If you’re not inclined to download something like SnagIt or IrfanView then Kwout is a very useful online service that allows you to take screenshots of webpages and post them quickly from the comfort of your browser. It is extremely easy to use and there are several ways to “kwout” something.
Let’s take a quick walk through to get a better understanding of how easy it is to use Kwout.
Everyone should at least give Kwout a try and the best way to do that is to go to their website and use the demo on the front page. All you need to do is enter in the web address of the site where you want to take a screenshot.
This week on the podcast I’m talking to Jerry Kidd, one of Make Use Of’s newest writers, about a great tool to help you sell your home online. I’m also looking at some Make Use Of articles about Bit torrent, bookmarklets, and syncing. Plus, a first look at the latest Twitter clone, identi.ca.
I’d love to hear from you. Send me your MP3 files containing comments about the show, reviews of your favourite websites or just general chitchat. I’ll choose a few to play on the show each week. Send them to podcast [at] makeuseof [dot] com.
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.
Does this bug you as much as it bugs me?
http://www.howmuchlongercanmyurlsget.com/before/Igo/totally/insane.htm
If you’re blogging or uploading files frequently, passing out lengthy links to your posts can get pretty tedious. That’s where URL truncator services come in, stepping up to provide a shorter link that’s easier to remember and share. There are a ton of options out there, and most have something unique to offer.
Probably the best known truncator around, TinyURL offers the features most people are looking for: an easy to remember domain name, fairly short (though at 6 characters it’s double what some create) identifier, and a preview page for your shortened link by using “preview.tinyurl.com/[link]“. Their page also automatically copies the new URL to your clipboard, and they offer a bookmarklet.
The web has revolutionized the world - but it has also made us lazy. Instead of typing ten letters on a keyboard, we want to type five instead. We want things to magically download all on their own and for our applications to self-update. We long for the type of computer seen in Star Trek where we can talk to it, instead of moving a mouse and hoping for the best.
In that spirit of laziness, lots of bookmarklets have been developed by internet users to help cut down on the amount of work we do on the keyboard and live life as a slacker to the full. Since that describes me perfectly, here’s five of my favourites -
I am a huge user of del.icio.us (to the point where I keep virtually no links in my browser bookmarks) and as I bookmark more and more links, the problem arises over how best to organise them all and even more importantly, how to find a specific link again in the future. The whole concept of “tagging” is still rather new to me and so I am concerned that once I put a link on my del.icio.us page, it will disappear forever down the deep black hole of the internet. I am currently organising my tags into bundles and so I can see for myself first-hand what a mammoth task it is to keep links and tags in such an order that they can be easily found again.
