Ever since the invention of the microwave and instant coffee, our world has gotten faster. From the days of the Pony Express, through the modern postal service, the telegraph, and eventual into the world of electronic mail, we have sculpted a world in which waiting is a sign of failure. Even the term “electronic mail” took too long to say, so we shortened it to “email”.

And even with the unbelievable advances in computing since the first machine filled a city block, we still want our online experience to be near instantaneous. Only thirty years ago, a database search might take a few hours, whereas today a lag time of a few seconds makes us wonder if our hard drive is crashing. And when it comes to bookmarking our favorite webpages to share, link, or return to later, speed and functionality are still at the core of the experience.

The best bookmark managers online, such as Google Bookmark Manager, Diigo, or Weave, allow users to organize bookmarks into folders for easy reference and sorting. This also allows a web savvy Internetophile to keep their most used bookmarks in the main folder, while their lesser used links are kept out of sight to reduce clutter and visual searching. But even folders become obsolete when, as with Google Bookmark Manager, each bookmark is ultimately searchable, whether in meta tags, descriptions, notes you attach, or in the link path itself.

Perhaps the only things faster for bookmarks than online services like Google Bookmark Manager, are browser based bookmark managers. These can be found in nearly every web browsing software available today. Rather than having to go online, access your bookmarks, and begin (or resume) your browsing experience, browser based bookmarks let your first online stop BE the bookmark you are trying to reach, saving you halves of dozens of keystrokes and who knows how many mouseclicks.

Leave a comment below and try to predict what the next “speed boost” will be in the world of computing.