Do you use multiple browsers? Do you wish you had the ability to have all your bookmarks from each browser in one place? Or maybe you want the ability to sync bookmarks from one browser to the other? If so, LinkCollector wants your business. Let’s see if it is worth it.

WHAT IS IT AND WHAT DOES IT DO

Main Functionality

Describing itself as a “bookmark manager”, LinkCollector allows users to import existing bookmarks from Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Opera, manage bookmarks after they have been imported, and sync bookmarks from one browser to another.

Pros

• Allows users to import bookmarks from Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Opera — including portable versions of these browsers
• Can access, modify, and delete bookmarks in Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Opera without importing into LinkCollector
• Once bookmarks are imported into LinkCollector, they can be categorized by tags, have a default browser assigned to them, can have an image, can have a favicon, can be checked for URL validity, can have comments, can have description, and can can have keywords
• Bookmarks can be favorited, with a button to automatically open all favorite bookmarks in browser
• Can sort bookmarks into folders
• Has the ability to search bookmarks
• Has the ability to sort bookmarks
• Has the ability to find duplicates
• Has the ability to sync bookmarks from one browser to another
• Can export bookmarks to HTML
• Can password protect individual bookmark folders
• Has a hotkey to directly import the website you are currently browsing in your browser into LinkCollector (Ctrl + Shift + Q by default). Think of this like adding a bookmark directly to LinkCollector.
• Can automatically backup Firefox/Chrome/Opera bookmarks
• Provides stats as to your most popular bookmarks (if you open bookmarks from within LinkCollector)
• Is portable

Cons

• Has a learning curve
• Doesn’t support Safari and other less popular browsers
• You must import bookmarks into LinkCollector to be able to use the duplicate finder and link checker features
• Not very many people need the ability to have bookmarks in more than one browser, hence not very many people will find this program useful
• Does not properly sort bookmarks by column when looking at bookmarks directly for browsers as opposed to importing

Discussion

LinkCollector is a niche program aimed at those people that either use multiple browsers on their computer and want to be able to organize all bookmarks in one program or want to be able to carry their bookmarks around on a USB flash drive and don’t want to use cloud-based bookmarks syncing tools.

When you first run LinkCollector, it detects what browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Internet Explorer) you have installed. It also tries to detect if you have portable versions installed but, if it doesn’t automatically detect portable versions, you have the ability to manually tell LinkCollector were to look. Once LinkCollector has found all portable and non-portable versions of Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Internet Explorer, it shows all the respective bookmarks in their own folders marked “Firefox”, “Chrome”, “Opera”, and “Internet Explorer”. From here you can access existing bookmarks, modify bookmark names and URLs, delete bookmarks, and open bookmarks. It is important to note that, at this point, you can *not* imported bookmarks into LinkCollector but rather are accessing each browsers’ bookmarks directly. For example, if you delete a bookmark from here then that bookmark is deleted in the respective browser, too.

If you want bookmarks stored within LinkCollector, then you need to import them via File -> Import. Imported bookmarks, bookmarks stored in LinkCollector, are shown under the ‘Bookmarks’ folder. Once you import a bookmark you can do a lot more with it than if you don’t import, such as they can be categorized by tags, have a default browser assigned to them, can have an image, can have a favicon, can be checked for URL validity, can have comments, can have description, can can have keywords, and can be favorited.

One interesting feature of LinkCollector is the fact that it allows you to sync bookmarks from one browser to another. Basically what this feature does is it makes sure all the browsers you opt to sync (you can opt to sync 2 or more browsers) have the exact same browsers; portable and non-portable versions of browsers are shown as separate entities, so you can sync one and not sync the other.

Probably the biggest issue I have with LinkCollector is its usefulness. LinkCollector is a niche program; while it may sound attractive by its description, if you really think it about then you will realize most people don’t need such a program. First of all, if you don’t use more than one browser then you obviously have no need for LinkCollector. The only exception is if you like carrying your bookmarks with you on a portable USB flash drive but in that case you don’t need LinkCollector per se — just export your bookmarks to an HTML file from your browser of choice. Even if you do use multiple browsers, then you may still now have need for LinkCollector. For example, I have all four browsers — Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Internet Explorer — on my computer. However, I have absolute no need for LinkCollector. Why? Because I don’t need access to my bookmarks in all four browsers. I only need access to my bookmarks in my main browser, Firefox. I have the other browsers for other purposes and don’t need my bookmarks in them, hence no need for LinkCollector to manage/import/sync bookmarks. Lastly, the rise of cloud computing and free cloud-based bookmark syncing has killed much of the market that LinkCollector may otherwise be able to sell to.

CONCLUSION AND DOWNLOAD LINK

In and of itself, LinkCollector is not a bad bookmark manager. It isn’t anything special (I’d say it is a basic bookmark manager, at best) but it isn’t bad either. The biggest issue with LinkCollector is it has limited usefulness. However, LinkCollector is modestly priced at $19.95/$24.95 so if you think you might find it useful, I’d suggest giving the trial a go before purchasing.

Price: $19.95 (personal use), $24.95 (business use)

Version reviewed: 4.6.7.0

Supported OS: Windows XP/Vista/Win7/Win8

Download size: 2.2 MB (installer), 2.9 MB (portable)

VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/46 (portable)

Is it portable? Yes

LinkCollector homepage