At heart I am a lazy computer user. When I want to do something on the computer, I either use keyboard shortcuts or I use a bookmarklet to achieve it. The last thing I want to do is go clicking around aimlessly for ages and ages……(zzzzz…..)
But as the web has evolved, some bookmarklets have become redundant as their use has become integrated into the web browser. For example, a bookmarklet to subscribe to a RSS feed is no longer necessary because in Firefox, you can now subscribe to a RSS feed by clicking the orange RSS logo in the Firefox URL address bar instead.
Here are a small selection of the bookmarklets that I have gradually built up. To use them yourself, just drag the link with your mouse up to your browser bookmark bar. If you have the programming know-how, you can also re-write them to make them do whatever you want them to do (such as the Gmail This! one).
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Add to Mixx – this will add the selected URL to Mixx.com
Share on FriendFeed – this will allow you to share something (a URL, a photo, whatever, on Friendfeed).
View in Google Earth – if you highlight an address and then click this bookmarklet, Google Earth opens and automatically goes to the address you highlighted.
Delete Twitter Direct Messages – for this one to work, you need to be on your Twitter Direct Messages page. Then press this bookmarklet. A small box will then show up in your Twitter sidebar asking you if you want to delete your direct messages. Say yes and your direct messages will be deleted one by one. It’s very fast.
Add Note in Google Reader – this allows you to highlight a piece of text in a website post, add your own note to it then add it to Google Reader for your contacts to read.
Gmail This! – allows you to send Gmail emails without having to open Gmail first. The main purpose of Gmail This! is to email the weblink of the page you’re on but you can easily use it to send any email to anyone by opening it up and removing the weblink.
Save as PDF – if you click on this one, the page you are on will be turned into a PDF file which you can then download and save to your computer. It even makes the links on the page clickable.
del.icio.us Backlinks – this one is invaluable for SEO people and for bloggers obsessed with tracking who is linking to their posts. Just go to a page and click on this bookmarklet. You’ll then be taken to the Del.icio.us page for that webpage.
Show Stumbleupon Reviews – this one is useful if you are using a computer that doesn’t have the Stumbleupon toolbar installed. It quite simply takes you to the Stumbleupon review page for that webpage.
Post to Del.icio.us – as the bookmarklet says, it posts the webpage to your Del.icio.us account.
TinyURL This! – clicking this one will turn the page link into a TinyURL
What bookmarklets do you use on a regular basis? Post them in the comments!
(By) Mark O’Neill is a blogger, professional freelance writer and the editor of Make Use Of. He drinks countless cups of tea a day, checks out countless websites a day – and uses keyboard shortcuts and bookmarklets as much as possible. Check out his personal blog at BetterThanTherapy.net
Tagged: bookmarklets • browser tips • productivity • shortcuts
