Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better, Third Edition

Hack 95: Get 10 Useful Bookmarklets

Level Easy

Platform All

Cost Free

A bookmarklet is a snippet of JavaScript that you can bookmark (or save as a favorite) on your web browser’s bookmark toolbar. Bookmarklets can enhance web pages, add special functionality, and make your browsing experience much more efficient by offering one-click access to useful tools.

The following ten bookmarklets can streamline work in your browser. Access them at http://lifehacker.com/129141.

• Acronym lookup: LOL, RTFM, YMMV, AFAIK! If you stumble upon one of those nutty Internet-speak acronyms online, highlight it, click this bookmarklet, and Acronym Finder automatically looks it up.
• Translate text: What do you do when you stumble across a web page that’s definitely saying something you want to know, except it’s in a language you don’t speak? You translate it, of course. This bookmarklet runs a web page through Google’s translation service, which automatically detects the language of the page and translates it to English.

NOTE When it comes to translating language, machines never do as clear and correct a job as humans, but automated translations can give you the main idea. Google Chrome already has automatic translation tools built in, so Chrome users can skip this one.

• Urban Dictionary lookup: Similar to the acronym lookup, this bookmarklet looks up selected text on a web page in the Urban Dictionary, the collaboratively edited slang dictionary. Cool beans.
• Wikipedia lookup: Highlight text on any ...