extension ExtPose

BrainTool - Go Beyond Bookmarks

CRX id

fialfmcgpibjgdoeodaondepigiiddio-

Description from extension meta

BrainTool is the best Bookmarks and Tabs Manager for your online life.

Image from store BrainTool - Go Beyond Bookmarks
Description from store Organize all your bookmarks, web resources, notes and to-do's into a personal Topic hierarchy and control your browser with the BrainTool Topic Manager. Open and close browser tabs, windows and tab groups with a click, or navigate using powerful keyboard commands. Capture links, notes and tasks while in context on a web page. Allocate each of your Topics to its own window or tab group for a focused workspace. Tame your browser tabs, focus your attention and never be afraid to close a tab again! ZDNet says: " .. a very nice, very fresh take ... behind the simplicity is a lot of power" Your BrainTool data is private, it's your personal information space that the BrainTool application reads from a plain text file completely under your control. It's written in the popular Org-Mode format and so can fit within any larger text-based workflow. Back it up, copy it, share it - it's just a text file that you own. Import from bookmarks, Org files or other extensions, sync automatically to Google Drive or a local file. BrainTool is 100% browser based, so your data never leaves your control. BrainTool is hard to summarize. Its a way-better bookmarks manager, but it's also a browser manager, a tabs manager, a task manager, and a session manager. It's a personal knowledge management system that allows you to organize all of your online information sources (web sites, Google docs, gmails, files, photos, Slack channels, social media groups, code repos, wiki pages, task backlogs, Jupyter notebooks, LLM chat sessions, etc etc etc), combine them with your TODO's and text-based notes and see the big picture in the tree structured side panel. It's the plain text bookmarking tool that I always wanted to exist but could never find, so I built it. I hope you like it! ------- RELEASE NOTES -------- # BrainTool 1.3 Three major improvements: - Drag and Drop from web pages into the topic tree. Drag individual links or selected text including multiple links and drop under a topic in the tree. With a single link any associated text is added as a note. When text contains multiple links all are added under the topic. - 🗑️ TRASH special topic. Deleted items are moved under Trash rather than immediately deleted from the tree. - 🔖 BOOKMARKS BAR special topic. This topic is kept in sync with the items in your browser bookmarks bar. Changes made in the tree are updated to the browser and vice-versa. #BrainTool 1.2.6 Bookmarker now checks the backing store file for external changes before allowing a save. #BrainTool 1.2.5 Added support for dragging from the url bar into the topic manager to add a tab # BrainTool 1.2.4 Emergency release, typo in previous manifest file. # BrainTool 1.2.2 Added filtering to show just TODOs or just show matching search results. # BrainTool 1.2 The notable change in 1.2 is the ability to run the Topic Manager in the browsers side panel. It kind-of feels like BT has been pulled inside the browser! #BrainTool 1.1 Automatic local backups or recent, daily and monthly changes. Also: - Improved scrolling and arrow key support for search and row navigation. - Removed/defaulted settings for Sticky tabs and Tab Groups - Removed Notes toggle, replaced with resize control. - Improved discoverability of Supporter purchase buttons - Added uninstall feedback survey - bug fixes, performance improvements # BrainTool 1.0.3 Minor release addressing some bugs and UI feedback. - Improved handling of dragging tabs between tabgroups and windows. - Added 'w' as a keyboard command for 'open in new Window'. - Improved handling of screen configuration changes. # BrainTool 1.0.2 Unfinished business from 1.0 and updates based on 1.0 feedback ## Feature Updates - Added topic expansion on hover so folded topics can be dropped into (thanks @rocketman455 for the suggestion!) - Improvements to the upgrade process to make it clearer whats happening. - Added trial expiration and initial nagging 30 days after installation. - GitHub #32: When TopicMgr is in a tab - don't navigate on item deletion. If the browser is maximized don't adjust its position on first opening TM. # Welcome to BrainTool 1.0! Here is an overview of whats new. ## Manifest V3 This change is not of great interest to a BT user but is mandated by Google and required non-trivial code changes. ## Full Tab Group Support One advantage of the manifest update is that it provides access to the tabgroup api so that BT can provide full synchronization between Topics and browser tabgroups. By default Topics are now shown as tabgroups in the browser. Tabs opened from BT open in a tabgroup labelled with the appropriate Topic. In the Topic Manager open links and Topics are highlighted with the tabgroups color. Changing the tabgroups color in the browser is reflected in the Topic Manager. Name changes and expand/collapse operations are also synced. Additionally dragging a tab into a tabgroup will save that tab into the Topic in BT. Dragging a saved tab out of its tabgroup will remove it from BrainTool. ## Sticky Tabs When 'Sticky Tabs' is enabled the relationship between a tab and an associated saved item in the Topic Manager is maintained when you click a link in the saved tab or during a server side redirection. This allows you to navigate around a saved site or app, or get redirected to a different url (for example to a log-in page) while staying in the context of the original saved BT Item. ## Topic Tree visuals The expand/collapse buttons and the favicon displays have been restyled, and an empty topic is now visually distinct. It is hoped that these changes make the tree structure easier to see, in addition to improving the styling in general. ## Session saving and Bookmarker Updates The BT Bookmarker now has the option to save a whole tabgroup (if the current tab is in one), and a complete session, in addition to the previous window and tab options. When saving a session, tab groups are saved as the corresponding BrainTool Topic. Any ungrouped tabs are put in a tabgroup named with a Window-N prefix and saved under a Topic with the same name in the Topic Manager. The Session itself is given a Session-date Topic name and saved under the Topic selected in the Bookmarker or the Scratch default Topic. ## Preferences for Dense, Hide Notes, Tooltips and Large Font New preferences have been added for these items. ## New Introductory Screens We've added a helpful BrainTool Buddy to give a gentle introduction to BT when it's initially installed and at launch thereafter, until turned off. ## GDrive Auth Change Another Google mandated update is the change to use their Auth 2.0 libraries for Google Drive authorization. Unfortunately the access provided to browser-based apps (ie those without a back-end server) is considered to be temporary access and to require explicit user interaction. If you have GDrive saving turned on you'll be warned in the red warning banner when the token expires. You can click to immediately re-auth or ignore it and re-auth will happen on the next save. ## Usability Improvements - Rows in the Topic Manager can now be dragged by selecting anywhere on the row - The Tab key now iterates a selected Topic through three states: collapsed, open with its child nodes showing and open with its children all fully expanded. - Search has been improved to make it easier to see the current match and other visible matches. ## Pricing and License Changes for 1.0 - There will be no limits on numbers of nodes saved in BT (other than those due to browser storage limits) - In addition to monthly and yearly subscriptions a one-time purchase lifetime license will be offered with pricing as follows: - Monthly $1.33/mo, Yearly $10.66/yr, Lifetime $21 - This (low, low) pricing reflects my goal of having BT be widely used and to encourage users to support its development. The extra change over $1/$10/$20 covers the Stripe transaction costs. - License enforcement will be as follows: - 30 days all access. - After 30 days messages of gentle encouragement will be shown at intervals. - Functionally some setting preferences will be locked (Dark mode, Favicons etc) but otherwise the app will be fully functional. # 0.9.9a This was a minor point release because there are no changes requiring updates on the Web Stores, but it has some major functionality! ## Local File Sync Local file sync opens up a lot of potential for saving, versioning and backing up your BrainTool data. The file location used by BrainTool can be hooked up to DropBox, a git repository or any other cloud syncing mechanism. Local sync is mutually exclusive with GDrive syncing, you can only sync to one place. Syncing can be turned on via the Settings screen (click the new Settings icon, top right). If you are already syncing to GDrive and want to change you will first need to turn off GDrive syncing (via 'Actions', again top right). On initiation you will be asked to select a folder for BT to access. The browser will ask you to grant permission first for Read-only access to the folder and then for read-write access. The ability to write to a local file from a web app is a newish capability and heavily secured within the browser. Every time you re-open the BT Topic Manager you will need to re-grant permissions for BT to write to the local folder. Note that the **Brave** browser developers need to enable via a browser configuration setting. ## Settings, Actions and Help panels The previous overlay panel put access to settings behind multiple mouse clicks and was confusing for many users. We've broken out those functions into separate panels which can be accessed directly from the top level Topic Manager. Settings and Actions are top right, Help is bottom right. Other than Local file sync, the available settings and actions are unchanged. ## Tips, Messages and Warnings A colored panel below the topic tree now shows any required informational messages on startup and subsequently provides access to a set of tips on BT usage. If a sync file is out of date the panel shows a 'Warning' message and provides a shortcut to the refresh function with a single click. ## Minor UI changes In addition to the above: - Some colors have been tweaked to improve contrast and readability. - The application as a whole now does a better job of handling wide and narrow Topic Manager windows. - The topic card editor makes better use of space and use a fixed width font to improve org-mode compatibility. ## Telemetry While your privacy is a key aspect of the BrainTool value proposition and we do not have any access to your data, we do need to collect some information on how the application itself is being used. On startup the app now records (to Google Analytics) the number of saved topics and pages, the number of file saves/updates, the number of tab operations performed, the number of times you've launched the app, days since install and how long your last session of using it was. # Welcome to BrainTool 0.9.9 ## New Look and Feel including a Dark Mode I completely revamped the BT fonts and color palette and added a dark mode - the most requested feature. ## Re-organized Saver Tool I made another iteration on whats been called the bookmarker or popup to make it easier to understand while keeping it fast and efficient for both mouse and keyboard users. Additionally, any number of nested new topics can now be created from the Saver e.g. setting the topic to Animal:Vertebrate:Mammal:Carnivore:Canid:Dog:Hound:Beagle will create 8 levels of topic if they don't already exist. ## Compact Mode Another highly requested feature. Shrinking the Topic Manager to less than 350 pixels wide hides the notes column for a highly compact and information dense display of your saved topics and pages. ## "Open in New Window" Tool You can now open a page, or complete topic, in a new window. The previous mapping of topics to windows has been removed as being too complicated. You can choose to have BT manage your tabs, grouping them into tab groups, or not, thus leaving them wherever you or the browser puts them. BT will no longer confuse you by moving tabs between windows. ## "Add Top Level Topic" Tool Available at the top of the Topic Manager. Hopefully this one is self-explanatory. ## Topic Manager window remembers its position The Topic Manager now opens with the same size and position as it had when it was last closed. ## GDrive Refresh Button If you have GDrive syncing turned on, the Refresh button is now available in the top toolbar whenever BT detects that there is a newer file available. ## Topic Tree imports A correctly formatted org-mode file will now import its contents into the appropriate nesting in the tree. See https://braintool.org/topicTrees. ## Other Usability and Misc Improvements I removed the counter for number of saves (top right) because its no longer part of the pricing model. Lots of improvements were made in areas like the card editor, the initial topic tree, the initial placement of the topic manager etc. # BrainTool 0.9.8 ## New Bookmarker To make the 'popup' more usable I've re-designed it from the ground up and done some rebranding. I'm now calling the popup 'Bookmarker'. ## Skip the Topic! By popular demand I added a 'Scratch' topic. ## Update existing note cards in the Bookmarker With this new bookmarker design I was able to add the ability to edit the notes and title for existing saved pages. ##Topic Manager can run in a tab Based on a suggestion from Crimson K and validation from Timothy, I added an option for the Topic Manager to run in a browser tab rather than the current side panel. ## Performance Improvements Thanks to Timothy for stressing BT with his six thousand plus bookmarks! A small tweak to avoid a low level recalculation of layout for every table row added resulted in a significant speed up on first start with a big braintool.org file. Search got similar performance attention and should now be snappier. ## Search Improvements Thanks to Peter for his detailed feedback on Search. Improvements include better key handling on Linux, being able to 'escape' key out of search, restoring previous selection on failed search and a few other bug fixes. ## Space key Also based on Peter's feedback, the space key will now open a tab for the selected item if its not already open, and highlight it if it is open. # Earlier releases ## Support for Edge and Brave browsers Edge users can get BrainTool at the Edge store. Brave users can install from the Chrome store. ## File Import/Export In addition to Chrome Bookmarks, 0.9 adds the ability to import from a TabsOutliner export and also to import a text file with org-mode markup. ## org-mode Support BrainTool should now retain any org markup in the BrainTool.org file (or an imported file). ## Keyboard shortcuts ## Ability to tag all a windows tabs at once ## Statistics Bar

Latest reviews

  • (2025-07-01) Shadenium: I don't understand what's going on. It has messed up the names of all my bookmarks and now creates everything as a bookmark group and automatically pins all of them to bookmark bar. I opened 4 new windows and got 4 new giant pins in browser's bookmarks bar. I'm genuinely afraid it will just delete all my browser's 15 years of bookmarks on a whim if I don't understand the intentions of the author's system and buttons correctly, even though I used Tabs Outliner for 7 years. I'm disabling the extension for now until Bookmarks experiment is over. This function should never have been added. Please, leave the bookmarks alone. UPD: It seems that it automatically renames bookmarks with empty names to have their names what their URLs are, making them tremendously long.
  • (2025-06-16) Yongwei Yuan: As a long time emacs/org-mode user, I cannot express the excitement when I find this gem. And my experience with BrainTool certainly lives up with my excitement! Cannot wait to see this tool evolve in the future.
  • (2025-06-09) OceanGypsy: BrainTool stands out as a versatile Chrome extension that transforms how I manage tabs, tasks, and notes. Tony Confrey’s thoughtful design truly shines through. Key highlights: The outline-style organization brings clarity to complex browsing sessions and task lists, making everything easy to navigate. Effective tab saving and restoring helps me maintain focus without drowning in browser clutter. The clean and minimal interface eliminates distractions, letting me concentrate on my workflow. Handy keyboard shortcuts make moving around fast and effortless. For anyone looking to streamline their browsing and task management in one smart tool, BrainTool delivers impressively. Highly recommended! Tagline: BrainTool — Organized Chaos, Clear Confusion.
  • (2025-05-10) Beau Boorman: This really steps up my browsing experiance. I haven't played with org.mode but this may suck me into the org.mode emacs world. I really like being able to easily get to my bookmark list in usable format. Thanks for all that you do!
  • (2025-03-25) Charlie: Ended up installing this because Tabs Outliners is now dead. I've had several hundred tabs open in about 10 or so windows and this extension is literally crawling. Been sitting on the "Loading your BrainTool file" page for over 10 minutes at this point and nothing seems to be happening. I know hundreds of pages are a lot but it is literally the point of this extension. Plus I've tried other apps such as TabMe and they loaded all my pages within seconds.
  • (2025-03-25) Ameen Sidhique: Exactly what I needed on my quest to find the perfect website bookmarker, I always felt the builtin browser features were lacklustre on all browsers, my previous setup would have me take a screenshot of the page using vivaldi's inbuilt screenshot taker, make a note using it and adding hashtags to that note, this was entirely replaced by BrainTool
  • (2025-02-24) ethan nami: has been an excellent tool for organizing my bookmarks and sessions. The best feature by far is that it can save pages, tab groups, or even entire session, super helpful for someone like me who is constantly racking up more and more tabs and loathes closing them until I've gotten around to them. "read later" or even groups of tabs on chrome start to fill up and get cluttered too quickly, Braintool lets me save the sessions to return to later without having to keep 100 tabs open, or have them mix into a giant pool of nonsense. The constant updates and new features keep moving it further and further into one of the best apps for chrome. Its flexible functionality and easy interface make it a must have on any machine I use.
  • (2025-02-22) Der Rainer: Has confused my existing Chrome groups mostly, seems to change groups continuouly. Really scary. Creates a lot of artificial groups for tabs that weren't in a group before. I admit I didnt study the user guide in depth but out of the box the behaviour is really completely unexxected. I like the usage of Orgmode markup a lot and thus gave it a try. I recommend to test this in a virtual machine so restoring would be easy.
  • (2025-02-03) Love One Another: I spent a lot of time setting this up. Now I cannot find any way to load the app? I can save (Can no longer save after rebooting computer) a bookmark but cannot add a category or find the main app anywhere. Does anyone know how to find it? I get this when clicking on the bookmark part: This site can’t be reached localhost refused to connect. Try: Checking the connection Checking the proxy and the firewall ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED What does this mean? What are the steps to do this? Are there step by step instructions or did I just loose everything and waste an entire week setting this up? I see ‘Error Authenticating’ while enabling GDrive Google uses what are called ‘third-party cookies’ to store account information and a popup to ask for your permission. Increasingly browsers default ot not allowing popups and cookies. You need to allow popups from accounts.google.com and braintool.org and allow cookies from accounts.google.com in your Chrome settings. Doing so and restarting BrainTool should solve the problem. (NB do not click the box titled ‘Including Third-party cookies on this site’.) Also, I cannot find any Google Drive File for BrainTool! This is so Frustrating, Thank you
  • (2025-01-23) Bob Loucks: Pay.
  • (2024-12-09) Stanley Dunn: This is an atypical review, as I seldom discuss books or software. However, I am compelled to share my experience with the Braintool Chrome extension, which has significantly enhanced my productivity and organization. Over a year ago, I was struggling with managing 84 open tabs in Vivaldi (prior to their introduction of workspaces). This led me to discover Braintool, a solution surpassing traditional bookmark managers. It is important to distinguish that Braintool is a topic manager rather than a bookmark manager. This is because it can store not only bookmarks but also information packets, allowing users to organize research data alongside bookmarks in a hierarchical manner—a powerful feature for a browser extension. Braintool provides clear tutorials explaining its features and operations. I recommend completing these tutorials before using the extension and I have retained them in my own Braintool topic manager for reference. The extension utilizes org-mode syntax for organizing information, a text format facilitating the addition and sharing of information trees containing bookmarks, research, and notes. Examples within Braintool demonstrate org-mode usage. A upique feature is that Braintool offers the option to store one's topic vault locally or on Google Drive. I choose Google Drive for accessibility across multiple devices. Users can work with their topic vault as a separate window or as a browser tab, depending on screen space availability. Whether using a laptop or desktop with multiple monitors, Braintool's topic manager can be placed on a separate screen. Having used Braintool for over a year, I have collected numerous topics and elements in my vaults for work projects, home tasks, and book reviews. By employing the Braintool extension, users are prompted to save webpages when visited, designating their storage location within current or alternative topics. This natural method of information preservation is valuable for managing large quantities of data. As a topic manager rather than a bookmark manager, it is ideal for those working on extensive projects. For example, my initial 84 tabs were organized within Braintool's topic manager after completing the tutorials in under 30 minutes, leaving only three necessary tabs open. This efficient workflow has been maintained since. In conclusion, Braintool is an indispensable tool that will not disappoint users seeking an effective way to manage information. See BrainTool for more information. You will not be disappointed.
  • (2024-11-30) Zion Chen: BrainTool Bookmarker does not support dark mode well
  • (2024-10-20) Marek Z Szymanski: Among the many bookmark managers, BrainTool stands out not only for its very good ratings. Above all, it has a convenient import and export function. And it supports the org mode even more. This allowed me to quite efficiently import my entire bookmark collection from Toby, which has become a paid add-on. In Toby, I exported the entire collection (you have to click on your account icon and there you will find the export of the entire collection) to a text file. At the same time, I exported the default BrainTool collection to an org file. A moment with notepad (the kind with two pluses), moving the bookmarks to the right place in the org file, filling in the missing brackets and importing the org file into BrainTool. Done.
  • (2024-10-18) Silas Nahan: Farewell, regular old bookmarks. There are so many extensions and apps out there to organize bookmarks but they always have disappointed me in one main factor: I never feel "in control" of my bookmarks a lot. When I say "control", I mean the kind of control you have over a Notepad file, with everything feeling nice and organized. However with BrainTool, I feel totally in control and actually see myself using this very regularly. It's nice to have a large storage of bookmarks like this, because some bookmarks are sites you visit regularly while others are for saving websites. With BrainTool's hierarchical order that the user gets to decide, I don't feel limited by how many bookmarks I can create. I am very picky when it comes to organizers like this, so I am grateful in finding such a satisfying one like BrainTool. I am so excited for where this program goes!
  • (2024-10-06) Nathan R: I am a huge tab hoarder and have been hopping from extension to extension to find the perfect tab manager for my workflow. I have to say, while the extension took some time to get used to, it has been the tool I've been waiting for, allowing me to categorize tabs quickly (by tracing back where they came from). With BrainTool, I am no longer losing important sites to the abyss, using suboptimal methods (such as scrolling through history) to access them. I can put everything in a centralized place, organized by topic (love the sub-topic feature by the way!!), which aligns very well with how I browse the web. I am excited to see the program continue to improve!
  • (2024-09-17) LM google: As it seems many on here, I am also coming over from Tabs Outliner, which I have liked, but has bugs and a couple of used-daily free things taken away with the recent, summer (Aug?) 2024 update. So.... on to try new things. As someone said below, this is a little different philosophy than Tabs Outliner (where all opened tabs are automatically populated) and more like Toby (you have to select/choose to add the tabs) and so I am still getting used to it. I do like it so far and find it eminently useful. As someone who can open 30 tabs in about as many seconds while I go down a rabbit hole or open tabs from social media websites (the major culprit) like Telegram or FaceBook, I don't know how ANYONE can survive without some sort of Tabs Extension such as this. My experience so far has been positive. Not buggy. Easy to navigate. I like having the sidebar (from the computer toolbar) and the add tab/window/session (from the browser toolbar) and I go between them often. Also like having the sidebar/tab option (would be nice to have both). LOVE the easy-on-the-eye coloring, easy hierarchy, add child button Appreciate can export or save to bookmarks or sync to cloud - excellent Saving the best for last . . . LOVE the To Do List - don't know of another extension that adds this to the a tab extension - creative! Makes it heads and tails above the others.
  • (2024-07-11) Jared R: Since TabOutliner is no longer maintained, I was looking for help/ideas in TabOutliner's reviews and someone mentioned to try BrainTool. Glad that they did. This is a very promising application so hopefully it doesn't get abandoned like TabOutliner.
  • (2024-07-09) Eijiro Sumii: The developer stealth-marketed BrainTool in the support group for Tabs Outliner, but the former does not have the functionality of the latter.
  • (2024-06-13) Strati Vourakis: UPDATE after v.1.0.0, 2024 - 06-12: BrainTool is revolutionary for me. Because virtually everything we do these days is online / web-based, we are forced to spend the bulk of our days in the browser. BrainTool truly solves an enormous issue, which is organizing the absolute deluge of sites, windows, tabs & junk we have to slog through each day. It is very much different from bookmarks, because BrainTool is intended specifically for quickly & easily managing active / working / functional tabs; not just "oh, I'd like to come back here *someday*"....though it could work for that too, if you wanted. But BrainTool is geared towards helping organize & stay on top of the monumental flood of websites we are all forced to work with each day. The 1.0 update is phenomenal. Looks absolutely gorgeous, very visually pleasing & appealing, and a significant upgrade. PS: I NEVER discuss / geek out so much about any app / piece of software, but BrainTool really is just revolutionary for me. :-) It truly solves an enormous problem. End Update; ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: BrainTool is absolutely astounding. THIS is the tab manager / organizer that I've been searching for!! BrainTool is basically a file & folder structure / system for your web browser; for all your tabs, windows, groups of tabs, etc. I still use & will continue to use Tabs Outliner, but it hasn't been updated in forever & might not make it past an upcoming "Manifest v.2 / v3" upgrade in chrome. Hence, I've been preparing myself for the possibility of its demise & found BrainTool. BrainTool is quite different from Tabs Outliner and it did take me a few weeks to really wrap my head around it + modify a few of my (bad) browsing habits a touch, but I'm so much better off now. I finally feel organized, clarity & in control of my browsing sessions & tabs. Truly. BrainTool lets you create folders and virtually all the sub-folders you want (and sub-sub folders, and... :-) ) and since they don't move / shfit / constantly get replaced by all the other tabs & windows you have opened (as in Tabs Outliner, which saves EVERY tab by default) you finally feel stable & in control. It brings stability, consistently & clarity to my browsing sessions. You set your folder structure however you like - it even comes with a PARA-type template by default!! - and it STAYS however you set it. BrainTool only saves the tabs you specifically save, which at first I hated, but honestly, now I'm seeing its BrainTools' best feature. Compared to Tabs Outliner, which saves EVERYTHING, which quickly gets messy & out of control. With BrainTool, you're not constantly (and manually!) deleting / re-organizing tabs that you just don't need to save. Please understand; I'm NOT bashing Tabs Outliner; I do really love it and will continue to use it as long as its viable; I'm simply always looking for something better, and I'm concerned by the lack of development, updates, communication from the Tabs Outliner team. I can't be left stranded without any sort of tab organizer. I have tried a lot of different tab management / organizational add-ons / extensions, and Tabs Outliner is absolutely, hands down one of the best, but I think BrainTool even beats it for me, my brain, and my browsing habits. I've been messaging with the developer directly. He is super responsive, helpful & friendly. Overall, 10/5; get this extension!
  • (2024-05-22) Evan Smith: I've only been using BrainTool a short amount of time, but already I'm incredibly impressed. It offers extensive customization and personalization, allowing me to organize things exactly how I want. I love that I can choose to display the menu as either a separate tab or a sidebar. One of the standout features is its minimal permission requirements and strong focus on user privacy. I've tried other options, but BrainTool far surpasses them. It integrates seamlessly with my workflow, especially with organizing my research links and bookmarks, which is a game-changer for me. The UI is a bit different from what I expected, but having everything in one place is incredibly convenient. Although it's still a bit unpolished, the functionality more than makes up for it. It's truly amazing how it meets all my specific needs, even those I didn't know I had. The developer's commitment to updates and improvements is reassuring, and I'm excited to see what new features will be added. Overall, BrainTool has become an indispensable part of my browsing experience in the short amount of time I've been using it, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a powerful tool to manage their tabs and bookmarks.
  • (2024-05-19) Decio Yokota: Came from Tabs Outliner and I'm currently testing version 1.0, although a different philosophy, I looks very promising, specially the developer commitment and upgrade do manifest v.3 which will diminish out options a lot. It seems one of the best option in fast development in 2024.
  • (2024-01-04) Eliot Baker: Impressed with what BrainTool can do! The concept is brilliant, integrating bookmarks and tabs seamlessly with emacs org-mode notes fits into my workflow perfectly. Despite the UI being organized differently that I expected, the convenience of having everything in one place is noteworthy. Looking forward to future updates and improvements. 5 stars for integration with emacs org-mode :)
  • (2023-10-24) Jyoti Shankar: The concept of this extension is brilliant but after having tried it for a month, I cannot get past the bugs. It hangs often in the "Starting BrainTool" step without resolution. I am going to be trying out other extensions that have the ability to add notes to bookmarks, are searchable and classify them with labels.
  • (2023-10-24) Jyoti Shankar: The concept of this extension is brilliant but after having tried it for a month, I cannot get past the bugs. It hangs often in the "Starting BrainTool" step without resolution. I am going to be trying out other extensions that have the ability to add notes to bookmarks, are searchable and classify them with labels.
  • (2023-08-18) Melory Sixx: Painfully buggy.
  • (2023-08-18) Melory Sixx: Painfully buggy.
  • (2023-05-24) Maxwell Thum: I've been looking for an extension like this for a long time. I haven't used it for long, but so far I like it more than Toby because Toby doesn't have folder hierarchy (as far as I can tell). A little unpolished still, but it seems to get the job done. I'm a bit sorry to see that it hasn't been updated in a year.
  • (2023-05-24) Maxwell Thum: I've been looking for an extension like this for a long time. I haven't used it for long, but so far I like it more than Toby because Toby doesn't have folder hierarchy (as far as I can tell). A little unpolished still, but it seems to get the job done. I'm a bit sorry to see that it hasn't been updated in a year.
  • (2023-01-12) Alice Free: I downloaded this about 30 minutes ago and my pistons are firing at full speed. Whenever you try a new tool, you go through your very specific needs for it and check things off as you go in the order of your priority. If it lacks those top functionalities, full stop and find something else. Towards the bottom of the list of needs, you ask if you can live without the function or wait until it's there. It truly feels like the developers KNOW my brain. I checked off every bullet point on my list of needs and then some. I don't know how I ever lived without it. What it does is everything that the baked in bookmark manager maybe could have done, but doesn't do well. I wish I had time to give the full on list of why this is so amazing, but as people like me generally have 10 windows open with 10 tab groups in each window... I'll circle back when I have time. lol Pretty amazing thus far. Hoping it stays up to date and curious to see how feature requests go. Going to go close tabs now. Ciao!
  • (2023-01-12) Alice Free: I downloaded this about 30 minutes ago and my pistons are firing at full speed. Whenever you try a new tool, you go through your very specific needs for it and check things off as you go in the order of your priority. If it lacks those top functionalities, full stop and find something else. Towards the bottom of the list of needs, you ask if you can live without the function or wait until it's there. It truly feels like the developers KNOW my brain. I checked off every bullet point on my list of needs and then some. I don't know how I ever lived without it. What it does is everything that the baked in bookmark manager maybe could have done, but doesn't do well. I wish I had time to give the full on list of why this is so amazing, but as people like me generally have 10 windows open with 10 tab groups in each window... I'll circle back when I have time. lol Pretty amazing thus far. Hoping it stays up to date and curious to see how feature requests go. Going to go close tabs now. Ciao!
  • (2023-01-10) Claudiu: I only dreamed about something like this. Tony made it real! Thanks a looot!
  • (2023-01-10) Claudiu: I only dreamed about something like this. Tony made it real! Thanks a looot!
  • (2022-12-30) 3 BLOOM: It's pretty good, wish I could make a new folder while saving pages though.
  • (2022-12-30) 3 BLOOM: It's pretty good, wish I could make a new folder while saving pages though.
  • (2022-12-27) Bill L: I have been looking for an extension that would allow me to manage my bookmarks and tabs. I tried a few other options and I prefer Braintool by far. I am so impressed by all the features and I love how it asks for minimal permission. Highly recommended!
  • (2022-12-27) Bill L: I have been looking for an extension that would allow me to manage my bookmarks and tabs. I tried a few other options and I prefer Braintool by far. I am so impressed by all the features and I love how it asks for minimal permission. Highly recommended!
  • (2022-12-03) Sam Infante: Great extension, interesting features!
  • (2022-12-03) Sam Infante: Great extension, interesting features!
  • (2022-11-30) Radu L.: I very much wished it worked. The whole idea is great, the implementation is not. Is very buggy. Most importantly the sync between browsers doesn't work properly. You can have your entire tree of bookmarks wiped off. Also, in Edge it forgets the settings sometimes. The UI is very clunky, outdated, lame colors and fonts. It can be a good extension if used in Chrome and don't synchronize.
  • (2022-11-30) Radu L.: I very much wished it worked. The whole idea is great, the implementation is not. Is very buggy. Most importantly the sync between browsers doesn't work properly. You can have your entire tree of bookmarks wiped off. Also, in Edge it forgets the settings sometimes. The UI is very clunky, outdated, lame colors and fonts. It can be a good extension if used in Chrome and don't synchronize.
  • (2022-11-27) Max Learning: well donei like it
  • (2022-11-27) Max Learning: well donei like it
  • (2022-11-16) Andy Briesemeister: Naja geht so, viel zu umständlich in der Handhabung. Also Benutzerfreundlich ist diese Erweiterung schon einmal gar nicht. Hat zwar ein paar gute Funktionen, die bringen einen leider nicht viel, weil es einfach zu umständlich ist. Somit ist es im Alltag unbrauchbar.
  • (2022-10-29) mood moof: Actually I used Pocket for years to manage my bookmarks, articles read later, etc. However, really I was not satisfied with some setting and wrote some mails to Pocket team but never got a feedback and never got an improvement. Last week one of my friend recommended me this BrainTool and I tried it for days so far, I could not say that this is the best bookmark manager but I could say this is the right one for me. Anyone in case you wanna get more detail please refer to the page: https://braintool.org instead of my comments due to there are too many instruction here wrote by other guys. Install it and give it a try!
  • (2022-10-29) mood moof: Actually I used Pocket for years to manage my bookmarks, articles read later, etc. However, really I was not satisfied with some setting and wrote some mails to Pocket team but never got a feedback and never got an improvement. Last week one of my friend recommended me this BrainTool and I tried it for days so far, I could not say that this is the best bookmark manager but I could say this is the right one for me. Anyone in case you wanna get more detail please refer to the page: https://braintool.org instead of my comments due to there are too many instruction here wrote by other guys. Install it and give it a try!
  • (2022-10-27) Deborah Tahlman: Exciting to have a bookmarking extension that allows for this much dialing in and personalization to allow me to organize things how I see fit. I also like that you can make the menu either a separate tab or a sidebar. I appreciate the extension dev keeping our privacy as users.
  • (2022-10-27) Deborah Tahlman: Exciting to have a bookmarking extension that allows for this much dialing in and personalization to allow me to organize things how I see fit. I also like that you can make the menu either a separate tab or a sidebar. I appreciate the extension dev keeping our privacy as users.
  • (2022-10-26) Hope Wells: I'm happy with this app. I have tried 8-12 different bookmark manager extensions for chrome and I've tried an equal amount on edge. I am yet to find one that is EXACTLY what I am looking for, but then again I'm unsure if I even know EXACTLY what I am looking for. I like that this app does a lot of the organization I need for me and I also love that I can add notes to my bookmarks. So many bookmark manager extensions and apps do not offer this feature which is surprising to me since it seems like such a necessity in my opinion. The note feature and the excellent "how-to" instructions on the developers website are the main reasons I love this app. You can tell that BRAINTOOL really means something to the creator. I also love that this is opensource and I hope to purchase the premium version soon.
  • (2022-10-26) Hope Wells: I'm happy with this app. I have tried 8-12 different bookmark manager extensions for chrome and I've tried an equal amount on edge. I am yet to find one that is EXACTLY what I am looking for, but then again I'm unsure if I even know EXACTLY what I am looking for. I like that this app does a lot of the organization I need for me and I also love that I can add notes to my bookmarks. So many bookmark manager extensions and apps do not offer this feature which is surprising to me since it seems like such a necessity in my opinion. The note feature and the excellent "how-to" instructions on the developers website are the main reasons I love this app. You can tell that BRAINTOOL really means something to the creator. I also love that this is opensource and I hope to purchase the premium version soon.
  • (2022-10-24) satyam: As a graduate researcher who tends to get lost down many rabbit holes this helps brings sanity to my research endeavor. Helping compartmentalize different topics is a great way to subdue the overwhelming tab stacks.

Statistics

Installs
5,000 history
Category
Rating
4.7185 (270 votes)
Last update / version
2025-07-05 / 1.3.1
Listing languages
en fr ko de es

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