As of October 1, 2021, Google Bookmarks will no longer be available. With this service you could store your favorite URLs in an organized manner in the cloud. Google just no longer considered that useful and so mercilessly pulled the plug. Fortunately, there are still (free) alternatives, such as Papaly.
Let’s start with a question: what do Timely, Alerts, Cardboard, Cloud Print, URL Shortener, Goggles, Bookmarks, and about 200 others have in common? Answer: they are all apps or services from Google that no longer exist and that you will therefore find them in the Google graveyard www.killedbygoogle.com.
If you don’t mind, a second question: how do services like RainDrop.io, Saved.io, BookmarkOS, Floccus.org, start.me, booky.io, LinkLocker, Mozilla Pocket, xbrowsersync.org, and Papaly compare? mean? Answer: They are all useful alternatives to Google Bookmarks. Services that allow you to synchronize URLs across different browsers and platforms via the cloud. So there is still a lot of life after Google Bookmarks, which by the way should not be confused with the bookmarks function in Google Chrome.
In this article we look at Papaly, a free service that has been running for seven years. Papaly can be reached from almost any browser, provides browser extensions for Chromium and Firefox, and is also available as mobile app for iOS and Android. Our focus here is on the browser version.
web interface
surf to www.papaly.com and create your free account. You can sign up with Facebook, Google or LinkedIn, or with your email address and password. At the top right you can log out at any time.
Ads pop up on either side of and at the bottom of the browser window: the price of free, unfortunately. In the large midfield you will find a series of thematic categories, including fun, health, Social Media and Sports. They belong to the board tutorial. On the left you will find two other boards (My First Board and Import), but we prefer to create our own copies right away.
Boards and Categories
To create a board, click the plus button on the left next to Your boards and enter a suitable name. The board opens immediately and is completely empty for the time being. If you have imported your Google Bookmarks before October 1 (and therefore have the corresponding HTML page), you can retrieve it neatly by pressing the arrow button next to your account name, import bookmarks to select and press Upload Bookmark File to click. You will also find buttons here to retrieve bookmarks from all kinds of other browsers, including Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
If there is nothing to import for you, you can go two ways. For example, you click You can choose from popular categories and be inspired by the ingenuity of fellow users. Think of categories like Movies & Videos, Apps portables and conjugation (for those who want to brush up on their French). Confirm your choice with the button populate. Made a mistake? Then all you have to do is press the button with the three dots next to a category and Delete category to choose.
Of course you can also go your own way. Click here +Create Category and select Left. To feed is also there, as a terrible translation for (rss) feeds. The low quality of automated translations also haunts Papaly in other places. Anyway, come up with a category name, enter a description if necessary, choose a color and confirm with OK.
Layout and privacy
We assume that you have created some categories by now. You can also create subcategories: click on the button with the three dots next to such a category and choose +Add Child Category. You know the rest of the procedure.
You can also quickly adjust the view and position of categories on your board. Moving can be done by a simple dragging movement. You determine the number of columns by selecting the desired at the gear icon Number of columns to set (from 1 to 7). Now that you’ve arrived here: at private and Invisible to Google do you notice that both default on yes are set. This means that in principle no one else can find your board on the internet. Put (one of) both on no if you prefer otherwise. Confirm with Done editing.
Left
You have your board(s) and you have your categories, but unfortunately that is of little use without links. They can be added in different ways. For example, you can hover over the category title and click on the link icon Add new bookmark click. A field will now appear in which you can type or paste the url from the Windows clipboard. If all goes well, Papaly will automatically take over the favicon and page title.
Of course, this method assumes that you have opened the Papaly web page, which is not always convenient. It can also be made easier by installing the associated browser extension Bookmark Manager Speed ​​Dial. They are there for Chromium browsers like edge and Firefox.
After installation, you only have to press the extension button, select the desired board and category and the url of your current web page will be added automatically. Like categories, links are easy to drag, not just to another category, but even to another board.
To share
We’ve already talked about the option of keeping a board private or making it public. But there are also a few in-between routes. To do this, click on the share button (the square with the arrow). A link will now appear that you can use via E-mail, facebook or Twitter to share with acquaintances. Keep in mind that the link is public. This means that anyone who gets their hands on the link can view your board.
It can also be different. To do this, press the button +Co-owner and enter one or more email addresses, after which you confirm with Invite and with Done. The lucky winner will then receive a confirmation email. As soon as he responds to this with Accept invitation and log in with their own Papaly account, they can not only view your board, but also edit it themselves and, for example, expand it with their own categories and links.
