The catch: Bookmark synching

Despite the newfound performance and pleasant interface, I'm not necessarily dropping Safari like a hot potato in favor of Firefox. Apple has another ace up its sleeve with respect to Safari—especially for people like me who live and work on multiple Macs. Apple's .Mac service (recently renamed MobileMe or .Me for short) can automatically synchronize browser bookmarks, usernames and passwords on all your Macs. This Apple service costs $99 a year, so it's not for everyone. But for those who do use it, it's another reason to stick with Safari.

I'm unaware of similar service for Firefox that works as seamlessly and automatically as MobileMe. There are several utilities and services that you can use to solve the problem. For example, you can get around the problem by using a Web-based service, like Google Bookmarks. (I'm not as fond as many people are of using Google and Yahoo for personal data like e-mail, so it's not a method I'd prefer.)

• First Look: Safari 3.1 adds speed and HTML 5 features
  The latest version of Apple's browser adds some major enticements to switch.
• Microsoft urges Windows users to shut down Safari
  'Carpet bomb' Safari bug can be combined with unpatched IE vulnerability

I've recently come across two products that look promising: Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer (free) and Everyday Software's BookIt ($12). Neither of these products has the whole ball of wax. Foxmarks appears to handle everything I want it to, but only among Firefox browsers (including Firefox 3). BookIt is a manual synching tool (it doesn't work automatically), but it works with multiple browsers and even supports the iPhone (although in its current 3.75 release, BookIt does not support Firefox 3).

(Dear reader, please feel free to post a comment with your experiences with using these or other bookmark-syncing offerings.)

Decision time

Firefox has caught up to Safari's performance but has not surpassed it in any notable way. What that means is that the decision is effectively a photo finish for the legions of Safari users on the Mac. It will probably come down to individual perceptions and predilections. As a previous Firefox user and supporter and also someone who has been using Safari for the better part of two years, I've got skin in the game on both sides of the question. It's going to take me some time to sort it out.

The question for me—the decision point—after I install Firefox 3 on one of my machines is: "Should I make Firefox my default browser?" So far, except for the purposes of testing, Safari is still winning. But that may just be muscle memory.