Random Bookmark From Folder by Pixievolt No. 1

3.8 Stars out of 5

Review by Firefox user 15289302

by Firefox user 15289302, 5 years ago

Really great add-on for desktop, but doesn't work on my Note 10 - just stays at "Loading" (it may just be for desktop in the first place, but I'd probably use it more on the mobile).

Wouldn't mind if there were an option to single-click the die icon to load a random bookmark rather than be required to choose the folder every time. If I'm primarily pulling from one folder and its subs, I really needn't choose it each time.

Edit: also might be nice to be able to change order of pinned bookmarks through drag up/down...

Thanks for the app!

Developer response

posted 5 years ago

Odd, addons.mozilla.org should have prevented you from installing this on Android. I have it set to do that because Firefox for Android currently doesn't provide a way for extensions to read bookmarks.

As for your feature requests, I'm not planning on implementing them for version 3.0, but I'll keep them in mind for versions after that!

5 reviews

Rated 4 out of 5
by Alexander A., 10 months ago
Great add-on, however it desperately needs a feature to pick a random bookmark with a specific tag.
Rated 4 out of 5
by mp, 5 years ago
Would be nice if there was a way to trigger a folder directly, clicking the die to instantly go to a random url. I thought it would be like that, so I filled a folder with some websites I would like to trigger randomly sometimes. But it seems I have to pick from a folder every time.
Rated 3 out of 5
by Frig Hidlur Fikna, 5 years ago
This did not work for me. It was just stuck "loading" when clicking the UI button. Maybe I have too many bookmarks, and there is some inefficiency in loading them? I would be happy to test more, if needed.

System:
• Firefox 70.0.1 on Ubuntu.
Rated 4 out of 5
by MJ, 6 years ago
Leaving a 4-star review even though my current experience is only 2-stars, because this has been phenomenal and it looks like the future is bright too. Firefox Quantum broke some of the best add-ons, but unlike most who abandoned their add-ons, this author decided on a clever workaround.

The 'pinned folders' in particular is a great idea. Unfortunately, on a moderately-sized bookmarks file, it's not much better than not pinning them. I have only ~20K bookmarks, and it takes 12 seconds to load even the list of pinned folders. This happens every time, making it an annoying chore. However, on a smaller bookmarks file, it's practically instantaneous. If that's your situation, this will still work great.

The other annoyance right now is that it doesn't work well with multi-account containers. Every random bookmark opens in a new tab, which means either the default container or a new temporary container, depending on your configuration. This is fine in many cases, but often I'd rather open in a specific container. If I had the option to open in the current tab, it would be less annoying (best would be integration with containers, but that's asking for too much given the state of containers).

Based on the issue tracker, version 2.1 can't come soon enough. It looks like the author is planning to re-add the context menu, and is looking into caching the list of pinned folders so it's always fast. If those both make it, plus an option to open in the current tab, it will again live up to its 4- or 5-star history for me.

Anyway, thank you for writing this add-on, it's been a valuable tool for me even post-Quantum. I hope to see further versions that improve on the experience.
Developer response
posted 6 years ago
Thank you muchly for the detailed feedback! I've made a note to add an "open in same tab" option, and was already planning to address your other points in the next version. Thanks for your patience!

Update: Version 2.1 is out, and adds your requested "open in same tab" option and a cache that tracks folders but not bookmarks for 15 minutes. The context menu, and a better, longer-lived cache, will come in version 3.0. I hope you enjoy the extension!