An interesting idea from Mikel:

With Yahoo Bookmarks, we always wanted to aggregate users bookmarks into an open searchable directory, ala dmoz It never happened, the non-sellable output didn't justify the cost of the complexity and infrastructure.

Now with smart clients, outlines, shared outlines and aggregators, there's the basis of a distributed web directory.

An idea - publish bookmarks files, or parts of bookmarks, in opml. The format fits nicely. Connect files with instant outlines and shared outlines, and display with activeRenderer

The Radio Userland directory is a place to start.[brain off]

Hmm... let's see how I may translate this in practical terms.

I can add a menu option or a preference in activeRenderer that would

• locate the workstation's default browser,
• translate its bookmarks file to OPML format,
• store the resulting file in an upstreamed, dedicated folder
• I could add an option to keep the OPML version synchronized with the browser's version automatically at startup.

Now, this is going to be system and browser dependant, so if I start digging into this, I will need some help.

Besides this doesn't address the consolidation issue. Any ideas Mikel ?