6 Bookmarklets That Will Boost Your Web Surfing Speed & Productivity

Bookmarklets are unsuspicious little helpers that sit in your browser’s bookmarks bar. Unlike your regular bookmarks, they don’t archive a URL, rather bookmarklets are small java applets with a one-click functionality. To ‘install’ a bookmarklet, you simply drag and drop it from a website link into your bookmarks bar.

There are hundreds of bookmarklets and each can complete a different task. In this article I want to show you 6 bookmarklets that can help boost your web surfing speed by providing direct access to some of the best productivity services and time saving tools on the net.

1. Spreeder

Drag and drop this to your bookmarks: Spreed!

The Internet is all about information and a lot of it is delivered in the form of text. Spreeder will help you read faster. Simply select text you want to read and click the bookmarklet. The text will load in the speed reader application. When you hit play, your text will be displayed one word at a time. You can change the speed and size via the > Settings.

If this bookmarklet sounds interesting, you might also want to look at this article: 3 Ways You Can Learn To Speed Read Online.

2. Readability

Drag and drop this to your bookmarks: Readability

So the speed reader is not for you, but with your regular reading you’re constantly distracted by ads and images and the fonts are always too small? You need a bookmarklet that auto-edits your texts to make it easier to read!

Your solution is Readability. Simply click the bookmarklet and your text will be converted into a format that makes it a delight to read. You can try it right away with this article!

You’ll find more information about Readbility here: 2 Useful Bookmarklets To Make Your Web Reading Easier.

3. Instapaper

Drag and drop this to your bookmarks: Instapaper

If you frequently save articles to read them later, I recommend using Instapaper. Not only will you have access to your ‘read later’ material from anywhere with an Internet connection, you can also speed-bookmark material with the Instapaper bookmarklet.

For more information about Instapaper, check out this article: Manage Your Bookmarks & Reading List with Instapaper.

4. Evernote

Drag and drop this to your bookmarks: Evernote

Evernote is a fantastic tool for saving anything and everything: notes, ideas, text snippets, videos, pictures etc. One thing that makes it so great is its advanced search functionality. With the Evernote bookmarklet, saving bits and pieces becomes a bliss.

Not yet familiar with Evernote? Find out about it here:

• Become a Rockstar Note Taker with Evernote
• Evernote – The Killer App For The Android Mobile Phone
• 7 Ways To Make Use Of Evernote
• 6 Ways To Add Your Information To Evernote

5. BugMeNot

Drag and drop this to your bookmarks: BugMetNot

Are you tired having to sign up for every other website and does it take too long? Try BugMetNot to quickly receive login information for websites that force you to log in.

An alternative to BugMetNot is Login2. Drag and drop this to your bookmarks: Login2

6. Bookmarklet Combiner

Demo: Speed Bookmarklets

Now that you have a little list of great bookmarklets, how about combining them all into one? With Bookmarklet Combiner you can take multiple URLs or bookmarklets and unite them into a single bookmarklet. This is a non-typical bookmarklet, as you have to configure it yourself before you can drag and drop it into your bookmarks bar. The demo above combines all bookmarklets introduced in this article.

For a thorough walkthrough that explains how to use this tool, check out this article: Combine All Your Bookmarklets Into One with Bookmarklet Combiner.

We have previously featured selected bookmarklets on MakeUseOf:

• 3 Easy Bookmarklets To Print Nice Looking Web Pages Without Craplets
• Tweak Your Daily Searching With These Browser Bookmarklets
• 5 Recommended Bookmarklets To Simplify Tedious Tasks
• 9 Bookmarklets To Instantly View Your To-Do Tasks on Remember The Milk
• 20 Must-Have Bookmarklets For Your Web Browser

What are your most used bookmarklets and which one is your favorite from the list above?