You probably use bookmarks (or favorites) to keep track of favorite Web sites. Chances are good that you also use multiple computers. And managing bookmarks on several machines can be tricky.

Fortunately, sites and software are popping up to help you manage bookmarks. They let you access your bookmarks from any computer. Best of all, using them won't cost you a penny.

CLEANUP WORK

Do you have duplicate bookmarks? How about outdated ones? The first step to managing bookmarks is to clean them up.

AM-DeadLink (www.aignes.com/deadlink.htm) will get your bookmarks under control. This free program works with Mozilla's Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It finds and removes duplicate or obsolete links.

You should review your bookmarks. Keep the bookmarks that are still useful. If you bookmarked an article to read later, read it now — or delete it.

Removing the dross makes it easier to locate important bookmarks.

BOOKMARKS IN SYNC

A variety of tools will synchronize Firefox bookmarks. For instance, the Foxmarks add-on (www.foxmarks.com) synchronizes bookmarks when you close or open Firefox. Your bookmarks remain on the Bookmarks menu.

Your bookmarks also are stored on the Foxmarks site. Should you use a computer with Internet Explorer, you can access them, but Foxmarks would not update that browser.

Google Browser Sync (www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync) also synchronizes Firefox across multiple machines. In addition, it synchronizes browsing history and cookies.

For Internet Explorer, try FavoriteSync (www.favoritesync.com). It works much the same as Foxmarks.

SOCIAL WEB

Social bookmarking sites let you discover and share Web pages. You can also use them to store bookmarks. You can then access them from any Web browser. If you don't feel like sharing, you can mark bookmarks as private.

Del.icio.us is the most popular social bookmarking site. Del.icio.us adds a couple of buttons to your browser toolbar. These make it easy to bookmark pages or visit your account.

You can import bookmarks from your browser. Or export bookmarks from your account to your browser.

You can see your bookmarks from any browser via the site. To keep bookmarks private, you must first enable the privacy feature. You can then mark a page private when you bookmark it.

TOOLBAR MANAGERS

The Google toolbar and the Yahoo toolbar work on IE and Firefox. They include bookmark managers. You need a Yahoo or Google account to use their bookmarks feature.

Simply click a button on the toolbar to bookmark a page. Yahoo prompts for more details, such as a category, before saving a bookmark. With Google's toolbar, click once to save a bookmark. A second click lets you label the bookmark.

Labels, tags and categories help you sort and find bookmarks in the future.

Google and Yahoo export bookmarks from your browser to a Web site. You can consolidate bookmarks from several computers.

Using any computer, you can access your bookmarks from the Web page. Or, if the toolbar is installed on the computer, sign in to your account. Your bookmarks appear when you click the toolbar's Bookmarks or Favorites button.

Contact Kim Komando at gnstech@gns.gannett.com