Reviews & Comments of BrainTool - Beyond Bookmarks chrome extension

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!

I only dreamed about something like this. Tony made it real! Thanks a looot!

It's pretty good, wish I could make a new folder while saving pages though.

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!

Great extension, interesting features!

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 The UI is very clunky, outdated, lame colors and fonts.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.

well done！i like it

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!

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.

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.

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.

I've tried a bunch of bookmark and tab/link organization tools over the years, in-browser and outside, all the while wishing I had some nicer bridge between those tools and org-mode (where I prefer to work with that data). I think I might have finally found that bridge in this extension.

Finally! A solution to using Window's Task Manager as a workaround to killing multi-tab instances of Chrome and Edge so they will "Restore" after a Windows or browser update or restart. Maybe your browser sessions are like mine--multiple instances of Chrome or Edge open at the same time, each containing multiple tabs of related content searches. My instances and tabs stay open long past their usefulness because I'm hesitant to lose the "link history" I spent so much time researching. And of course, at just the wrong time, along comes a Windows or Chrome update notification creating concern over losing open browser tabs. And after those browsers restore, their windows need sizing to the dimensions they had before. It's an ongoing pain. I've tried saving browser bookmarks by subject, but link descriptions rarely provide enough information to be useful. With BrainTool, my tab collections are now organized by topic, and each tab can be annotated in detail. I no longer feel pressure to keep windows and tabs open just to preserve their history. BrainTool lets me easily open saved links--either individually or as a collection of topic-related tabs--with just one click. No more stressing over lost work! The user interface took some time to learn, but wasn't overly complicated. Braintool's articles are informative and well-written. Learning really took off once I started saving my open tabs and assigning them to topics using Braintool's Topic Manager. It wasn't long before the process became intuitive and I was on my way. I now spend little blocks of time assigning my remaining open tabs and bookmarks to topics as it's convenient. And those Windows and Chrome Update notifications are no longer the threat they once were. Opening and restoring browser sessions are single-click simple, and each tab is organized and archived efficiently and descriptively. Thanks Braintool!

I have installed this addon 2 weeks ago and learned about from people who were looking for better bookmark system but since then I am not able to see how to use it or how useful it is for me? Can dev of this addon make a guide or explain us what it is and how useful it is or worthy it is to use? Wont be uninstalling until then. Thanks.

The short story: BrainTool rocks. If you do a lot of work in browsers, and end up with way too many tabs open on a regular basis, get BrainTool. The long story: As a web developer, with numerous clients on the go at any one time, plus lots of personal interests that I pursue online, I'm someone who regularly has 250+ tabs open, across 15+ windows. Right now, I have 258 tabs on 13 windows. It causes major performance issues on my computer. I literally have to buy more RAM just to accomodate Chrome's need for it. Reading a comment from another reviewer, Mark Ostlund, "I have too many tabs and never want to reboot because I have so much in process. Then I run out of memory even though I have 20GB plus and I am forced to reboot and start the process of acquiring tabs all over again." ... all I can say is I 100% relate. It describes me to a T. I've been using tab managers of one kind or another for perhaps the last 15 to 20 years. Originally on Firefox, then on Chrome / Brave (since it's easiest to do my development work on Chrome). For the past few years I've used Tabs Outliner. It does the job, although I've obviously not taken to it in the way that I should, considering how many memory munching tabs I have open right now. The main issue I have with Tabs Outliner is I couldn't really organise my tab collections in a useful way. So they end up in a massive tree and get lost to time, so then I feel disinclined to save stuff to it as often as I should or could. BrainTool seems to address the many shortcomings of Tabs Outliner. It's great. I just wish I could migrate my tabs from Tabs Outliner. I see BrainTool can import a "Tabs Outliner Export" file, but I can't for the life of me see where in T.O. I can export such a file. So for now, I'll be using both extensions.

So I haven't seen a plugin like this before, I use roam research to organise my information but it doesn't look after bookmarks. I'd love the ability to sync this data into roam research but until then, this is just great standalone because I can much more easily manage bookmarks across devices, which suddenly opens it up to me. I've not seen a bookmark manager before. Love the fact it syncs across devices too using portable text file which I am currently testing, and I do feel this will be something that I integrate more in all my browser windows and move away from active tabs to curated tabs using braintool! All seems to work fine so 5 stars from me.

BrainTools does give you very deep ability to organize your links colllection, especially if you are OCD about categorization. The text format is great for if you want to integrate it with your workflow or other tools or backup. The keyboard shortcut support is awesome. Area that could be improve are the synchronization. It supports Google Drive sync and also local file sync (that you can use with your own sync solution such as Dropbox or OneDrive or Syncthing...) During my testing, I found out that Google Drive sync does work but it is very finicky and has a couple of important caveats. Not sure why for me, but I need to setup the sync again everytime I open the browser. It also does not refresh automatically but you need to click on a message to reload new data so there are quite a high potential for lost / overriding data in that case. For non-sync bookmark organization, single computer use this extension is great as is. The developer is very responsive so I believe the sync use case will be improve in future releases.

Chrome's management of bookmarks is subpar -- it lacks many capabilities regarding moving folders and mass moving bookmarks, which has really caused the entire feature to become a pain to use for me, after using it for more than a decade. I'm glad I found BrainTool. By exposing the plaintext representation of the bookmarks, I'm able to easily reconfigure my entire hierarchy of bookmarks into whatever I need, helpful for someone who wants to constantly tweak their instance. I think the keyboard shortcuts are incredibly helpful as well and I wish Chrome could take some notes. The integrated search is useful, too.

WORKS ACROSS TWO MONITORS! This makes the tool so powerful for me. I'm able to do my organizational thinking in some depth in the side panel, which I put in my side monitor. It's almost like a stand-alone app that controls my browser. MANAGES WHAT MATTERS: Most tab, session or bookmark managers miss what really matters. The point is to manage the *meaning*, not just the identity of the target. Most tab/bookmark managers give you the title, maybe a snippet, so you know what the site *is*. That's not enough. BrainTool lets you richly annotate each link, so you can manage what matters - the tree of meaning you are creating. Rich leaves of information don't preserve meaning alone. They need to be on a meaningful tree. With BrainTool's deep topical hierarchies, the context that gives the link meaning is richly preserved. Some link managers let you organize bookmarks into groups or spaces, often with only one level of nesting. Not enough. With such a flat tree, your bookmarks become a disorganized mess. If you use browser-native bookmark folders, you face the foldering problem of losing sight of what is in each information silo. Brain Tool overcomes that problem by using the collapsable-outline pattern made famous by Roam Research, Logseq and Workflowy - and like with those tools, you are really revealing or concealing meaningful blocks of information, not just page names in a list. Meaningful leaves on a meaningful tree - this prevents me from losing sight of why some saved item was important to me. It's obvious even without visiting the site or remembering what was on it! I'm managing the meaning in the outline, not a list of pointers. Combine that with the fact that it works across two monitors, and this extension actually flipped me from being a Firefox user back to Chrome. So I guess Alphabet has BrainTool to thank for bringing a new user to the Chrome world.

Amazingly well thought tool that makes my browser life so streamlined. Tired several tools to find way out of tab hell and none come close to the niceties of BrainTool. Some will ask to create an account, don't have friendly keyboard shortcuts (yes it matters :) ), provide limited features for free users, put data in there own control, etc... BrainTools by function of its design encourages me to operate naturally in a way that I find questioning my self. What am I trying to do or learn "topic" and the hierarchy follows to aid organization. Overall loving it so far and removed at least 3 other extensions to declutter. Thanks to the developer and the team behind BrainTool. You rock!!

I'm one of the persons who keeps a lot of tabs open, and always open up a the session with the same tabs, and it's a never ending story of too many tabs. I've tried many different approaches, browser bookmarks, markdown files, among many other. When I came across this extension, called BrainTool I was in love with it as soon as I installed it, and learn a few thing about how to use it. It's real easy to get this use to this extension. I love the text file format approach, and all the benefits it brings. I don't see myself not using BrainTool now.

I was researching into organizing my ever growing list of things that I want to read to keep up to date with the exploding information on the web. BrainTool makes this job super easy with the ability to organize links, bookmarks and todos on the web. Before BrainTool I would use a combination of extensions and sometimes just copy-paste links between my notepad and the browser. I am looking forward to improving my research workflow with BrainTool.

I went into this thinking, is it really possible for it to replace my tabs outliner. I've been a tabs outliner user for ten years. I've tried many extensions In my TO, it is hyper organized, notes, named windows, separators. To give this a try, I decided to create a few topics, child topics, adding notes. Closing and opening tabs. Too bad, this is close, but I'm almost too fenced in to my outliner to make the swap. This is what I was thinking. As I poked around, I discovered that I was able to import my outliners' tree. Sweet. Well I guess that's not an issue anymore. Not only that, it imported it into it's own topic using the filename and adding a note of when it was imported. It's not a perfect conversion, but it's still structured, and I have my outliner handy to finish the details. I couple of quirks, but I assume that since this is in active development, it's possible these could get fixed. When creating a new topic, you must click left of the words "Name the Topic", I had my surfingkeys enabled, and when I started typing, it through things off, so I clicked in the bounding box, but it didn't take, clicking and messing around, I discovered that it had to be to the left of these words, not just in the box. Tabs opened in browser do not automatically show up, like they do in Tabs Outliner. I can understand some users would prefer it this way, to be explicit, so I think an option would be handy. Tab history is not saved. This isn't an isolated issue with BrainTools, it happens with many organizers/outliners, even in Tabs Outliner, which was the best for many years. So this may be an api/privacy thing. If the option comes around to retain tab history, this would be a nice addition. Themeing would be nice. Colors, indentation size, possibly font choice. I have a few other ideas. But before I get that far, I'd like to see the direction this goes. Thanks for creating a good alternative, it's been years waiting to happen. P.S. - I forgot to mention grouping. This is a nice addition. Really handy. Easy to see separator. This was a long waited feature that just should've been but never was. Good touch.

I've always missed the ability to add notes to my bookmarks and BrainTool solves this problem. The Google Drive auto sync also means that your data is not locked-in. My only complaint is that I can't resize the notes column at this time.

This is one of the most effective and efficient session browser managers that i have used so far, and i have tried them all. Having used extensions as Tab Outliner and the likes, not many have had the ability to organise my tabs and windows as neatly and easily (and by TOPIC too!!!). Trust me, I have enough tabs and windows to last a life time, along with doing my PhD research; work projects; essential online shopping/price comparisons; and mandatory procrastination resources - in the form of youtube, every social media site you can possibly subscribe to, and architecting World (of Warcraft) domination, BrainTool has it all neatly organised and filed - thanks for soothing my inner OCD. PS. No this review was not only for a subscription coupon, albeit it helped :P

Very well thought out extension. It's been super helpful for organizing all the various topics I like to jump back and forth between, and I'm excited to see where it goes from here!

Excellent program for organizing your hundreds of tabs, intuitive to use, with various features to make your life easier! It builds on concept of Tabs Outlier and can import from it, except it is not buggy! It works by organizing tabs Into Topics, which can be nested. It uses hotkeys: e.g. you can bring saver in a browser by pressing alt+b to save individual tabs, or tabs from whole window and give them description and categorize them. Then alt+2*b brings standalone window, in which you see which tabs you have open in a browser and can organize them there and give them description! Also in browser you can see which tabs you have opened from this too to easily differentiate them. More features are coming, it is good I recommend it!

Ever since I've started working, I have been looking for strategies/workflows to organize links and bookmarks. I have tried using bookmarks + Alfred, Notion, Google Docs, native, Chrome tab group, etc. but none stuck. Especially in software development where you get involved with multiple projects, you usually use disparate tools like JIRA, Gitlab/Github, Confluence, etc. I'm pretty new to Topic Maps and have finally found a workflow that fills in the gaps from what I've tried so far—something that would stick and improve productivity. I especially like that there is focus on organization and management over existing the Chrome bookmarks feature where decluttering was built as an afterthought. A few ideas that I think would be cool: 1. For macOS, integrate with popular productivity tools like Alfred and Raycast. I've been using Alfred to search through chrome bookmarks and easily open them. One workaround for now would be to export to browser bookmarks from time to time. 2. Polish UI. These are really minor and trivial. For example, the font face for Settings and Actions are different from the rest which bothers me a little. The icon's background color is solid but the top bar is a gradient. 3. Fuzzy text search. We make typos!

I have been looking for an extension that would allow me to manage my bookmarks and tabs. I tried a few other options (such as Workona) 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!

Tabs and bookmarks were the last part of my workflow that I could not conquer. As I scientist, my browser tabs and bookmarks have always been an absolute disaster - until I discovered BrainTool. It is powered by org-mode - the most flexible text markup format - which has the added benefit allows integrating the browsing experience with org-based workflows. To me, BrainTool quickly became one of those key extensions that reduce the annoyance of the modern web to an almost manageable level. Amazing extension - can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone.

Invaluable! I used Tabs outliner before, but it didn't work with Brave, so I switched to BrainTool and no regrets. You can try it for free. Worth every penny.

I've been looking for something like this for a while, and finally decided to try it after looking at the 40 tabs open in my browser bar and only being able to see the first letter of each website... Really happy that they've opted for plain-text storage. Right now I sync it to my work computer via SyncThing, which makes it really easy to send tabs back and forth. The only thing that would make this better is Obsidian support – while it's obviously compatible since it's stored as plain-text, I would love an Obsidian plugin that works with the org file

Finally, a tool that helps organise information, links and bookmarks from the web in an accessible and non-locked-in format. Helps me close tabs that have been open for months or even years. That it's based on Org format is just pure gold! Thanks!

I'm a compulsive tab saver and since I decided to go back to school for my Masters, this has saved me! It has been an actual game changer!

Ok, now we are cooking with gas! Ahem, I mean Organization without a lot of overhead. Works with you with minimal involvement, it just works. Can't believe I kept searching for tab memory savers instead of focusing on the bigger picture. Thanks BrainTool for making Browsing a tool instead of an app.

I looked at this extension when it first came out and was interested in using it to replace Tabs Outliner. It had a lot of promise and I remember trying out a way of exporting and importing my TO URLs into Brain Tool. For some reason, BT didn't stick then. However, in the year and a half (or more?) I've looked at it again and it's really looking good. And TO has become even more stale and somewhat unreliable. I'll be staying this time!

Excellent way to handle bookmarks. When working on a project I often have 10s of tabs open. It's a pain to navigate through them. Being able to apply structure to sites I want to remember and/or visit frequently fits nicely with my workflow.

At a glance this app seemed very overwhelming to use, but the developers make sure that you are not overwhelmed and really show you how to effectively use BT. Love the extension!

Finally a tool to supplant Tabs Outliner in my workflow—and then some! BrainTool has allowed me to be much more organized in my browser activities. The flexibility to incorporate and access notes, ToDos, a reading list, and more, with simple integration to chrome is invaluable (for clearing my own head and the memory consumed by open tabs). I’ve yet to get deep into the Org mode side of things, but can see from other reviews and the developer’s insightful blog that there's even more potential here. Easy to use and easily worth the time invested to get onboard.

This is how I work. I have needed BT for years and it is better than what I wanted. I have too many tabs and never want to reboot because I have so much in process. Then I run out of memory even though I have 20GB plus and I am forced to reboot and start the process of acquiring tabs all over again. Bookmarks are awkward and have no place to take notes about what is being bookmarked. Brain Tool is everything I need and anticipates more complex ways of using it in the future. It is clear that the developer spent time with older apps that grew cumbersome over time or just had very dated user interfaces with the clear goal of starting fresh with a clean usability framework that is powerful without sacrificing ease of use. I am amazed that BT offers so much and is so new.

When I heard that the Tabs Outliner extension was no longer being maintained and was not working for some people I knew I had to find a new extension for my tab control, this is where brain tool comes in. On first opening I could see the protentional in it. After using it for a few weeks it's been a good replacement for Tabs Outliner and has even got some extra features that make tab organization more stream line e.g. grouping open tabs, descriptions for saved tabs, and the ability to sync you groupings to google drive or a local file For me one of the big selling point that this is an open source project and the developer it active and involved.

I have been a long-time user of emacs and org-mode and has been the basis of my productivity management for more than a decade. I love how simple this is, how well it works with my workflow, and how familiar it is while preserving privacy and my data. The keyboard shortcuts are a must for my sanity and efficiency. As others have mentioned, it is easy to integrate with git for backup and sync purposes. For those who know what they are doing it provides amazing flexibility. I had often considered writing something along these lines for a while, but this is way better than anything I had been thinking of. Well done!

Hopefully, I can prevent you from opening a further 30 new tabs browsing this Extension WebStore, by saying that this is by far the best tab organisation tool that is currently available for Chrome-based Browsers. I have downloaded, on-boarded, trial-tested, and like clockwork, uninstalled and removed, countless similar Chrome Extensions that are adjacent to BrainTool after they failed to meet the basic requirements that I had for a service to introduce an added degree of structure and organisation to both my personal and professional web-browsing workflows. The strengths of this Browser extension, which sets it apart from every other that I had tested prior, can be TL;DR summarised as follows: ► BrainTool establishes a non-volatile data store (information containing a tab URL & its associated tabs) that is stored locally on the user's device and is committed to your system shortly after each tab is opened thereby maintaining tab URL and grouping structure even during an unexpected system crash. ► The "Tab Saving" functionality offered by BrainTool is implemented via a common data standard (the EMacs "org-mode" file syntax for those curious) thereby enabling the transition of current/history browsing sessions to other tab-management services if so desired. ► Currently the service is offered without any "LOGIN-wall" demanding that the user create either a new account within the developer's platform or the common "Google Secure Sign-in" prompt which has increasingly spread through similar online services. While I generally try to avoid putting my data in the hands of third parties, and thus was slightly concerned with the use of Google Drive as the back-end Cloud-Storage service, the developers also cite plans for expanding the options for other competing Hosting services alongside the mentioned of more: "/r/selfhosted" functionality being in the road-map demonstrates that this project has been carefully developed with a real concern for user privacy and safety offering the greatest degree of user freedom possible for this type of software offering. If you're someone who constantly finds themselves with scores of tabs cluttering their workspace and has been looking to introduce an element of structure to this chaos I would highly recommend this offering and would point towards the Developer's blog postings for those who wanted a more detailed explanation of this versatile and effective utility: https://BrainTool.org/overview.html ... If you are skimming Extension reviews like I recently had been, and likewise have scores of WebStore Tabs compacting your browser's top title bar, allow me to offer some points that I had recorded in my search for an effective Tab Management Chrome Extensions. Below are perhaps the top 4 Similar (Free) Chrome Tab Management Extensions to that offered above and the various failings that ultimately led to me uninstalling them in favour of BrainTool.

Better than any other bookmark app I've used. Saves me a lot of time in my morning routine

I have the habbit to keep lots of tabs open because the default bookmark manager in browsers never worked very well for me. I've been using the plugin now for a couple of weeks and I like it a lot. I also love the fact that it is storing the links in an org file: I keep this file in a git repo and sync it across machines. Since it is plain text, it is easy to merge and up till now I never had a merge conflict. I've used org-mode before in Emacs and even started storing links in org-files at some point, because it allowed me to add metadata. Thanks!

Very excited about this new tool. I've been longing for something to manage my multiple windows tabs in a Project/Area kind of way. This provides the "workspace" like workflow I've been trying to cobble together manually for months!

I've been searching for a tool that would help me manage my chrome bookmarks and YT playlists for a long time now. While investigating org-mode in emacs I stumbled upon braintool and I think my search has finally come to an end. I was unable to automatically import my bookmarks("Bookmark permissions denied"), but because the format is org-mode, I can simply transfer them in via a text file import. It seems like even the key-bindings are identical to org-mode so that's even better. This is my first time ever leaving a review for a chrome extension, but I thought it worthwhile. Nice job!

Just started using it for a lot of my repeat tasks - many of which require me to open multiple specifics tabs (e.g. websites and google sheets) and it has hugely boosted my work flow and productivity. I use it by organizing my docs and resources by task, so when it's time to complete that tasks, just a couple of clicks and everything i need is on my screen... Complete that task and easily close everything in a couple of clicks, and move onto the next one! Previously I was manually opening each item, which often lead to a million open tabs, and easily able to get distracted. A combination of saving me seconds each time along with less chance of getting distracted by opening other tabs has boosted my focus/productivity! Thank you!

I've been using BrainTool for a couple months now, and I have been impressed with its simplicity and rich feature set. Like most folks, I had gotten into a habit of keeping far too many tabs open and/or organizing (or not!) my bookmarks in a system that may have made sense at the time of saving a page, but later proved elusive when I actually needed to find a link quickly. BrainTool has allowed me to import many years' worth of bookmarks and then easily arrange what I need into topics and subtopics that I can open in their respective tab groups with a single click. Being able to backup and sync the arranged bookmarks to a Google drive is a huge benefit that has already come in handy. The developer is very active on this project, and I've already seen helpful updates go live in the time I've been using this tool. Judging from the responsive interaction I've seen on the BrainTool Google discussion group, I can see that user experience is a top priority, and I have high expectations for how this extension will continue to evolve.

Powerful tool for collecting and organizing bookmarks logically, and tying tasks to them. Keyboard shortcuts are great and I appreciate the minimal permissions.

This is the perfect tool to fill a gap in my knowledge management. Believe it or not I have aquired 1987 bookmarks over the last twenty years and in many cases I bet I will have no idea why I saved them. This will never be the case again going forward as everything bookmark will not only be in a folder, that's the easy part. But will also have notes left as to why it is saved and what I intended doing with it. If you are part of the Second Brain movement BrainTool is the perfect companion tool and buffer between the brain and the whole of the internet. It is still a new tool and it is only going to get even better.

This is the best add-on for Chrome I've ever used. It's like the venerable Tree Style Tabs plugin for Firefox back in the Good-ol'-days(TM), but on steroids. This thing can frickin' save all of its data in a universally readable text file. Owning my data from this tool gives me a little peace of mind in an age when we certainly need it.

Really brilliant how the extension connects bookmarks and links to chrome tabs. They stay in-sync and are easy to open/close. Thank you for making this!

I had been looking for such a tool for the longest time, as someone who regularly keeps up to 300 tabs in my browser to read later this tool is a lifesaver. As a student, I find the tab organization really useful as an aid for my research.

BrainTool, is the tool I have been waiting for. Finally I can locate the sites I saved. No more opening the Bookmark extension in Chrome to try to find a site I know I saved. Absolutely 100% the best manager I have found!

BrainTool is an incredible extension that changes the way I interact with the internet, and I can't imagine writing or researching without it now. I used Tabs Outliner for many years but, as other reviewers have mentioned, was disappointed with its lack of updates and being locked in to Chrome (BrainTool works on Chromium browsers like Brave). I periodically look for alternatives, and when I found and used BrainTool I finally found a worthy successor. BrainTool has a very clean layout, a great way to organize my tabs and saved bookmarks, and stores my data in a way that I can control it -- an Org file in plain text. If you, like me, have too many tabs and like to have them categorized, please give BrainTool a chance!

BrainTool is the escape tool for anyone using Chrome only because they've become dependent on Tabs Outliner, like me. Unfortunately Tabs Outliner is only fully usable in Chrome. With BrainTool, I can finally move on from Chrome with an even more effective and flexible tabs manager. And the security of more direct control over my data is a bonus. I'm still adjusting and learning how to extract the most from BrainTool for my needs, but the learning curve is totally worth it, as with most powerful and useful tools.

Productivity GAME CHANGER! This extension is fantastic. It was clearly built by someone who understands the importance of keyboard shortcuts. It's easy to navigate and use. I love having a bookmark manager with a built in TODO function and it's much easier to use and modify compared to session managers. Love the author's commitment to privacy and data ownership.

I've been playing with BrainTool for a couple of days now and I'm really impressed. I've been burned a few times by bookmark managers that stop working and don't have an open data format, so having my own easy to read file is great - but as a long time Emacs/org-mode user, having it be in org-mode is fantastic. The keyboard shortcuts speed everything along, and while it's (hopefully) only the early days for this extension,, and very early days for me using it, I'm excited and optimistic that it will be the answer for me.

I have been a long time user of emacs and org-mode and my life goes around this tool. At the same time, I've seen bookmarking options (bookmark sync, pinboarding) are not enough and they get in the way of my current workflow. Brain Tool is the first extension that I feel is thought out for people like me and let's me integrate my daily browsing and information seeking with my org-todo life-encompassing flow. Pros: it gets out of the day and let's you have your daily browsing organized, allows tagging and TODO/dates, which is a plus Cons: difficult to use if you don't know what org-mode is, and still not available on mobile or firefox.

This is a very useful extension for people like me who use a lot of tabs and want to keep some of them open/handy for research and future reference - highly recommended

Oh! My! Gosh! Yes! YES! A thousand times YES! I knew since the early days of the web that someone somewhere was going to have to *actually* organize this mess of a global network. Braintool is absolutely on track as one of the better organizing tools out there! It's FREE to use, so really there's no reason to not give it a try! You'll. Be. Hooked.

I've been using Tabs Outliner for years and love it. The Chrome bookmarks manager is clunky to use, limited in functionality, and not conducive to the "context" way of working. I have been frustrated with its lack of support and enhancements, though, so I periodically search around for a replacement. BrainTool is the first extension I've seen that comes close in functionality. Not only that, but it has many features that I wish TO had (e.g. keyboard shortcuts, sync, etc.) and appears to be in active development. I plan to become a regular contributor to project any way I can! Nice job!!

I've been looking for a good way to manage tabs in a way that fits my workflow. I have a set of tabs for daily meetings and team-related tasks, a separate one for the cases I'm working on separated by project, and yet another for active research related to each case. On other browsers I tried keeping separate windows, which gets unwieldy. I've found success with Chrome's tab groups, but hate closing these in case they fail to show up in my history when I re-open Chrome, and they lack hierarchy. Other tab managers at first interaction look great and function well, but then you realize they're syncing up with the cloud somewhere and I (and I imagine my company's info sec team) don't necessarily want a random company peering into what websites I'm interacting with. I thought I was out of luck until I discovered BrainTool, which is built with a privacy-first focus and lets you own your own data. I'm not big into PKM tools, but BT in theory saves all of your tab management in an org-mode accessible format for use with other tools like emacs or LogSeq. The interaction with Chrome is excellent too - you can save tabs and immediately group them with other tabs in the same topic, or close them for later. Opening up a topic opens the tabs in a group, which is nice for actively working and being able to manage your open tabs. The only things I would like to see in the future is populating the tab group's name with the topic name (sorting by color is only so useful, especially if the colors change every time a topic is opened), and the ability to drag and drop an item without needing to hover over the move tool.

I've been using BrainTool for about six months now. It's in a different league to offerings like Collections in Edge; it works in an actually useful way that flexes with your workflow. If you work across many installations, the fact that it can stayed synced across all instances via your own google drive is incredibly useful, as is the fact that this also works across any Chromium-based browser. I also appreciate that it is in regular development, which bodes well for future improvements. Perhaps most praise-worthy, however, is that the data file is always available to the user in intelligible org format. That, to me, is the sign of a real coder behind the project! (It also means that giving it a try is very low risk.)

I've been looking for this for years, a way to properly compartmentalise projects and research tangents without introducing clutter from excessive tabs. I can more effectively context switch between active tasks/projects while still maintaining a clean feel of browsing with only relevant tabs open. Over the competition (tabs outliner specifically), the key differentiators for me are the plaintext storage format and the clean handling of "Continue where you left off" without creating duplicate entries and floating nodes. Thanks very much to the developer.

This app is a work of genius, the only thing missing is perhaps ML, but it easily beats anything in its category and I have literally downloaded thousands of extensions.

This extension is truly a must have! As an everyday Emacs (and Org mode) user and plain text tool enthusiast, I have been searching an effective and pleasant way to manage the bookmark. Until I find BT, I think I can stop here. The interface is clean and developer really knows the art behind Org mode. I can even manage my daily trivial todos using BT. It integrates "VERY" well with the tabs and I never worry about losing my tabs again by the browser crash somehow. One thing showing the developer's detail mind is that, when the link is added to BT under some topic, the topic name will show in the Chrome extension icon reminding me the topic I interested, this little work is truly lovely. The guide after installation is also very useful for many people who did not have Org mode experience before. All the data is stored plain text and get synced. I can even open it in my iPhone using PlainOrg and have all my bookmarks on the go. BT really puts my plain text life to next level. Do hope there will be Firefox and Safari version in the future and have 1 org file to rule them all !

This is exactly what I have been looking for as a 4th year engineering student. With so many tabs from so many avenues of research it is so nice to not only have the ability to save and categorize the relevant and important tabs at my fingertips but also to be able to note them and thus find them easier. Thank you developer and keep up the awesome work

I can already tell this is going to change how I use the web. I keep all my links in Org-Mode and open them from Emacs, but before I found Braintool, saving them back into the right places was a laborious process, and there was no way to open a load of tabs at once. I'm really looking forward to the 1.0 release, which will be able to sync with an Org file (and thus work with Linux).

A simple yet effective extension for managing your tabs and bookmarks. It still has some rough edges, but it's extremely useful in its current form. Thanks to BrainTool I've finally been able to organise all my tabs and bookmarks, while also having better visibility of them than I had ever managed to with other extensions (like, e.g. Tabs Outliner). Some distinct features of it that I love are its org-mode compatibility (which opens up a world of possibilities for interoperability), and that it fully supports keyboard navigation. And on top of that it's also open source! After adapting to this new way of managing my tabs and bookmarks, I won't be going back to using a browser without BrainTool.

This is a neat solution to the huge number of tabs I generally dabble with for while conducting research. This extension is the best among all the alternatives among those that are rather expensive both for accumulating bookmarks and managing the tab space for greater productivity.

I've just started using this and it is transforming my bookmark chaos into a functional system :)

A great tool for organising your bookmarks. Easy to use and powerful too!

I am a collector of links and the bookmarks storage of Chrome doesn't work for me. It is not interactive enough. I'm still a noob but what I've seen is very positive. I like the easy way that Braintool makes editing and interacting easier.

I've been looking for a replacement for Tabs Outliner for a while. After spending a few hours with BrainTool, it looks promising.

This is a great extension that replaced my workflow. As a researcher, I tend to open many tabs. This extension naturally fits the bill of organizing such tab groups into a logical hierarchy that can be quickly accessed to.

Here I swim (now instead of sinking) in DaTa! I have earnestly, desperately tried a couple of dozen different Tab Outliners, Iconifiers, and Managers without achieving ONE MAIN GOAL: To Outline and thus hide masses (literally 1,000's) of web page links into a hierarchical structure. None of the Browsers (yes, I've used them all too) have hierarchical tab management beyond tab-grouping and that somehow easily is lost with browser restarts. I liked Vivaldi fairly well and it almost makes the grade, but does not consistently retain Named Groups. Furthermore there's only one level of Group Hierarchy available. Currently, I'm running the Brave Browser, which I appreciate for privacy and speed, but it's just basic tabs like most of the other browsers. BrainTool has a high probability of actually doing what the other extensions promise to turn the Insatiable Information Beast into compartment data. It does so WITHOUT INFO-GRABBING and merchandising my life. The Data is kept locally by default unless I elect to have it placed online. Thanks BrainTool for not being grabby! BrainTool also goes the next step and enables not just Web Page Hierarchies, but ToDo Lists, Scratch Lists, and other types of Action Items. This makes sense, because the purpose of knowing something is to then Do Something! BrainTool is just getting started, so there are some items that can be made more efficient, which I'll be commenting about on their Blog; however, I think they've got the Core Things on target: Honoring my privacy, Enabling hierarchical Outlining so to hide and reveal Data on Demand, and a certain simplicity to the interface. Thanks BrainTool. This adolescent is already ahead of many older peers.

BrainTool is without a doubt as vital as an ad blocker extension for anyone using a web browser. BrainTool not only lets you browse the web but organise and categorise it, this truly transform how you learn and store the knowledge inside BrainTool. Every student should try this extension, it will greatly enhance their studies by allowing them to better keep track a trail of websites for research! I can't praise this extension enough, the developer is fast to respond on discussion forums and listens to feature requests, he also has great passion and drive to take BrainTool to new heights so you'll get an even better extension after the work he's putting in. I can't wait to see what the developer does to this amazing extension! THANKYOU FOR AN AMAZING EXTENSION!

I have been using Org-Mode as my daily driver for many years, and it has always been a stumbling block that integration between my browser and my Org files was missing. Tabs Outliner was a big help, but BrainTool is really the thing I was looking for - bidirectional communication between Org and the browser is a big jump in the usefulness and productivity I already wrest out of these tools. Bravo!

I like the idea of a plugin that helps me to manage a large amount of bookmarks and open tabs. But what I especially like is that it uses org-mode as storage format. On one hand, this makes my date interoperable and does not lock it into a cloud. On the other hand, this enables me as a org-mode user to collect and annotate links directly in the browser and then organize and re-use in at other places. As an academic, I often open a large amount of academic papers which I want to bookmark and work on later, which is something I can easily do with braintool, instead of increasing my open tabs count by 42 new tabs each day and never closing a single one. ;-) Also, the upcoming features (see website) sound rather promising.

I've been using BrainTool for six months and can't imagine going back to my old system. As someone who typically would have 100 tabs open, it's a relief to be able to save and record information for the tabs for future reference. The organization system clicks for me. I appreciate the plain text format as an occasional org mode user. I have 194 items added and organized. It's convenient to open up an entire group of items related to a topic. The search is helpful to find a topic. My only wish is for some way to bring similar functionality to android / phones in general. That would be killer. This extension has changed the way I browse the web on my desktop computer.

As an engineering student with multiple personal and school-related projects, BrainTool is a fantastic way to organize my bookmarks in a way I can easily use, store, remember, sort through, and search. I love that BrainTool is flexible enough to handle hierarchies, brief notes, ToDos while still being easy to use, and open source! I doubt I'm using it to its full potential, but it's far surpassed any of my former tab management extensions/strategies, and it's only continued to improve over time.

amazing tool

I use BrainTool more as a bookmarks manager than a tab wrangler. The fact that I can collect, organize and save bookmarks without relying on a browser-based system or with another service that asks me to open an account is what sold me on BrainTool. I'm an avid Emacs and Org Mode user and have been relying on hacky third-party tools with org-capture to run my own bookmarking system--and I was never completely satisfied with it. Before BrainTool I'd end up accidentally saving half of my bookmarks in the browser and the other half in an org-mode file. The ability to assign topics immediately (the topic search suggestions are awesome!), and to then reorganize them makes me unafraid to close tabs. The whole thing goes into a plaintext file that I organize and do things with. BrainTool is still immature and there's a of room for improvement but I'm betting big on it. Keenly waiting for the option to sync (and not just export) bookmarks with a local org-mode file. I'm an aspiring researcher and I feel like this is gonna be a real life saver for me in the future, if not now (the actionable TODOs, I'm gonna need them). I hope this matures into a product that I'll be using for my lifetime.

Amazing extension. Everything just works so easily, the auto save in drive is so simple to set up, the fact that it uses the recent tab group feature is great and I love that it uses org-mode behind the scene.

It's been a while since I found something worth mentioning but BrainTool has a few things I really like. It lets you make trees of links with descriptions, and links your tabs into groups based on your placement in your tree. It also makes a local file that can be edited in any text editor, which can be more than handy at times. I think there's a lot of growing potential here as well, it's a more than useful tool that has surprised me a few times with some of the features that just kind of snuck up on me. It's also really easy to back up to your Google Drive. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you try it.

A tool that just gets out of my way. I'm a flat-file nut and love the ethos behind org-mode style tools that let me: a. Capture simply b. Review effectively c. Reference easily This plugin is checking all those boxes. Keep up the great work! Looking forward to the next release!

Braintool is a new take on bookmark managers, kind of combining session management and tab management to it, while still retaining a hierarchy structure. Furthermore, it opens up topics in tab groups, making it easier for doing research and keeping tabs organized. I also see Bi-Directional linking and highlights on the roadmap, which will make this a killer app!! For certain if implemented it can easily give race way ahead of the current lead bookmarking services.

The ultimate extension for organizing browser workflows, thoughts, and projects. While it is tempting to simply denote this as a tab manager, it does so much more, allowing you to seamlessly integrate notes you deem relevant, bookmark relevant resources in association, and with graph functionality in the works, the usefulness and power of this tool is unmatched. I can have running tabsets for particular browser states (eg managing finances, visual media), active projects with subfolders of relevant pages I don't need open at times, and bookmark sets for topics of interest. The sky is truly the limit and I cannot wait to see where this tool goes!

Is very promosing as a tool to provide an easier way to add and manage my to-read and just in general my todo files with Emacs Org Agenda. The topic grouping and organisation has already found much use in my workflow with org-roam when it comes to mentioning resources for nodes. I cannot wait for more support for sync with local files.

There are two things BrainTool has solved for me: Have my bookmarks everywhere; and have my bookmarks in one place and one place only. I do not always use Chrome which means I have to rely on some 3rd party to have my bookmarks available elsewhere. But I do sync my org files to all devices, so having my bookmarks on an org file just makes sense. Now they are everywhere, and synced. I often have notes for some URLs, this means I have something in an org file about that site. Which implies I have bookmarks on my browser and on my org files. Where is what? With BrainTool all bookmarks are in one place: org-mode. I can then refence them by ID or do whatever I want. The thing is bookmarks are all in one place and one place only: org files. Did I mention org files are text based? Means you can open them anywhere.

I had been increasingly concerned with the size and lack of organization of my Bookmarks, until now. I am happy to find BrainTool to help organize and reduce the size of my bookmarks collection. Though I am just starting to use and learn BrainTool capabilities, I am happy with the simplicity of the GUI and pleased to find YouTube tutorials and online help resources. More review content to follow - after I start to fix my old bookmarks mess.

This is (currently) Org-Mode meets BOOKMARK management .... althought the roadmap | pricing pages show that the developer is trending towards a more "universa" TabOutliner style TAB manager CROSSED with Browser-Based OBSIDIAN ... The underlying zettyl style note structure is already there, the interface to access that Note & Annotation functionality is still NOT active. However, this app -- out of HUNDREDS i have tried or eyed -- seems to rather singularly have the potential to meet some of these multiple needs. I currenly use | try Memex Worldbrain, Raindrop.io, Diggo, Zoho, Zotero, Notion, Evernote and Obsidian .... Honestly, if i could just get something (this) that was the best parts of Memex Worldbrain, TabToolbar, and Obsidian all in one place ... i think it would be the winner. So, CURRENTLY -- a BOOKMARK toolbar (like TabOutliner) with Org-Mode elements. But SOON (we hope) it will be a much more evolved entity approximating Obsidian+MemexWorldbrain Crossed with TabOutliner

I was looking to install my current browser extension to a new chrome account when I stumbled across this. Dang... it offers all the things I've been looking for including the things I didn't even know I wanted :-) Love the left nav categories and the notes piece. makes it easy and incredibly helpful. No lore wondering why this particular page was important know I know! Great tool.

I've used a lot of browser tools wand still seem to be on the search because none of the ones in the past did the complete job. Always something missing. That was until I found tis one. FINALLY a tool that does everything I need and more. Kudos to the developer who did the extra effort to make a tool that works!

I've been searching for a tool like this since AGES! This is a life-saver when you have endless tabs open, related to many different topics, and you feel overwhelmed by information overload.. you know what I mean. This simply works!

It's great! I don't need any other topic organizer. This one tool does it!

This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks! An extension that integrates with org-mode. It's open-source, has a great privacy policy/philosophy, and it has active community in Google Groups. I'm looking forward to using this extension!

The computer gods have smiled upon me! I've literally been searching for months to find the "perfect" tool to manage all my topics, bookmarks, links, resources, etc. I work for a large tech company and I run a business, so I have a LOT of information to manage. There's always new stuff to add, and existing links seem to be in constant need of updating. BrainTool makes this brain-dead simple (pardon the pun)! I'm also a huge fan of open source software and anything that uses plain text so I can avoid having my data locked in by proprietary file formats. So you can imagine my excitement when I learned BrainTool stores everything in a text file using org-mode format. Genius! I've installed it in three browsers on two different computers and tested syncing via Google Drive. I also edited the underlying text file using LogSeq and then refreshed/reloaded the file in BrainTool. It's awesome! I've already started converting everything over to BrainTool and ditching other methods.

Been looking for a long time for a rival to the old Tabs Outliner. Bit of a learning curve but it is the investment in time necessary for anything that will apply high leverage to your workflow. An absolute game changer in terms of any browser based work.

fantastic extension! works great for me as a bridge from the browser to org mode

This is on a Mac running Mojave, keeping Chrome open just about 24/7 Well, the first thing that got to me was this sentence on your pricing page: > Posting an honest 5 star review on the Chrome or Edge Web Store. An honest 5 star review? Really? 1. Import from Tabs Outliner went perfect. It took several minutes to do so but that was ok. Thank you for that! 2. It seems (never counted them) that my list contains ~5800 tabs in total. All sorted and grouped and except for the delimiter lines I used in Tabs Outliner, all of them made it across to BrainTool. 3. Closing and re-opening this list takes ~1 min which is longer than Tabs Outliner. I can accept that even though it means to have to tell Chrome to wait for the page to finish loading every time. Again, sort of acceptable as this should not happen very often on a normal day but it is very slow and needing to tell Chrome to wait is just one thing that should not happen. 4. So, I then noticed that on re-opening the Brain Tool Topic Manager, some hidden tabs were not hidden anymore even though their parent showed a collapsed child list. I had to manually go, re-expand and re-collapse the child list to have it be hidden. 5. So, I then tried to drag some topics around. First, I had the problem that it took a long time to register that I did want to drag a topic and when it finally worked, this topic became "inoperable" (for lack of a better word). It was greyed out and no actions could be performed on it for several minutes. This was just a normal topic without any children so nothing special. Closing and re-opening the BrainTool Manager Window would fix that but really? Wait 1 min every time, after dragging 1 tab to another place in the list? 6 I then scrolled down the list a bit and fell over another link/topic that was greyed out. Mousing over the link showed the possible actions on another topic/link further down the page...well...not so good. Again, closing and re-opening the BrainTool Manager Window would fix that but really? Wait 1 min every time, after dragging 1 tab to another place in the list? 7. Trying to authorise Gdrive Auto-save failed because BrainTool wants to open a popup and i have disabled popups and so I can't enable it. I had to switch the BrainTool Manager window to a tab so I had access to the toolbar and the location bar to enable popups for this page. I would accept this a a Chrome and user problem as it had been my decision to block popups a loooong time ago and my knowledge of the information an extension has access to is limited. Displaying the error that is returned by Chrome is positive. 8. I opened a link in a new tab. It never showed up in the BrainTool Manager Window. Closing and re-opening the BrainTool Manager Window didn’t help with it at all. 9. The following happened when I created a new tab by using <cmd>-T (I use a Mac): 9.1. the tab is appended to the far right in the window 9.2. a few seconds later, the tab is moved to the far left 9.3. somewhere in the BrainTool Manager window (I am sure there is a logic to it because it is always the same location), totally unrelated to the window I am in, this new tab is shown I do wonder whether it would fix itself once I clean up as described in point 4 but my patience ran out. Yes, I accept that I didn't restart my browser at any point and because of the slowness of BranTool, I might have hesitated too much in closing and re-opening the manager window as well... So...did you want a 5 star or an honest review? I am not normally someone who posts a lot of reviews but because of the call for the "honest 5 star" review, I decided to write down my impressions of BrainTool and going fo honest rather than 5 star.

I'm thoroughly impressed with Braintool! It is, as others have already said, an incredibly powerful tool for managing browser workflows and I've personally come to rely on it as a valuable tool in my professional and personal knowledge management systems. The fact that it uses Org-mode behind the scenes and is essentially plain-text is really great as it removes any concerns around vendor-lock in based on proprietary formats and makes synchronization a breeze across other devices / platforms. Being keyboard driven is an even bigger plus - I personally find nothing more annoying that a feature-ful browser application that doesn't support the keyboard. Braintool allows me to keep my hands on the keyboard and therefore there is no slowdown as I navigate the interface and the various browser tabs I have open during the course of my day. Super super tool - a must-have for any serious professional.