Let me also just add that I don’t think we need some kind of continuous syncing between the extension and the browser’s native bookmarks…that’s bound to become a mess. My support for this idea revolves around the ability to simply store bookmarks (just passwordless logins) within the vault, and perhaps be able to import a standard formatted bookmark list. That’s it.
Let me also just add that I don’t think we need some kind of continuous syncing between the extension and the browser’s native bookmarks…that’s bound to become a mess.
floccus is already doing this well and is also FOSS on github:
I don’t think that native browser bookmark integration is such a drama really. Admittedly an extra chore, but a solved one give the code is in floccus above and also in:
In short not a huge challenge, albeit indeed an extra chore, though unlikely a whole lot more more complicated than the code needed to populate forms on request with username/password etc.
Please no. This is a password manager, we don’t need bookmark syncing functionality. The app as it stands now is clean and light, I think it should stay that way.
The more ‘features’ that are added to this, the more cumbersome the app will become.
3 Likes
While feature creep is indeed a problem to manage in any software project. The wedding of intrinsically similar tools has a great many proponents, myself included, on the basis that the incremental work and weight is far less than the net work and weight of two separate projects that share many core ideals.
And as LastPass clearly felt when it bought and integrated Xmarks these two ideas are closely related. Mutliple platforms, multliple browsers, store URLs, store some extra data. The password manager needs a few special tools, like form fillng and random password generation. The bookmark manager needs a special tool - mapping client bookmarks to the data store. The rest is shared.
Be that as it may, it is subjective will always have jeremiah’s voting one way and Bernd’s the other way, and that is fine. The job of product management if anyone has it individually or as a team is to balance those voices.
Given the code for the leading browsers (Firefox and Chrome) is in place in two FOSS projects already and yes, not write-it-in-your-sleep trivial, also not herculean, just a mapping of a client’s API to a remote API in a sense with the quirks of two leading browsers well understood already it seems.
Anyhow, feel free to object. But in the mean time some of us hope to gather more upvotes for this baby ;-)… Not a rush mind (I’m using floccus on Nextcloud now and it’s fine, just another app, another add-on and other toolbar icon and so on, when the two ideas are closely related).
2 Likes
Personally, I’d prefer a bookmark sync’ing feature that ignored the browser’s bookmarks entirely.
If BitWarden were to push bookmarks into the browser’s native bookmarks, their security is out of BitWarden’s hands and it would be totally up to your browser security settings. I can’t imagine a security-focused company would take that approach. Instead, I believe the bookmark sync should only work with BitWarden bookmarks that have been created using the BitWarden extension. To browse the bookmarks, you would use the BitWarden extension UI, not the native browser UI. BitWarden should support import/export so that folks can easily push links in or out. Ignoring native browser bookmarks would significantly reduce development costs but more importantly it would ensure that BitWarden bookmarks stay secure.
If BitWarden starts adding insecure features, I’ll start to worry. I think bookmarks would be one way for BitWarden to significantly increase their extension’s value without making a huge initial investment.
I have a lot of bookmarks that I wouldn’t share with others, just like I wouldn’t want anyone to see the URLs for all of my saved BitWarden credentials. Adding bookmarks to BitWarden makes sense to me because I want my bookmarks to stay private and I want them to be in sync across my devices. For example, I have a disorder that carries a social stigma because it’s largely misunderstood and I would feel more comfortable knowing that my related bookmarks were protected by BitWarden, just like my logins and secure notes. This is especially important when using work laptops that backup Chrome and whatnot by pushing down enterprise policies.
I get it, some people don’t see the need, but I believe there are a lot of folks like me that would take advantage of a feature like this.
1 Like
RIP Xmarks 
I would assume that by default Bitwarden bookmarks wouldn’t directly sync with browser bookmarks. But both having it as an option and directly exporting Bitwarden bookmarks to browser bookmarks would be perfectly reasonable features.
And before any more mention of it being insecure takes place, it’s no more insecure than being able to export your password data to a file, such as to take it to another service. It’s a more-than-reasonable sacrifice in security in the name of openness and fair competition. (This itself is a security feature, actually.) I do agree, however, that syncing with your browser by default would be unacceptable.
For me it is clear this should not be part of Bitwarden but a new totally different product. They could share most of the core code base but it should be a separate thing.
To me, this seems out of scope for Bitwarden.
Perhaps there could be a modular approach to add in the bookmark functionality so that people dont get all uptight about feature creep.
Obviously there is a desire to sync bookmarks between devices. I like the idea of being able to import my bookmarks and then overlay the browsers add to bookmark shortcut to add into bitwardens bookmark store.
Remember kids, not every page has a password and the way entries are organized in bitwarden does not map very well to the standard use case of a bookmark manager.
Also, why do you care so much if I want my bookmarks in my vault? Its just weird.
Here’s an idea:
Create a BitWarden browser add-on that adds a horizontal toolbar to your browser.
The horizontal toolbar would display the one-click shortcuts of particular secrets specified by the user - for example have a checkbox on folders and/or secrets to “show on toolbar”. Or just have the toolbar display the user’s favorite secrets by default.
This way no significant new functionality is required for BitWarden, rather it is a method of displaying existing functionality in a way that many would consider to be “browser bookmarks”.
I pretty much already use the Bitwarden side-bar in this way… the only thing it wouldn’t include are bookmarks to sites that do not require credentials, as they currently have no reason to be in Bitwarden. Not to say that one could not add them anyways…
Upvote from me. I’ve been looking for something like this, and it did occur to me that it would be great if it was built into the same browser extension as my password vault (Bitwarden obviously!). Was actually wondering if there was any sort of decentralized peer-to-peer bookmark synchers out there … a bit like resilio sync but for browser bookmarks. Would be happy to use Bitwarden instead though if it could sync bookmarks!
Remembering xmarks (and now lastpass). It was ideal solution for bookmarks sync. Wish bitwarden could have this feature!
+1 this would be very complementary as either an additional feature or another offering from bit-warden. Since X-marks has gone there is a big need.
+1 would be great!
I envision this as simply syncing bookmarks between browsers that have Bitwarden installed. No extra UI (or bloat) other than a checkbox in the settings. Simply ensure that the bookmarks of the browser match those stored in Bitwarden.
☐ Sync bookmarks?
OK, maybe one or two more checkboxes for choosing the direction of the sync, but that’s it. Actually on second thought probably not even that.
I don’t like this idea, as - to my opinion - a passwordmanager should be only a (the best!) passwordmanager. Please, let’s proceed making the core functionality (like sharing / unsharing, autofill, custom fields, specific secure note types, etc.) better…
Syncing bookmarks works perfectly well with extensions, like Floccus.
2 Likes
+1 I think this is a good idea for BitWarden.
Regards, Jenifer, web-designer
Hi all!
- I don’t know if you all know - but there is this topic that requests the bookmark item: Bookmarks type
- I recently discovered this topic here : Additional item types (pre-defined)
- In short, I requested that the bookmark item type be added -
- I believe this could help this topic as well - since you all ask to sync the marker item type
- The bookmark item has the format: “netscape bookmark format”
- The format to sync should be this: ‘add date’, ‘private’, ‘tags’ - reference here: A sample of the Netscape Bookmark File Format as exported from Delicious. · GitHub and/or GitHub - bookmarks-tools/bookmarks-parser: Parses Firefox/Chrome HTML bookmarks files and/or GitHub - FlyingWolFox/Netscape-Bookmarks-File-Parser: Parser and creator for Netscape Bookmarks file format that is used when exporting bookmarks from browsers
- The links I put here are bibliographic references, I am not promoting any company, software, technology, product or service.
+1 from me. Specifically, I am not looking to sync my bookmarks across devices (that use the same browser - most major browsers do that for you already), I am looking for a way to keep my bookmarks uniform across multiple, different browsers, on the same device. My work PC has Chrome, Firefox, and Edge on it for various uses (some sites require one over the other, one is a “clean” browser on launch, etc.). The challenge I am running into is that when I bookmark a page in one browser, then need to view / test it in another, I need to manually copy / organize the new bookmark in each browser. Keeping them uniform across all platforms keeps life simple and organized. Xmarks handled this perfectly, until LastPass bought it and killed it off.
While there are other products out there that potentially can handle this, they require their own setup and maintenance. Bundling this with Bitwarden reduces overall bloat by having one less add-on to install, manage, and pray it doesn’t stop being supported (again).