GoogleStars
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Google releases its souped-up bookmarks manager for Chrome... again
We've caught glimpses of Google's new image-rich bookmarks system for Chrome a couple of times in the past, and now it's back with a new name, but not much in the way of new features. The extension formerly known as Google Stars is now simply (and blandly) listed on the Chrome Web Store as "Bookmark Manager." It still grabs images from the page you starred to show in the manager tab, and it easily lets you choose the most appropriate folder for the website through the small window that pops up whenever you add a new bookmark to your list. This window also lets you sync the website you just starred with your Android bookmarks.
Google Stars bookmarking app makes brief appearance on Chrome Web Store
Google's Stars bookmarking app showed up ever so briefly on the Chrome Web Store, and then disappeared again. The app, which was leaked early this month, seems to allow you to "star" web pages from Chrome's address bar. You'd then be able to organize them by folder and search them for content, with the results displayed in an "image-rich grid" as seen in the screencap above. Indeed, the app description in the store read: "Google Stars is the platform where everything you're already indicating interest in is saved. Initially, these will include your Chrome bookmarks, More integrations to come!" However, this particular release seems to be an accidental leak of the internal version, as it says "Thanks for dogfooding Google Stars" when we installed it. At this time, it looks as if the app has been pulled from the store. We've reached out to Google to find out more about what happened here, but it does seem like Stars could be close enough to final release if it's getting leaked out to the public. Update: Google gave us the following statement regarding the Stars app: "We're always experimenting with new features, but have nothing new to announce at this time."
Google Stars leak reveals a new way to share and search your bookmarks
Google+ expert Florian Kiersch recently revealed that Google's testing a bookmarking app called "Stars," and just posted a video (embedded below) showing how it might work. The initial leak exposed certain features, like "starring" web pages from Chrome's address bar, organizing them by folder and searching content within the pages. Those searches would use suggestions and auto-complete like Chrome, displaying the results in an "image-rich grid." Now, a splash screen (above) has confirmed much of that. Kirsch's demo shows how you'd organize folders and set them to "public" for anyone to see or keep them confined to your Google+ Circles. Stars may arrive in the future as an app or extension on Chrome and would probably be embedded in other Google apps too -- assuming it survives the beta.
