Over the years, bookmarklets have evolved from mere poor man’s extensions to become one of the most important tools in a web browser’s repertoire. It’s not just their ease of installation that makes them so popular, it’s also the amazing functionality they provide no matter what browser or platform they’re on. While most of them are used by services like Evernote and Springpad to provide extension-like functionality to unsupported browsers, there are some stand-alone bookmarklets that might be quite useful for many folks, especially those obsessed about their productivity. So, if you too are a productivity freak like us, here are some of the best bookmarklets you can install, or rather drag and drop, on your browser.
Distraction-Free Browsing Bookmarklets
We’ve already written a lot about distraction-free browsing tools and other extensions related to productivity; however, when it comes to bookmarklets, there aren’t as many choices as there are in the add-ons department. Thankfully, though, Notforest and Readability bring the much-needed functionality to our browser with two highly functional bookmarklets.
Notforest: Notforest is a simple bookmarklet that strips away all excess clutter leaving you with just the content that you want to read. Just drag and drop it to your bookmark bar, and clicking on it anytime will leave you with a wonderful clutter-free text with a background that’s easy on the eyes.
Readability: We’ve already talked about Readability when we did a roundup of the best distraction-free Chrome extensions. Bringing the extension’s functionality to your bookmark bar comes the Readability bookmarklet, which, once installed, will let you read in a clean, distraction-free environment.
Quietube: Tired of all the clutter that surrounds your favorite YouTube video? You’re not the only one. Fortunately, Quietube is a tool that saves you from those messy, distraction-filled YouTube videos, leaving you with just a clean background ( black or white) and a discreetly placed link leading to the original page.
Once you install Quietube, — that is by dragging and dropping it to your bookmarks bar — all you have to do is click on the bookmarklet, and will reload to a clean, no-fuss page focusing just on the video. The only problem I have with this bookmarklet is that the developer has recently started placing a wide banner ad at the bottom of the page, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a distraction-free tool. Nevertheless, it still is much better than the bloated YouTube page; so, I do actually recommend you to check it out.
Note: If you use Adblock, you won’t see the ad, thus allowing you to use the tool in its full glory.
Time-Saving Bookmarklets
Wadsworth Constant: If you’re a Reddit user you can skip this part. For everyone else who’s been living under a cave, here’s the Urban Dictionary definition :
“The Wadsworth Constant is the fundamental idea that the true meaning of a video, conversation, or comment approaches importance after approximately 30% of it has been skipped over.”
So, what this next bookmarklet does is, on clicking, it skips the first 30% of every video on YouTube leaving you with a much more productive day.
To install it, simply drag this link to the bookmark bar, and click on it while watching a YouTube video.
Source : Lifehacker
Add to RTM : If you use Remember The Milk a lot, then their bookmarklet is something you must have in your bookmark bar. The simple javascript tool allows you to quickly add tasks, and even have links in your To-do list. So, let’s say you’re viewing your bank’s online statement, and you want to remind yourself to pay it before the due date. All you have to select the mentioned due date, and then click on the Add To RTM button; et voila!, the page gets added as a task along with the due date you selected.
Read it Later: I love the Read It Later; it’s a simple service which allows you to procrastinate any web article you don’t have time to read right now. One way of adding a page to your ReaditLater list is by using the extensions, or, if you’re on mobile, the Android/iOS apps. However, for those who prefer not to install any extensions, or are using an unsupported browser, the service’s official set of extensions comes in quite handy. There are, in all, 3 extensions, which allow you to save an article for later or mark it as read. The third one is also quite useful as it allows you take a quick look at your reading list without going on the ReaditLater website.
Scroll To Top:
This is a simple bookmarklet that allows you to quickly scroll to the top of the page. I haven’t tested it on all browsers, but it works well on Chrome. To install, drag and drop this link to your bookmarks bar. Whenever you want to scroll to the top, simply click the scroll to top button and the page will quickly scroll to top.
Source: StackOverflow
Image Credits: Sean MacEntee
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