Furl It!

Furl is so comprehensive that it’s impossible to list all of the great features that it has. I would just like to begin by saying…everyone has a use for Furl.

Furl is a bookmarking site that lets you keep track of everything that interests you on the Internet. For instance, if you are reading the front page of your favorite online newspaper and you are mentioned in the first story, you are going to want to pass that along to your friends…right? Well, if you just add it to your “favorites” in your browser, chances are slim that your story will stay on the front page for long. The link that you sent to your friends will no longer feature what you really wanted them to see. The great thing about Furl is that you can “Furl” a page and it is archived for you. This allows you to see the page all the time, even if the site you “Furled” is down. Furling a page is also offered as a save with refresh, which means that if you find a Web site that you enjoy looking at and you want the content to be updated, then allowing refreshing will keep the page new.

This brings me to the next big plus about Furl. You actually log into Furl and it brings you to your own site where all of your items are stored. You can access your favorite Web sites at any time and at any computer (with an Internet connection of course). Your Furl link can also be sent to friends so they can see all of the links that you recommend clicking on. You can not do this with the typical browser favorites list.

Don’t worry if you Furl everything because you can assign topics and keywords to your Furled items, making the site extremely user-friendly and searchable. There is also the option to save comments to the links that you Furl, so you never have to worry about wondering why you Furled a link.

You can also search through Furl and you will get results from all other Furl member’s items and the World Wide Web through LookSmart. Your results are categorized by popularity of how many people Furled an item, which basically tells you what is worth reading or not. Popularity of an item is easily distinct by color.

Another interesting quirk about Furl is that it keeps track of people who have the same Furling patterns as you do and they become your “Furlmates”. Therefore, there is a chance you can meet some new friends out of this site as well.

Furl is completely free. The only requirement is that you must download a Furl Toolbar which puts the “Furl” button in reach while you are surfing. I’m not a big fan of toolbars but it does have a pop-up blocker and it does not have several unnecessary buttons for smiley faces and spyware. There is much more to Furl, check it out at www.furl.net .