While cleaning up the items in my Apple Menu I discovered this new item called “Favorites” and, not immediately knowing how it worked, I used the help feature to learn more. It basically acts as a folder to store aliases of commonly used items, whether they be servers, folders, documents, whatever. Not a groundshaking concept, we’ve been doing this for years, they just made it easier to set up.

What whacked my brain is

• They called it “Favorites” – riffing on the favorites menu in Internet Explorer, which makes you wonder where Apple’s head is at these days if they’re not only borrowing from the Windows OS but also from their web browser (or maybe I just fail to realize those two are the same thing).
  
• Interesting that the conventions of the web are now influencing the operating system, whereas before it was the other way around. Again, Microsoft’s Active Desktop was way ahead there, but they didn’t have a great OS interface to begin with, so why not appropriate one from the Internet?
  
• The icon is a folder with a bookmark over it, driving home the association. And also making the association for those of us who use Navigator and know these as “bookmarks.”