Xmarks not quite dead yet

Xmarks might not be quite dead yet but it probably will and should be.<p>They seem really attached to the idea that the data (or as they ponderously call it, 'the corpus') they have is very valuable. $9 million (with an impressive $2 mil/year burn rate) later they haven't figured out a way to extract any of that elusive value.<p>Browser bookmark sync is becoming a built-in feature in many popular browsers. Cross-browser support is an edge case that overlaps with the functionality of a number of web-based bookmarking services which generally offer a richer and more useful feature set than in-browser bookmarking.<p>In the period of about a week they've persuaded fewer than 30k of their users to <i>maybe</i> pay them $10/yr. This is probably not all that surprising given the above and the fact they've already announced that should they run into difficulties, they'll simply give up. Short of Stockholm Syndrome, it's hard to imagine why anyone would choose to rely on their service going forward, even if someone is foolish enough to buy them out.

@PinboardIN <i>Wow, xmarks is dead because they couldn't "find a scalable business model" with two million users.</i><p>@xmarks <i>@PinboardIN hey if you've got some good ideas, we're all ears!</i><p>@PinboardIN <i>@xmarks the model that has worked well for us is 'charge people money for a useful product or service'</i><p><a href="http://twitter.com/PinboardIN/status/25734453850" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/PinboardIN/status/25734453850</a>

Why didn't they explore the possibility of being acquired before just deciding to drop everything and shut down?<p>Or maybe this was their strategy for getting enough publicity to get more favorable acquisition offers...

I don't mean to be cynical, but... well played Xmarks, well played.

I like to be able to use whatever browser I want, whenever I want, use the browser's native bookmarking, and have new bookmarks show up in whatever browser I run next (not to mention show up on iOS Safari).<p>Bookmark something in Chrome, leave my desk, check the bookmark on the iPad. Surf on the iPad on the train, bookmark some things, review those bookmarks in Firefox on the PC.<p>The built-in bookmark syncs don't do this, unless you're willing to only use a single browser on everything.<p>Xmarks does this. If you're a developer using multiple browsers, seems like Xmarks would be essential kit.

Too late. I've already moved to Chrome sync.

tl;dr: 27K people have pledged $10/year, they'll be viable with 100K

This is a very sad news...... I know I can find other services, but I added this to my mom and dad's computers, and they do have now all their bookmarks + passwords saved.<p>No, they don't even know that (Xmarks) is running, and I don't even know how to tell then "hey, you should pledge 10 € here..."<p>That made me think: how many moms and dads are using this service??

Is the problem with starting free that you get people used to the idea that this is not a service you pay for?<p>Freemium (get a small service for free, pay for a better one) is one thing but this is "this used to be free, now it's not". At the very least that jars.<p>I think the real issue is that the likes of ChromeSync make the longevity of this business model very questionable.<p>Joel Spolsky once described this sort of thing as grabbing nickels from the path of an on-coming steamroller - you're making money out of something that the product should or will inevitably do as a standard feature. Yes there is money there for a while but inevitably the steamroller is going to flatten you.

I would happily have paid $10/year, but as soon as they made the announcement I went looking for alternatives. I was surprised to find that if you're happy just syncing between Firefox installs, "Firefox Sync" does everything XMarks does, (Bookmarks, Passwords, Preferences, History and Tabs) but with a slicker interface. And it will also be built into Firefox 4 rather than having to install the addon...<p>I no longer see the point in paying XMarks for it...

When I read the announcement that they were closing, my first thought was "I would have paid money for this". I'm glad I may be able to if it means I'll get to keep using it.

It is a sad story. Xmarks is the best sync tool now but competition is coming from two big guys.

Why don't they just charge for their iPhone app and use a fremium model? I'm blown away that they can't figure out a way to monetize 2 million users. If they don't get acquired I will be very shocked. I pledged that I am willing to pay, it's a bargain for how useful their service is. Also, why don't they just use kickstarter.com??

It's just a flesh wound! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4</a>