Xmarks, a popular cross browser book marking service, has announced that it will be shutting the service down and will be deleting all user data on January 10th, 2011. The service, which was gaining an estimated 3000 new accounts a day, is used by millions.
Like many free services, Xmarks states that funding is the key issue. After finding no suitable way to sustain the service financially, they will be forced to shut down the service which is currently storing more than 1.2 billion bookmarks. According to Lifehacker.com, Xmarks has promised that they wont sell the data which could be worth a small fortune to marketers.
While its a shame that the popular service is shutting down, Xmarks does point out that most browsers now do offer some sort of bookmark syncing. While not officially stated, many are hoping that this a cry for a larger company to purchase Xmarks so that the service does not fade into oblivion.
With over 5000 computers synced to over 2 million users, there is surely someone out there who wants access to this vast user base. So, while the service is supposed to be shutting down in January, don"t be too surprised if it gets bought in the near future.