From MozillaZine Knowledge Base

Revision as of 05:56, 20 August 2004

Revised copy:

Live Bookmarks -- Take The Boredom Out Of Browsing

Live Bookmarks is a new technology that lets Firefox check your favorite sites for updates, and notify you when they occur. You can use them to tell you what's new on a site, and take you straight to the newest content -- all without you ever having to check the site on your own. No more time wasted going to your favorite site only to see old content-- with Live Bookmarks, you know exactly when your favorite sites update, so you only visit when there's something brand new to see!

Live Bookmarks are made possible using a technology called RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Thousands of Web sites are already publishing RSS "feeds", and more are being published every day.

Using Live Bookmarks

It's simple -- just look for the lightning bolt icon in the bottom right corner of your Firefox window. If this icon appears, the site you are browsing supports Live Bookmarks!

To add a Live Bookmark for the site, just click the icon and select the site's RSS link. This action will bring up the familiar "Add Bookmarks" box. Select "OK", and you will see the site's Live Bookmark displayed in your Bookmarks folder. Simple!

Live Bookmarks In Action

Having trouble picturing how this works? Here's a screenshot of Live Bookmarks in action:

The user has her Live Bookmarks loaded into the sidebar. She's told Firefox to watch two Live Bookmarks-enabled sites, Slashdot and BBC News. Whenever a new story is posted on either site, it appears automatically as a Live Bookmark in her sidebar. Double-clicking a story title in the sidebar takes her right to that story on the relevant site.

Once she has told Firefox to watch a site using Live Bookmarks, Firefox does the rest!

Live Bookmarks Tips And Tricks For Advanced Users

Once you're familiar with the basics of Live Bookmarks, you might be curious what else you can do with this powerful tool. Here are just a few of the possibilities:

• Share your bookmarks: Why keep your bookmarks to yourself? Services like http://del.icio.us let you publish your own bookmarks as RSS feeds, so that other Firefox users can subscribe to your bookmarks using Live Bookmarks. Imagine being able to circulate cool new sites you've discovered effortlessly across your entire social network. Live Bookmarks and del.icio.us make it possible!

• Add Live Bookmarks manually: Some sites don't tell Firefox that they support Live Bookmarks, even though they actually do. If you know the URL of a site's RSS feed, you can create a Live Bookmark for that site manually (just look for the orange RSS icon -- -- to see if a site offers an RSS feed). Go to the Bookmarks menu and select 'Manage Bookmarks'. Under the 'File Menu', select 'New Live Bookmark'. Create a name for the Live Bookmark and add the URL. Now new articles from that site will appear as Live Bookmarks in Firefox!

• Synchronize bookmarks across multiple copies of Firefox: If you've used Firefox at home, work, and on the go, you'll know that it can be a hassle to maintain a synchronized list of bookmarks across all of your computers. Live Bookmarks solves this problem. With Live Bookmarks, you can now save your bookmarks on a server, and then use the same bookmark list on as many copies of Firefox as you like. To do this, create an RDF file of your bookmarks ((Tom) - this needs explaining how we do this) ((Jason) - agreed, saying 'just create an RDF file' to the average user is a little like saying "just build a fusion reactor in your basement") which will have for each bookmark a name, url, and a description. Store the RDF file on a server and follow the instructions for adding a Live Bookmark manually. Now you can view your bookmarks from any Firefox browser and share them with others.

Notes on copy

1. We need a better description of the steps involved in creating a Live Bookmark (both manually and via the icon-click wizard) -- right now they're not very clear (Jason)

2. The copy says that the icon for a LB-enabled site is , but the screenshot shows an icon that looks instead like a little lightning-bolt. Is this accurate? Which is the "correct" icon for the final LB release (I assume one is a placeholder)? (Jason) (Tom) adds - agreed - one needs a consistent guide to setting this up. I get lightening rod too, so i suppose that would be the better option to go with - getting people to do this manually (who are not advanced users) might be confusing and a daunting process.

3. Who is the target audience for this doc? If it's general-public I would advise less detail in the "tips" section at the end and more in the early parts -- what is LB/RSS and how does it work. This will be of more interest to average users than will editing RDF files. Conversely, if it's for a developer audience we should take it in the other direction. (Jason)

4. I think we should be structuring pages to have sidebars. I've added one about RSS. This page will be incoherent because I haven't altered the rest of the page to take account of the sidebar. I have lots of problems with this page anyway, from the headline on down. But, well, see the wordsmiths mailing list for more comments.

Original copy (below) taken from: http://www.rebron.org/mozilla-private/working/live-bookmarks.html

Firefox - What are Live Bookmarks? Live Bookmarks is a new technology in Firefox that lets you view RSS news and blog headlines (also known as feeds) in the Bookmarks menu, your Bookmarks personal toolbar, and in your Bookmarks Sidebar. This allows you to see what's happening at a web site without actually going there.

A site is enabled for Live Bookmarks when you see this icon: on the bottom right corner of the browser. Clicking on the icon and selecting an RSS link will bring up the Add Bookmark dialog. Select 'OK' and you will see Live Bookmarks with the rest of your bookmarks.

RSS News and Blog Headlines

Many sites and blogs use RSS (or Rich Site Summary) to display the most recent headlines for that site. The web site determines the number of headlines displayed and how often the headlines are updated.

Headlines from Slashdot and the BBC News displayed in the Bookmarks Sidebar. Clicking on a Live Bookmark takes you right to the article.

Sharing Bookmarks

Live Bookmarks can also be used to view other people's bookmarks or to share your own. Visit http://del.icio.us/ to explore other people's bookmarks or to store bookmarks you want to share.

Adding a Live Bookmark Manually

If you know the url of the RSS feed (url ends with .rdf or .xml), you can add that URL manually. Go to the Bookmarks menu and select 'Manage Bookmarks'. Under the File Menu, select 'New Live Bookmark'. Create a name for the Live Bookmark and add the url. You can now view the RSS feed through the Bookmark interfaces.

For advanced users

Live Bookmarks allows you to store bookmarks on the server so you can view your bookmarks from different computers. Create an RDF file of your bookmarks which will have for each bookmark a name, url, and a description. Store the RDF file on a server and follow the instructions for adding a Live Bookmark manually. Now you can view your bookmarks from any Firefox browser and share them with others.

Originally posted by: Jason 19:19, 17 Aug 2004 (PDT)

• Revision suggestion by SMK - I suggest adjusting the headline and also would recommend including a master sub-headline. If there was/is a master Mozilla Brand it should fit inside of it a a sub product brand.

So instead of LiveBookmarks - Take The Boredom Out Of Browsing how about: i.e. LiveBookmarks - because you're looking for what's new. Fresh Content as it happens from your own bookmarks.

just a thought.