the "Remove my duplicates..." link that is located on the left side.

Cool. I suppose that will eventually make its way into the browser itself.

Originally posted by jamesisin:

Can't we already search by description and can't we already put any phrase (tag if you'd like) into that description field?

Yes, I agree. Descriptions are more flexible (you can put everything you want, inside them); pre-defined tags are faster (you just check/uncheck a category, for e.g. Sport; you don't need to write anything). Though tags are not stricly-necessary, we could have both.

Originally posted by facildelembrar:

Duplicate bookmaks can be eliminated through the opera link web interface.

Maybe it would be better to have also a duplicates-finder tool implemented into the local program; for e.g., when you decide to boomark an url, if you've already bookmarked that page (or also something from the same site, it would be useful), a message telling you that could appear.

I agree. I had invisioned something where you would shift-ctrl-d and the usual dialog would come up with a red-lettered statement that the bookmark already existed (and maybe the panel, which I use, would show a search result for that bookmark).

About the duplicated bookmarks, maybe it would be better if Opera used a lit star, like other browsers, to show if the site is already in the bookmarks. Or not allow the entry of duplicated bookmarks at all.

that originally came from opera (imo), but was dropped in the beta stage (don't know the reason). About tags: I would recommend the description field over tags, although I use/would use neither of both. Nicknames are just way cooler

serious - I agree on the use of the description field. Does everything tags have to offer already. I use nicknames for visiting a bookmark, but the description field is very much more useful in <i>searching</i> bookmarks.

i agree, especially tag concept

isn't it possible to split bookmarks app from opera core development?
so, any 3'rd party developers can implement everything we need from bookmarks:
1 socializing, and/or simply make "opera links" sharing!
2 save content option, like firefox' addon, or Obook does
3 save screenshot option, like URL-Album(+opera plugin) does
4 tags
and, of course, ability to use bookmarks app as standalone.
it would be cool!
anyway, does enyone from opera team reads our "wishlists"?

About the duplicated bookmarks, maybe it would be better if Opera used a lit star, like other browsers, to show if the site is already in the bookmarks.

it does already!

Well, did I found the star button in a thread a while ago, but doesn't seems to be finished yet. It's behavior is unconsistent.

dude, it works just perfecto!
check this out:
opera:/Button/Highlight%20bookmark,%20,%20,%22Bookmarks%20checker%22%20|%20Add%20to%20bookmarks,%20,%20,%22Bookmarks%20checker%22%20,%20%22Missing%20bookmark%22

or click here

It's the same star I have, and it doesn't works all the time. Sometimes (or all the times, haven't payed much attention since it's broken) it doesn't light up when I visit adresses already in my bookmarks and it doesn't light up when the bookmarked page is loading.

It does light up after I click on it and the "add bookmark" dialog appears. I'm using Opera 9.6 by the way.

+1, absolutely!

i feel that opera's bookmarks are very clumsy and pretty much unusable in the current state, especially with lots of bookmarks.

We need the firefox bookmark system, it's the best i've seen. Easy to add bookmarks (just one click of the star button), easy to tag bookmarks (another click of the star to edit details), easy to search (by keywords and tags)

Originally posted by d4n3:

i feel that opera's bookmarks are very clumsy and pretty much unusable in the current state, especially with lots of bookmarks.

I disagree. I have about 190+ bookmarks and don't have any problems managing them.

facildelembrar: for me, it's about usability and convenience.

Let's look at some common tasks in bookmarks. There are more ways to achieve this task, i'm listing the ones I think are the fastest in Opera.

Adding a bookmark
In the bookmark menu, select the appropriate subfolder and click Bookmark Page. Optionally, add some tags in description to help you find the bookmark more easily.

AFAIK, this is the fastest way to do this, but adding a bookmark still requires quite a lot of work this way because of the clumsy navigation through the folder hierarchy.

Even if you dump all bookmarks in the root folder, you still need atleast 3 clicks or 2 keyboard shortcuts.

Firefox way: Click on the star in the addressbar once to add a bookmark. Click on the star a second time to open the modify properties, add tags etc. The star also indicates that the page is bookmarked (it lights up on bookmarked pages).

Finding a bookmark
Navigate through the bookmark folder hierarchy or use the bookmark or addressbar search.
Note that to put the same page in two different folders, you'd need two bookmarks.

Firefox way: bookmarks have tags and you can use the organize bookmarks view to show bookmarks with the same tags (so basically every tag acts as a folder). This is something Opera's current bookmarks cant' really match. I guess you could add "tags" to the description, but it's not really the same, you have to use the search for tags then, no auto-generated folders appear by default, so you have to remember the tag.


Editing/deleting a bookmark
This is impossible to do directly from the bookmark menu, you have to either use "Manage bookmarks" or open a side panel.

You then have to specifically find the bookmark, even if you already have the page opened, and then to edit right click -> edit properties, edit the properties and click save (deleting is similar). This is ridiculously complex and annoying.

Firefox way: if you're visiting the page, click on the star and edit properties or use the "remove bookmark" button. If you're using the bookmark menu, find the bookmark, right click it and edit properties or click remove.



I'm not saying the Firefox bookmark system is perfect, but it's way better than opera's, and Opera could really use a makeover of it's bookmark system.

I guess I've never worked out tags, but for me they always seem to either duplicate the description / nickname, or get in the way. As to adding a bookmark, if you just want to put it in the root folder, can't you create a shortcut to do that? Really, the best way to get bookmarks into folders seems to be something like Operas method, you go to the folder you want it in and click add bookmark here...

The rest I can't speak to, because I don't usually delete bookmarks. I certainly don't want to have to try and visit a page (that's probably no longer there as I'm trying to remove the bookmark) to delete it.

I definitely would like to see firefox' system of tagging in Opera. It's the only reason that keeps me from switching completely.
As I see it, the advantages are (among others):
With tagging I can save the same bookmark in different categories.
You only add the tag once (the first time), afterwards you just click the tags you want to assign to a particular bookmark.
Also, with tagging, it doesn't matter in which folder I have saved a bookmark, even if I had several choices; to look for the bookmark, I just click on the tag, and as a result I get all the bookmarks which have been associated with this tag, no matter where they are.

I haven't used the bookmarking system in Opera extensively yet, but I can't see for the moment how the system of nicknames and descriptions in Opera can perform in the same way. Nicknames for instance, can't be duplicates..

Like I said, that's the one thing (for me) to tip the scales in favor of Opera, which is otherwise an excellent browser.

Toni

What exactly did you not understood about nicknames and description fields to make them work like tags? I believe that the previous posts have put it in a quite simple manner. I'm just asking to have a more detailed feedback.

Yeah, I have to say I agree with facildelembrar.

Add any word or phrase you want in the description fields for any bookmarks. Then enter some or all of that word or phrase into the bookmarks search box. All your so-called categories can be accessed in this manner.

(And, yes, nicknames are supposed to be unique.)

Is it merely the lack of <i>clickable</i> tags you lament?

Hi everyone!

The use of "clickable" tags (or something to that effect) as in Powermarks (and Firefox, for what I've seen so far) becomes apparent when you have to deal with (both save and retrieve) MANY bookmarks. Fecildelembrar, 190+ bookmarks are not that many... You don't even need bookmarks for that, I'm sure the address bar cache can remember them. That, or you just can write them down and stick a post-it in your screen.

In my powermarks archive I had literally THOUSANDS of bookmarks (it's not I'm sick, I need them for work). Jamesisin, the issue with tags is the same with any database (which a bookmarks manager should be): it really helps to know everything you need under, say, "United Kingdom" you can retrieve with that word, not "Great Britain", "UK", "GB" or something else.... You can work out some keywords for your description field, of course, but when you are over 200 keywords (not bookmarks), it starts to get messy, especially if you are working in two different languages or more.

Also, tags can work as bookmark folders. In Powermarks, for instance, you could select ("tag") the tags ("keywords") that you wanted to use as folders. That was very handy too.

I really hope this will be implemented for my favourite browser!

Wow, thousands of bookmarks. And I thought I had many... In that case, maybe clickable tags would scale better. But you have to admit having this many bookmarks AND in different languages is a special situation, not something most users have to deal with.

+ 1/2 Is a good idea, but, I don't have problem with Opera Manager Bookmarks

One thing just came to my atention. If description fields supposed to replace tags, then opera should allow editing multiple entries at once. Kind like iTunes does with its music library.

I could see a value in having the ability to add a word or phrase to multiple description fields at once.

e.trece - It still seems that using the search field (in the panel) will do exactly what you are hoping after. Enter "United Kingdom" and watch all but those bookmarks containing "United Kingdom" disappear.

One other very important thing just came to my attention as well. The price you pay for the flexibility of using description fields as tags/labels is that its impossible to browse through your tags. So, if you forget how a tag is called, it's gonna be really hard to find it. So, I apologize for my previous post because now I believe that description fields as they are do not replace, nor duplicate tags functionality.

facildelembrar - Perhaps you'd like to see something like an index of descriptions then?

That would certainly help. I'm not sure if it's be the best solution, but it would be an interesting solution nevertheless.

Sure, something like a meta-folder containing indexed terms from descriptions (which could be made visible or invisible). I use the quick find in the bookmarks panel all the time to locate so-called missing bookmarks. This would be a convenient way to assess your searchable terms. (Perhaps the index would also include url slices (the bits between the slashes) and titles and so forth as well, color coded maybe.)

Originally posted by facildelembrar:

Wow, thousands of bookmarks. And I thought I had many... In that case, maybe clickable tags would scale better. But you have to admit having this many bookmarks AND in different languages is a special situation, not something most users have to deal with.

I for one have exactly the same problem. I have at the moment about 2000 bookmarks and I'm really drowning in all that information. Normal bookmarks don't work well, because each item might have several strong categories, and I don't want to store single item in multiple directories. Tags as separate words inside description is a clear nono, cognitive overload to remember all of them would be too much to handle. I would like to see something along the lines of Tagsifter Firefox addon, not only tags, but also a convenient way to use them. Clickable tags are not the only way, but so far it's the best I've seen.

As the bookmark count is only going to increase, this would really be important feature for me. I've been experimenting with Firefox and Tagsifter for a while, but I don't like Firefox that much and there seems to be some synchronization issues as well.

I strongly support the idea to add tags to opera bookmarks, also some usability features of Firefox mentioned above would've been quiet useful - it's not any reasonable to search through your bookmarks every time you want to open a bookmarked page.

For example, one should be able to type in a tag or two, or a part of the URL or description or anything matching information in your bookmarks, and the browser will suggest possible variants (frecency in Firefox).

I've been using Opera for a long time, and at some moment I started having difficulties managing growing number of bookmarks (about a thousand). I moved to Firefox, yet still hope to return to Opera.

bwolf - I think the problem you are seeing may be due to the bookmarks search using and rather than or. Anybody? Or might be a better choice.

That doesn't seems quite right. Using "OR" instead of "AND" would penalize more specific searches.

facildelembrar - How so?

Let's say I search for "restaurant" and find 20 bookmarks. Then I add the keyword "italian". If the default behavior is to use AND, then I'll filter my results and leave only italian restaurants, which seems ok, but if OR is used, then I'll increase the number of results by adding everything else with "italian" in it like monuments, churches, clothing, etc. The more specific I get, the harder it will be for me to find what I want.

Imagine the following sitiation:
- Hey, can you bring me my mug?
- Sure, which one?
- The black one.
And then this persons brings me black shoes, a black keyboard, a black pen, a black mug, a yellow mug and a green mug.

A little weird isn't it?

Ok. Maybe it's working differently than I thought. When I type a search term, maybe it seeks a specific string. When I type a term (like "restaurant") I'm fine. When I hit the space bar that is added to the term ("restaurant ") and so is the next term I type ("restaurant italian") so unless that exact string is in a bookmark I get no results. That's current. Would be more useful to use the space to delineate an and/or operator (even switchable).

I'm moving to Firefox at work. I'll keep Opera at home, I still like it best. So I'll know if at some time this is implemented, and then I'll get back to Opera.

There's surfing and there's going to places. A good bookmarks system is very importants and Powermarks is crap with newer browser versions.

So long!

I've recently started to develop an Opera Unite Application for sharing the browser history (see this thread http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=279951 ). The same thing can be done for the browser bookmarks. This means that using Unite, we can build a custom interface for searching and managing bookmarks and include some extra functionality in it.

The only problem would be to alter the bookmarks file while Opera is running (Opera stores all of your bookmarks in a file called bookmarks.adr). This could be partially solved by operating on a copy of the file, or at least maintaining a copy of the file in case the original one gets corrupted.

Anyone wants to give it a shot?

More than two years later
+1 for tags

I was going to start a wish-list topic about "tags" with bookmarks, similar to how Firefox handles it. This allows the user to sort and group his bookmarks by tags (not just folders), search by tags, assign multiple tags to a single bookmark, and still have a separate "description" field. With Firefox, the user does not need to choose whether he wants to use tags or descriptions, he can use both! With Opera, the user must decide if he wants to use tags exclusively, or stick with descriptions, since it is the same field we are talking about: description


An example is something like this:

[Folder]
* Bookmark1
tag1,tag2,tag3


So here we go:

[Articles]
* Organic alternatives and more
food,blog,health
* More than meets the eye: How tablets ruin your vision
blog,science,health,technology
* Turmoil in Greece, part 2
blog,economics

[YouTube Videos]
* DYI: Building Your Own Home Media Center
howto,technology
* Perfect Party Dips
howto,food,social
* 10 Dishes Your Family Hates
food,comedy
* Standup: Mammals and Their Ilk
animals,comedy,adult

Notice how each bookmark has multiple tags that allow for sorting and browsing by tag rather than folders? There is no need to replicate bookmarks in multiple folders (not to mention this is extremely tedious). Tags span multiple bookmarks, and bookmarks span across multiple tags. Not to mention, you can still use "descriptions" in the description field, without interfering with your tags. To use the description field to manage tags is a dirty workaround at the moment, since that is not what a text field is designed for. Not only that, but you cannot browse or sort by tags with the current approach of dumping words into the description field. Another feature of "tags" would allow the user to narrow his results even further by specifying multiple tags to show only the bookmarks that contain all of the selected tags. To use the example above, he can tell Opera to only show bookmarks that contain the "blog" AND "health" tags. With tags, as mentioned above, one can check/uncheck tags, just like how Gmail handles "labels".


In the future, extensions can also take advantage of tags, as seen by the tag cloud addon for Firefox, which literally lets someone browse and navigate through their bookmarks by tags instead of folders.

In summary, using the description field as a makeshift solution for bookmark tags is a dirty workaround, does not allow for the features mentioned above, and causes a conflict between "descriptions" and "tags" in the same text field.

+1 for tags
Please add tags to opera bookmarks.
Thanks.

Of course it would be great! I moved to Firefox because Mozilla team made bookmarks tagging a native feature, but I still like Opera.

However, as this thread is about 4 years old ... it seems that it will be faster to write an add-on than wait until Opera team adds the tag feature.

Yea watching the desktop team i wouldn't be surprised if they removed bookmarks completely since bookmarks weren't updated for year so...

Please add bookmark tags, Opera! *begs*

We already have bookmark tags. It's in the "description" field. -1 for redundancy.

Originally posted by RyanChappelle:

We already have bookmark tags. It's in the "description" field. -1 for redundancy.

If you read my post above, you will understand why the description field does not work as well as Firefox bookmark tags (aka labels): http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=245951&t=1332380168&page=1#comment11225622

Here is an excerpt from my post which shows that it is not redundant, but in fact necessary:

Tags span multiple bookmarks, and bookmarks span across multiple tags. Not to mention, you can still use "descriptions" in the description field, without interfering with your tags. To use the description field to manage tags is a dirty workaround at the moment, since that is not what a text field is designed for. Not only that, but you cannot browse or sort by tags with the current approach of dumping words into the description field. Another feature of "tags" would allow the user to narrow his results even further by specifying multiple tags to show only the bookmarks that contain all of the selected tags. To use the example above, he can tell Opera to only show bookmarks that contain the "blog" AND "health" tags. With tags, as mentioned above, one can check/uncheck tags, just like how Gmail handles "labels".

Speaking of Firefox, bookmarks have tags, keywords, and descriptions. All three, each with their own unique purpose.