I often lose track of websites that I've visited because I jump around using multiple computers and my bookmarks don't always follow me. I try to remember to backup my bookmark file when I leave one office, but invariably, my humanness gets in the way -- I forget and then I overwrite a perfectly good set of bookmarks with yesterday's copy.

I've been keeping my eye out for a better way to track my favorite sites, and I may have found it. BackFlip is a free web service that tracks and organizes bookmarks. It even lets me perform a keyword search of my bookmarked sites.

Run by Tim Hickman, a former member of the Netscape team, BackFlip is a totally new way of looking at managing bookmarks. Up to now, I've thought of keeping the bookmark file on my PC, backing it up when I move around, and being careful to not lose my backup copy [yeah, right!].

With BackFlip, I got a button on my Navigator toolbar that adds the webpage I'm viewing to my BackFlip list of bookmarks. The list is kept on BackFlip's website, so I can get to it wherever I've got a net connection.

It doesn't cause a dime to use the service, and it took less than a minute to setup an account and drag the BackFlip button to my tool bar (the online instructions are truly idiot- proof).

Hickman and his folks have an honest-looking privacy statement, but still, I'm a bit cautious. I didn't upload my existing list of bookmarks. I've been collecting my list for the better part of the last decade, and I don't like the idea that this list could slip out publicly. I'll use the service for a while, and see how it pans out. Maybe someday, I'll upload my full list

Dave Murphy is founder and membership director of ITrain, the International Association of Information Technology Trainers. ITrain is the global professional society for IT trainers.
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