Bookmark Clean-up

Intro

I have no clue what the most popular web browser currently is. I however, have been using Google Chrome basically since it came out. One of the nice features (which I know is available other places now), is the ability to sync bookmarks between devices. A downside to that is the longer you’ve been using it the easier it is to have a TON of bookmarks you no longer care about.

With that in mind today since I don’t have to start work until later than usual. I’m going to attempt to start cleaning mine up.

At the start I have 27 folders

Here is a quick breakdown of what each folder is

• Bookmarks Bar (Bar that shows at the top of chrome)
  • Lan (links to everything on my LAN, even though I use homepage for quicker access most of the time)
  • Tech (Interesting articles / how to)
    • Ansible (Whole folder related to this even though I don’t utilize it anymore or really plan to)
    • Linux Dot Files (Mostly other peoples’ config files that at one time I wanted a quick way back to before seeing if I’d want to implement it)
  • Games (Self Explanatory)
    • FFXIV (Final Fantasy 14)
    • Elder Scrolls (Self Explanatory)
    • FFXII (Final Fantasy 12)
    • ACT (Advanced Combat Tracker, used to use with FFXIV when I played)
  • To Purchase (Self Explanatory)
    • Wall Art (Metal wall posters)
  • Jacobus (Work)
  • School (Links from WHEN I was in school)
  • Budget research (Honestly… Not 100% sure, EITHER looking for a self-hosted alternative to YNAB OR info on trying to create one)
  • Camera setup (Even less sure than the one before)
  • TFF-Setup (I’m guessing docs for getting Hugo setup, possibly some markdown references as well?)
  • Budget Project (Research from when some friends and I were thinking about creating a self-hosted version of YNAB)
• Other bookmarks (Created by default from Chrome, all things not accessible from the bookmark bar… EXPECTING to find this empty)

The Process

First Folder(s)

Cleaning bookmarks isn’t the hardest thing to do, and I’m probably going about it in the wrong way.

Starting in the Bookmark Manager chrome://bookmarks/ (not posted as a standard link since it didn’t work quite right in my testing env.) I’m going folder by folder and right-clicking and “Open all (x) in a new window”

I figured I’d start at the bottom since I expected “Other bookmarks to be empty”

From the start,

• the “Other bookmarks” got moved new folder
  • “YouTube”
• Budget Project didn’t get opened skimmed them deleted the folder
• School was empty and removed
• Jacobus was just the onboarding link and was deleted

The Folder-less

With the EASY ones out of the way, it is/was onto the more difficult. Started with the 27 folder-less links on the bookmark bar. After opening all, most were deleted, and a few got dumped into other folders to deal with when I get to them. 1 link did survive staying on the bookmark bar. The link for me to clock-in for work. Granted, I rarely use it on my personal computer, but every now and again, I’ve needed it. I figured I’d start from the top and work down moving forward.

The Local Ones

My “Lan” folder was renamed “LAN”. I thought that was going to be the end of it. Instead, I removed all non-management links (things like: sonarr, tautulli). I did leave my router, the link for both servers I’m currently running IPMI, Portainer, and my Truenas install.

“Tech” Ansible

Skipped “Tech” on the first rundown. 110 pages seemed like a lot of work LOL. Ansible seemed easy at least (Only 25 pages). Looking at just the first page I couldn’t decide if keep or delete was the way to go. Luckily, after the first one they got easier to make a choice on.

In the end, Ansible got cut in half (12 items still in the folder), and I’m considering looking into utilizing it again.

Games

Ignoring the subfolders, I think this one will likely keep most of it. Only 12 items. Of course, the FIRST link didn’t want to open. I assumed at first it was Google “Trying to protect the users” EYEROLL (site didn’t support) httpS. After trying it in the other 2 browsers I have installed [Edge, Vivaldi]¹, I realized it’s not a site anymore.

On the first run, I did create a few extra folders (basically one per game). I ended up with 1 item left before going through the subfolders.

• ACT… Empty folder DELETE!
• Elder Scrolls… both links about mods… DELETE!
• FFVII… (New folder from first run) 1 Mod link… Leaving it for now
• FFXII… All mods I’m no longer interested in… DELETE!
• FFXIV… I’m not saying I’ll never go back to playing, but what I found didn’t seem useful… DELETE!

End result of Games: 1 Link in the main folder, 2 subfolders(Deus Ex & FFVII)

To Purchase

Just like Tech, WAY too much to deal with on the first run 59 items. Wall Art was only 20, with EVERY one of them being from Displate. This 100% is not an endorsement (I’ve never bought from them), but I do like what I’ve seen. All 20 were deleted and replaced with a single link to their homepage in the primary folder.

With the subfolder out of the way I did end up going through the real folder. Turned out, quite a few of them were interesting items from when I was much more into highly customizing desktop PCs. Another large chunk was items in the wrong folder.

11 left when all was said and done!

Budget research

This was looking for a self-hosted version of YNAB. 21 links to start. Narrowed down to 2 projects that are still going. Moved to a subfolder of Tech since it could lead to something I could self-host.

Camera setup

Turns out this was another easy folder to deal with. Everything was about Frigate NVR. 18 items removed, and replaced by the link I shared a sentence ago(kept in the Tech folder which still needs a ton of love)

TFF-Setup

I was almost right about what this folder was. It was the docs I was using while setting this site up. Started at 23 links. Folder cut down to 5, and moved to a subfolder of Tech called Hugo.

Linux Dot Files

Starting with 55 bookmarks. Many of the initial ones were either wrong folder/ haven’t seen an update years/dead links. Of the 8 items that remain, they are all slightly different ways to manage dot files instead of other peoples files.

Tech Again

Up to 146 items when I got back to this folder. Even though I think I dumped some items in other folders this project took MUCH longer than I thought it would, and I’m calling this my last folder for now.

While going through, I noticed LOTS of things bookmarked from when I’d first started using Linux years and years ago. As well as a ton of programs I’d looked into at what point or another, that I have no desire to ever use.

After getting through everything, ended with 38 things still bookmarked. I know a few should have been removed that weren’t but at some point I ran out of mental processing power.

Closing

Digital housekeeping is kind of a pain in the ass, but it can be interesting to see what miscellaneous nonsense you saved in the past. I still really need to go through my password manager(s), as well as my Google Drive. I don’t think I’ll document those to the crazy amount I did for this one. If you read through all of this… WHY!?

Biggest regret I have of doing this, is I didn’t do a before and after table while doing it.