Gear (Photo credit: mag3737)
Two of the most popular posts here on TedCurran.net deal with replacing your too-huge collection of browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome to improve your browser’s speed and performance.
Replace Your Firefox Plugins with Mozilla Ubiquity and
Unfortunately, these posts are woefully out of date and recommend tools that are no longer supported.
Obviously, you’ve been searching for ways to slim down your browser extensions to keep it quick, responsive, and light. You already know how slow and sluggish your beloved browser can get when it’s bogged down with too many extensions. Let’s talk about another way you can uninstall those pesky extensions and speed up your browser while still using all the awesome custom tricks you love– bookmarklets!
What are bookmarklets?
Here’s a little secret– all those browser extensions you have are really just buttons to trigger a javascript command that makes the customizations you want. Bookmarklets are little pieces of Javascript that are stored in your browser like bookmarks, but instead of taking you to a bookmarked page URL, they run a custom Javascript function in the browser. Bookmarklets do all the same things that browser extensions do, but they don’t need to be installed— they just patiently sit in your bookmarks folder until you’re ready to use them. You can sync your bookmarklets between browsers– even browsers that do not allow 3rd party extensions like Safari and IE can use the functionality they add!
There are bookmarklets to do almost anything you can imagine, and they can really add speed and convenience to your browsing experience.
Some of my favorite bookmarklets
Readable:
Formats web articles into a readable, ad-free view, instantly in the browser. Replaces: Evernote Clearly, Pocket.
Evernote:
Instantly clip articles to your Evernote. Replaces: Evernote extension.
Feedly Easy Subscribe and Follow:
Finds the RSS feed of a page and adds it to your Feedly subscriptions. Replaces: Feedly, RSS Subscribe.
ShareThis:
Share the current page to all your different social networks (Twitter, Facebook, email, others). Replaces: Shareaholic.
PressThis:
If you have a WordPress blog, it comes with its own custom bookmarklet to let you share things you find on the web. Just hit the “Press This” bookmarklet and it will open a custom blogging window to help you share whatever you find!
PrintFriendly:
Before you print an article, strip away the ads and unnecessary clutter so it looks good on paper. One you have it looking the way you like, you can print, email, or save as PDF.
TBuzz:
On any site, click TBuzz to find out what Twitter is saying about this page. It looks up the URL of the page you’re on, and then pulls back any comments people have made about that URL on Twitter. Also lets you tweet about any page quickly and easily.
QR Bookmarklet:
Creates a QR code for the website you’re on. Unlike most of the QR Code bookmarklets you’ll find, though, this one doesn’t divert your traffic through some 3rd party’s servers. This is just a link, pure and simple.
The links above are just a few of my favorite bookmarklets, but there are lots and lots of them out there. If you’re looking to replace your browser plugin for, say, Facebook– try searching “facebook bookmarklet” and see what comes up.
Lists of useful bookmarklets
Top 10 Useful Bookmarklets – Lifehacker
100+ Useful Bookmarklets For Better Productivity | Ultimate List
The Most Useful Bookmarklets to Enhance Your Browsing Experience
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You can also download the latest firefox version at http://www.mozillafirefox.co.za