Xmarks Farts in the Face of Usabilty, #FAIL

Ok, maybe I am a converted PC person.  Those of you that have known me for more than say a decade, know that I was for the longest time a die hard PC person.  It was even part of Antharia's claim to fame that we were one of the only PC based design/development firms in the land.  Well now with the dawning of reality that is not the case.  Sure we have PC's running around the office, but the team is pretty much split 50/50.  The leadership team are die hard Mac Addicts and the Development team are Unix/PC people. Ubuntu, MySQL, Command Prompts galore and when needed they whip open Windows to check something in IE or Outlook.  That be the facts of life.  I will even admit I have a a tank PC laptop in my closet for those rare times I have to open something in Access, as that is about the only thing I have not figured out how to do on a Mac.  If you know, please tweet me.

Well stuck home sick over the holiday break I found myself so excited when I stumbled upon the Lifehacker article: Use Xmarks to Sync Firefox Bookmarks to an iPhone or iPod Touch I was so excited because I have a number of bookmarks I have made on my iPhone I just get sick of having to forward to my laptop and some on my laptop I would love to just have loaded up.  Intro Xmarks!

Oh how excited I am, I ran to the article to read and look for a link to an App in the App store.  Only it's no App.  It is a series of "things" you do to get all set up and syncing between your desk/laptop and iPhone.  But that is ok, I was still game but to my dismay the following caught my eye:

Synchronize Firefox bookmarks with an iPhone or iPod Touch on Windows [Yeah… Whatever] and Kevin at Lifehacker has that whatever part down just right.  I mean come on folks.  iTunes is made by Apple.  The iPhone is made by Apple.  iPod Touch is made by Apple.  Do we sense a fruit based theme here?  Let's add in that Firefox, the only app listed here not made by Apple, is made by the greatest and widest open platform source in the land.  What they make for one, works for all.  Browser independance!  But let's go on.... I know there are many apps (not iPhone based, just computer applications) that are PC or Mac only but this one stung.  So attention all you iPhone App makers, this one would be a coup and I would happily part with my $.99 cents to get my sync on. 

In this day and age, just shy of 2010 we can not afford (we, in the technology market) to be platform based.  You can not build a web based application that only works on a PC.  Think Google Chrome.  Their biggest fail in my mind and much of my late adoption to even try their browser was their abandonment of release in Windows only.  It does not work that way folks.  A computer is a computer.  People are people.  We are your users. We comprise your core demographics.  We command your lifeforce.  It is our thoughts, feelings and desires that should keep you awake at night making sure every key stroke or GUI element is to our understanding.

A mini off topic but circular rant.  I was a DJ when I was in my late teens into mid to late twenties.  One of the first things you learn is you don't play what you want to hear.  You play what the crowd wants to hear.  That is how you get booked.  If you go to a country & western bar and load up the mega remix of the x-files theme you are not being asked back.  Well folks, no-brainer here... technology works the same way.  Please share your thoughts with me. Maybe you are happy that Xmarks has provided PC people with a way to sync.  But sadly, if Madonna is/was a material girl living in a material world, I am a cross platform girl living in a cross platform world.

Please comment or connect with me via any method that works for you.  Otherwise I am just gonna think no one ever reads this stuff :)

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Posted by Jordan Dossett on December 30, 2009 at 10:37 am EST

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