Your Public Page: Bookmarks Anyone Can Read

Everything in Bookmax is private by default. If you want some of it to be readable without a login - a reading list you share with a class, the links behind a talk, the sources for a project - you can switch on a public page. Your account then has a second address of its own on public.bookmax.net, and anyone who knows it can read what you put there. Nothing else becomes visible, and nobody can change anything through it.

A Premium feature

Switching a public page on needs a Premium Account - but only once. One month is enough: from then on the public page stays yours, whether or not the subscription runs on. Accounts that already had one keep it, and anyone can switch theirs off at any time.

The reason is plain: a page that anyone can create and that carries links is an invitation to people who are not here for the bookmarks. For years the public area filled up with accounts whose only purpose was to place links somewhere. Asking for a paid account does not make that impossible, but it makes it pointless - which is all a filter has to do.

Switching it on

Go to Settings, then Public Page. There are three things to set:

• Activate public page - the switch itself.
• Your public name - the name shown at the top of the page. It does not have to be your login name.
• Your public page - the address. It is built from the name and has to be unique; if the one you want is taken, Bookmax appends something.

Below that you choose which areas are shown: bookmarks, lists, contacts, notes, documents, feeds. Tick only what you want read. If you tick nothing, there is no page - the address returns "not found" rather than an empty frame, which is the honest answer.

What actually appears

Not your whole account. The left panel of every area is divided into sections, and only what sits in the Public section is shown. Everything in Private stays private, and so does everything in a team. Moving something in or out is done by dragging the folder from one section to the other - see the bookmarks help for how folders work.

So a public page is not a switch that exposes an account. It is a shelf you put things on.

Search engines

Links on a public page carry rel="nofollow". That tells a search engine not to pass any ranking value along them. It is deliberate: it keeps the pages useful for readers and worthless for anyone trying to buy their way up a results list.

A profile also has to earn its place in the index. A page that was set up once and never visited again, or that holds only a handful of entries, is marked as not to be indexed. It still works for anyone you send the address to.

Switching it off

The same switch in Settings, Public Page, unticked. The page is gone immediately; nothing in your account changes, and what was in the Public section stays where it is until you move it. This works regardless of the account type - a feature nobody should have to pay to get rid of.

Back to the help pages · All settings pages · Sharing with a team instead