I keep a current back up copy of my Firefox & Thunderbird profiles (settings, bookmarks etc), makes it so much easier when having to start over with a new OS install or new computer..

All saved emails , passwords everything can be placed in the right folder so it will look & act just like before.

Usually each season I update the profile copy on my flash drive..

I do the same as Jo*mar.

For me Friday morning is back-up time - my Thunderbird, Firefox and Chrome profiles get saved to my two external HDs. Critical stuff gets backed-up on the fly.

Apart from that (external HDs have been known to fail...), I use CrashPlan (there are others) as cloud back-up; http://www.code42.com/crashplan/ .

For a few dollars a month it sits in the background, automatically backing everything up.

Sorry, I had to dash out ...

I didn't bother with the settings as I was going from Windows and Firefox to Mac and Safari. My Compaq died.
I have anything I need (photos etc.) saved to a portable hard drive ... yes. Bookmarks are no biggie for me these days. I know where to find most things I would need. I've procrastinated long enough. I need to upgrade this MacBook anyway but hadn't found the time to do it all.

In the meantime I was thinking I'd found a simple cure to the Google profiling and ads, but I see there's more needed before I get that.

Thanks for all the extra info.. It's appreciated.

P.S. Nice Kiwi, Kiwi!

For general interest if anyone wants to know how to back up browser profiles..

Profile backup info - Mozilla Firefox & Thunderbird products
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup

How to Backup and Restore Entire Google Chrome Setting
http://juan2geek.com/how-to-backup-a...hrome-setting/

If you use other browsers just do a search for "how to back up (browser name) profile"

Just so you know, this actually works despite clearing cache and cookies. It's stopped the "interest based" ads. My settings are still on 'opt out'.