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View Your Browsing History in Snapshots with WebMynd
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 7:05 AM on January 31, 2008
Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): WebMynd, a free add-on for Firefox, makes it easy to browse through web pages you've visited or specifically "webmarked," whether they're static or dynamically generated. Although you can tell WebMynd not to monitor certain pages and turn its history noting on and off, the add-on generally works as a background service, taking snapshots of the pages you visit. Hit the WebMynd button and you can see thumbnails of those pages. Click on the thumbnails and you get fully browse-able snapshots, with links, images and other data preserved. For hunting down links and images on pages that change pretty frequently, or just getting a more easily-navigated history, WebMynd serves a purpose. WebMynd is free to download, works wherever Firefox does, and lets you browse a week's history at no cost; $US10 and $US20 subscriptions get you six months or a year's worth of snapshots.
Tags: browser history | browsers | featured firefox extension | history
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
AstroTj
Posted 4:37 AM 31/1/08
I'd love to view [[me]] browsing history.
AstroTj
xxdesmus
Posted 7:37 AM 31/1/08
Wow, talk about a huge waste of time. Personally, I look at my browser history maybe 4-5 times a year (at most). As such, I certainly don't need an extension for that purpose.
Why do people browse their history so often? I have Firefox set to wipe the history ever time it closes, but perhaps that is just me.
xxdesmus
detoys
Posted 9:37 AM 31/1/08
WebMynd.com is registered to Patrick Buckley whom - perhaps coincidentally - is also the name of the President and CEO of Patrick Buckley as in Rynne Buckley Marketing and Communications, a market research and advertising firm.
I haven't read the license agreement for their software, but if you plan on using the software, you should. Their website indicates data is sent to their servers when you use this extension.
Even on their website, WebMynd collects data on every visit and states they may share that data in 'aggregate or anonymous form'. I would be surprised if they are not doing at least as much with the data from their software.
I do not plan on using this software, but even if I felt the loss of privacy was worth it I am certainly not will to pay someone to track my browsing habits.
detoys
hungryscientist
Posted 9:37 AM 31/1/08
My webhistory finally becomes useful! The visual aspect of finding pages again is key for me. I hate trying to find a page I know I have seen before by regoogling, and scrolling through browser web history forget it.
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
George Santayana
hungryscientist
edythemighty
Posted 10:37 AM 31/1/08
The extension tracks all the "websights" you visit, but doesn't really say what it does other than that....as DETOYS points out
edythemighty
Alex Leonard
Posted 12:37 PM 31/1/08
I'm quite happy with Google Web History. That's free and keeps track of everything for me. I've used it a few times to find a page I knew I visited but couldn't remember how I found it.
I don't feel tempted to test this one out.
Alex Leonard
prbuckley
Posted 7:37 PM 31/1/08
This is Patrick Buckley, CEO of WebMynd. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment about our new web application. We are working hard to make the user experiance better and all of your feedback is very useful.
1. In response to Detoy, I have no relation to Rynne Buckley.
2. Users privacy is our number one priority. That is why we let you decide how much of your browsing gets saved. We let you record everything or nothing. The WebMynd extension has a Stealth Mode that stops both WebMynd and Firefox from recording anything. We let you decide what gets saved. You can be as private as you like, something that can't be said for many google plugins, which have no on/off options.
3. We have found that most people do not want to save more than a weeks worth of stuff, and if they do they tend to mark the page with a star. This is why the standard service only indexes pages for search that are less than a week old. If people want to look for older pages than this is what the upgrade service is for.
I hope this answers some of the communities questions. Thanks for reading and I hope you give WebMynd a try. Happy Surfing
prbuckley