Re: Proposal to revamp bookmarks++

[Peter Harvey <pah06 uow edu au>]

On Thu, 2005-11-03 at 20:55 -0500, Adam Hooper wrote:
> I've watched a computer newbie using Firefox on Windows, and one thing
> that is impossibly hard to explain is what a "bookmark" is.
>
> For those reasons, I think Microsoft did something right by naming them
> "favorites". But I think "links" would be an even better term, because
> *everybody* understands the term "link" (you might call it
> *mis*understanding, but if it's clearer, why not use it?).
> 
> I suggest a mass renaming. That would be annoying for translators, but
> the translations of "bookmark" to other languages could actually stay
> the same -- this is only the English version I'm talking about.
> 
> Comments?

I think the actual correct term for the act of storing a link is to
create an "Anchor" but I wouldn't recommend it. :) Anyway I was hoping
to use the word "Links" as a broad term to cover Bookmarks, Searches,
History, and Feeds. The word "Bookmarks" has too much mindshare already
in the computer world for me to suggest changing it.

One problem with completely replacing the word "Bookmark" with the word
"Link" is when you go to create one. To create a link implies creating a
connection 'from' somewhere 'to' somewhere else, but you don't really
specify the 'from' component when creating a bookmark. I would happily
say "I'll add a link from my website to your website", but would never
say "I'll add a link from my browser menu to your website".

The word "bookmark" to me says "a link which is known to be sourced in a
collection on my computer". To "Add Bookmark" I can understand, because
I know where it will be stored. To "Add Link" sounds like I'm editing a
Wiki.

If it was "Store Link" it might be OK. But it still doesn't change the
fact that I wanted "Links" as a broader term then "Bookmarks", so that
we could have Bookmarks, History, Searches, and Feeds all under it.

I'm going to vote to retain the word "Bookmark" for the act/object which
creates/stores a specific URL at user request for later retrieval.

Regards,
Peter.