Chrome’s redesigned Bookmark Manager is a thing. It is totally different from the traditional bookmark manager that we all know, and has some additional features.
But, Google Chrome’s New Bookmark Manager offers nothing new for power users.
Let’s see what has improved since the “old” version. Clicking the Star (Add to Bookmarks) gives us a new popup:
Ok…let’s navigate into Add to folder. Here’s where things start to get prickly…
…so what happens if we click the little arrow next to the Bookmarks bar folder above?
We get a tiny list of Bookmark folders to scroll through, or a button to View All Bookmarked Items.
Come on Google, still no filter box for quickly finding a folder to add a bookmark to?
Still no option to sort all folders including their sub-folders alphabetically?
But good thing I can change the banner to an uglier one:
At a minimum, bookmark managers should grant users the ability to find and manage a massive amount of bookmarks elegantly. Otherwise, what exactly do they manage?
Honestly, all I want from a bookmark manager are these few things:
- Adding a new bookmark to a folder quickly.
- The ability to locate a bookmark or folder quickly.
- Sorting all bookmarks in one step.
Adding a filter box for narrowing down folders/bookmarks by keyword would solve #1 and #2. As for #3…it’s not difficult, just implement that already!
Here’s what I don’t need:
- A Tumblr-like wall for showing off my bookmarks.
- Scrolling through a loooooong list of folders, or page of bookmarks, to find stuff and rediscover older things.
- Several clicks through menus or screens to perform any kind of bookmark operation.
- Manual sorting only. Newly added bookmarks and folders should stay in alphabetical order, if that’s the setting I chose before.
Chrome’s new Bookmark Manager satisfies none of these things. They’ve updated the styling of the UI and the presentation of bookmarks – see card layouts and quicksand animation. Basically they made it prettier without enhancing any functionality.
How to disable Chrome Bookmark Manager
- Open chrome://flags on your omnibar (addressbar)
- Search for Enable Enhanced Bookmarks
- From the dropdown, choose Disabled.
- Restart Chrome
Now, open your Bookmark Manager. You should see the old user interface. You are good as long as this flag is available.
