Symbaloo 2 (Beta): Online Visual Bookmarks Manager for your Browsers.

Version 2 of Symbaloo is now on-line. Symbaloo is a free online service which uses icons to organize links to your favorite sites & news feeds.

The in-browser menu is:
— Customizable.
— Accessible from any computer.
— Does not display banner ads.

URL:
http://www.symbaloo.com
http://www.symbaloo.com/us/

Screenshot of Symbaloo release 2 - codenamed Avocado:
http://i43.tinypic.com/2co25g3.jpg

Symbaloo has just been voted for as BEST PORTAL 2008!

yay!

@Bubby, here is the latest ( and last) reply from Sander from Symbaloo:

Hoi freebird,

Ben benieuwd of het nog wat gaat worden. We gaan in ieder geval
binnenkort beginnen met het bouwen van een tweede versie van Symbaloo,
waarin de wensen van Bubby ook meegenomen worden!

Complimenten en groetjes, Sander.

[ Am Curious to see if it is going to work out. In any case, in the very near future we will start building a second version of Symbaloo, in which the wishes of Bubby are incorporated!

Compliments and greets, Sander. ]

You see bubby? easy as that ! if that is not a good company who deserves some attention on the giveaway with their application, I don't know what is!

(I know, I'm biased. lol)

greetz! later.

It not like my PC # 1 Java script all so google-analytics.com like to look no thank you just Run USB Firefox off harddrive get full of Bookmarks get new one give it a new name and you good so far all add ons work like Clipmarks, DownThemAll, FireShot, NoScript, WOT. Opera USB so you can make Bookmarks with IE Opera USB Firefox USB info look at
http://www.portableapps.com http://portablefreeware.com http://www.app-stick.com

@ bubby, What you say is very true.

I really know very very little about anything business like. I'm just me, and I can only be representative for normal mid-range-skilled-pc-persons.

But I DID backup all my links. One can Export them, so one has them somewhere else in case symbaloo should go down. But they have been around since 2007 and as far as I know they have been down only a few hours for maintainance ONCE.

So, comparing that to GOTD, and how often you guys have been absent for maintainance, symbaloo wins the contest hands down. ( and yes, they got a LOT of customers) :-))

They became quite big, quite suddenly, and I think they handled that well. They also have a wonderful feedback link, and the one thing I asked them to change, they changed. ( !!)

a dropdown menu was too fast, and each time I almost deleted my page, because there was no delay in the button. They made the delay almost instantly.

I think they are very happy with all kinds of feedback, and requests for changes like your "option to run locally" might just be made.

That is what is so great about symbaloo, it's slick, modern, eye candy, fast, handy, rarely down, and is tweakable. and yes, feedback is wanted, but is that not the way all good software gets even better?

and where better to get all that feedback than GOTD?

* smile *

wishing everyone a good day, and if I hear more from Sander from symbaloo, I will of course post it. ;-)

It's not always just 'privacy'. I have a few thousand bookmarks at the moment - If I was to start relying on symbaloo 100% to store all more configs and favorite sites - and then (for whatever reason) they disappeared off the internet as a company. What happens to my "little black book" of website addresses that I rely on so much.

You are trusting the company to always be there - to always back up your data - and never be offline when you want to surf the web. Having the option to run 'locally' without requiring access to their servers gives a sense of independence and availability.

Also some companies might want to use symbaloo on a corporate intranet and having the configs and site definitions outside of the company might not fit with their IT Departments Security and/or Privacy policies.

But at any rate - having such an option gives people choices and confidence that they are in control and not dependent on an external company. (But the same could be said for scores of Web 2.0 apps).

yr right... I don't care that my data is not that private.
I have no idea HOW i could protect it, and everywhere I go on the net I leave footprints anyway..

I try to be careful what I do with my data, but I'm not capable of protecting it for real.

I must say though, protection dummy I am, I never had any problems with losing private info through symbaloo or anything.

not that I know of anyway. :-)

I hope you guys will offer symbaloo somewhere along the way, perhaps as a weekend application instead of a screensaver or something ;-)

greetz,
fb.

I've got to say I do agree with goodgotd. If given the choice I also prefer to have the option to store all my data locally.

Even Foxmarks has agreed to be flexible enough to support local or WebDAV servers. Certainly having the ability to have shared pages in Symbaloo is a nice idea and perhaps having the option to take those pages 'local' and maintain them on your own network - effectively breaking the link with the Symbaloo copy (or perhaps having a manual re-sync option) would be a good move.

For most people - they probably don't care (or know) where the data is stored and Symbaloo probably suits them just fine, as it is. But there remain a group (probably mostly towards the "power user" end of the spectrum - who run their own servers and would like to see the ability to keep their personal data, private.

On the plus side - across all these users, those who run their own servers will not be contributing to the network traffic or server load on Symbaloos' infrastructure.

not privacy in particular, just don't like storing info outside my lan. I rarely travel and if I do my laptop has everything I'll need.

Goodgotd, are you referring to privacy issues?
Their privacy disclaimer don't seem to be available in other languages yet.Too bad.

But I do think it is a good concept to have access to a personalized start page.It's sole purpose is to give you quick access to your most favorite web pages and read feeds.
Your personalized settings will be stored in a cookie.
And in order to avoid loosing your settings one has to make a free account at Symbaloo.
You will have to allow JavaScript to use it.

But I see why freebird likes it that much. :)

not my cup of tea- I'm allergic to storing data in the 'cloud'.

Thanks Robert, yr welcome ;-)
interesting revieuw. I think they're working on the mobile application, and rss works fine as far as I know.
Also, symbaloo has a firefox plugin, with which one can add a site with one click to the "desktop" from symbaloo.

as you guys can see, I really am fond of symbaloo ;-) it just is so easy to work with. I used to get a headache from the looooooong lists of bookmarks... just trying to find one of them. And now I don't have to search anymore.

I hope the entire world will start using it. ;-))))

Hi Freebird,

Ever so nice to hear from you again.
I just stumbled upon an interesting Symbaloo review over here: appappeal.com.
Thanks for sharing.
Robert

Thanks bubby. One learns something new everyday;-) when a link is dead, I usually see that as regular maintainance, to either replace, remove or repair it. it's just a fact of life on the net that 50% off all links dissappear within a year or so...

thank heavens GOTD is stable ;-)

I got an answer from symbaloo and will try to properly translate it into english for you.

Hoi freebird,

Erg gaaf dat je ons daar hebt aangeraden! Hoe groot schat je de kans in
dat we erin komen?

[Very cool that you promoted us there! How big do you estimate the chance is to get in? ] ( he means with GOTD)

Ik heb het ook wel eens overwogen, maar het is voornamelijk echt
software die je kunt downloaden toch? Symbaloo is meer een webapplicatie.

[ once I considered it, but it is mostly real software that is downloadable yes?, symbaloo is more a webapplication.]

Symbaloo is beschikbaar in 15 talen, en 7 landenversies. Die
landenversies bieden de locale bronnen. Naast de Nederlandse versie
hebben we een Engelse en Amerikaanse versie beschikbaar die dus voor de
Engelstalige markt interessant is.

[ Symbaloo is available in 15 languages and 7 countryversions. those countryversions give the local sources. Besides the Dutch version we also have an English and American version available, that could be interesting for the English language market. ]

Als je naar http://www.symbaloo.com/us of http://www.symbaloo.com/uk gaat zie je die
versies. De taal is te switchen bij "Settings".
[ When you go to http://www.symbaloo.com/us or http://www.symbaloo.com/uk you will see those versions. You can switch language in "settings" menu. ]

Houd me alsjeblieft op de hoogte van de reacties!
[ please keep me informed on the reactions!]

gr Sander
Symbaloo

[ greets Sander
Symbaloo]

Office location:
Burgwal 47
2611 GG Delft
The Netherlands
Tel:+31(0)152129006

Mob:+31(0)628200550
Mail: sander@symbaloo.com

I hope, Bubby -, administrators moderators and other important persons, that this answers the questions?

and um, reactions would be appreciated ;-)))

thank you!

Fb.

What is Link rot

(you don't get it, the sites you link to and bookmark get it).

I've emailed Symbaloo to ask them about the english homepage for symbaloo. I think they should have one...
and if they do they will let me know.

when they do I will post their answer here. ;-)

really, I am so happy with symbaloo that I could shout it of the rooftops. ;-)

@runesagemagic
I never experienced anything similar to linkrot... no idea what that is... so that should tell ya something eh? for an idiot like me...?

Google does a fair job of translating that Dutch blogger's page.

I presume that's what you meant... Symbaloo's English Home Page automatically redirects to - http://www.symbaloo.com/us/

Seems like a nice idea for travelers who want to keep a few links handy wherever they go (without worrying about losing a thumb drive), though I wonder how much of a pain/problem it is for the absentminded who forget they didn't log on and subsequently made changes that were written not to their account but only to a cookie that is flushed at end of session.

Another consideration is infamous "link rot" - so an alternative like FURL might be preferred as it archives a complete copy of a web page.
Caveat: a downside to FURL is their close relationship to ad delivery service Coremetrics. Personally, I loathe data miners.

DELICIOUS (formerly del.icio.us) is another oldie but goodie, as is http://www.SPURL.net

Remember, quite a few online bookmarking sites launch and then die, so backing up is just as important as with a hard drive.

sorry - I was referring to a website (to read about the program etc).

The official site seems stuck on "Dutch".

I'll just have to rely on 'unofficial' sites.

Yes they certainly do!
Brazillian portuguese
Chinese
German
Danish
English
Spanish
French
Magyar
Italian
Polish
portugues
Turkish
Dutch

and two scribbly languages , I have no idea which they are...

:-))

I've been using it for ages now, and never ever had a problem with it in firefox.

Sorry it took me a while to get back here ;-))

do they have one in english?

sorry if there's already a thread on this... I couldn't find it though.

I am totally in love with SYMBALOO.
http://www.symbaloo.com

It is a service which offers people a chance to make their own desktop full of links/bookmarks, in their browser.
it is a starter page really. on there you can put all your links in colored blocks, from where, with one click, you are on the page you were looking for.

( visual of symbaloo, just plucked from the net : )
http://netters.nl/symbaloo-nieuwe-startpagina

it is a unique graphical style that gives symbaloo it's ordered and cheerful appeal. It is fast, rarely down, and never boring.
One can tweak the dekstop-link view to anything you like, colors, icons, text, position...

you can have more than one desktop full of links, and you never have to search for that rarely used link again, because it has just been sitting there on your third desktop ;-)))

It is free, and very simple, it does not require any knowledge on anything but how to read ;-)

it is beautiful and very handy.

please check it out!!