Ane of the reasons backside Firefox'due south sustained popularity is the availability of a vast library of extensions. At a time when Microsoft ruled the roost with a crushing xc+% share of the browser market place, Mozilla was able to build a loyal following by offering a mode for third-party developers to extend its browser functionality and for users to customize it to their liking. Somewhen new competitors arrived to reinvigorate the scene and today about of them offer their own extensions platform.

But expanding functionality through these add-ons tin have some downsides of their own. For case, nearly of them are not cross-platform, so if you decide to attempt another browser your favorite extensions might not be bachelor. There's also the possibility some of them will intermission with every major release of your browser, or even worse, poorly coded ones can significantly dull downwards your browser's performance.

Enter 'bookmarklets' -- small-scale applets stored as an URL that are designed to add 1-click functionality to a browser or spider web page. They are JavaScript-enabled links y'all can pull into your bookmarks to collaborate with whatsoever page you find yourself on. Granted, they might not offer the level of functionality some of the more advanced browser extensions do, just they certainly come up in handy and tin sometimes be as simple as a single line of code.

From a uncomplicated "postal service folio to" script to a spelling checker to an HTML debugger, all you need to do to enable them is drag a link to your favorites – typically you bookmarks toolbar – and that's that. At that place is no installation involved and they'll work with any modernistic browser. Hither are a few popular ones you might be interested in trying out:

Download YouTube Etc gives you links to download standard, HQ (high quality), and HD (high definition) versions of videos direct from YouTube in a number of formats, including FLV, MP4, MP3, and AVI. It works not only on YouTube pages, but besides on any public website with an embedded video from this and a multifariousness of other sources, such every bit Break.com, Metacafe.com, Vimeo.com and a few more.

Download YouTube Etc (Elevate this link to your bookmarks bar)

GmailThis! shows a Gmail popular-up pre-populated with a link to the site yous are visiting, as well as any text you accept highlighted on that folio. Add together additional text if you wish and so email or relieve as draft from within GmailThis!

GmailThis! (Drag this link to your bookmarks bar)

MarkUp.io helps you capture your thoughts quickly and hands by letting y'all write notes and drawings on top of any web folio. Y'all tin then share this with co-workers, colleagues, and friends.

MarkUp.io (Elevate this link to your bookmarks bar)

Instapaper, this one actually requires you lot to sign upwards for their service merely it won't take more than than five seconds and it's worth it. The bones premise is that we detect web content throughout the twenty-four hour period, and sometimes, nosotros don't have time to read long articles right when we observe them. With a unproblematic click on this bookmarklet you tin salve a text-only version for later on then you don't merely forget to skim through them. Information technology gets more than useful if you install it on all your computers.

Read later (Drag this link to your bookmarks bar)

Marklets actually gives yous access to a massive index of bookmarklets within the bookmarklet itself. Simply click on it and a mini-interface with a search prompt will appear, in which you lot tin type whatever you desire to exercise (for case, "spelling") and a listing of results related to that term will appear. The interesting part is that you can click on any of them and the bookmarklet will actually run, so y'all don't need to clutter your toolbar with annihilation y'all'll only use occasionally.

Marklets.com (Elevate this link to your bookmarks bar)

This is but a short list of bookmarklets that we've plant useful, but your favorites will certainly vary depending on which services you lot rely the most. Have some other ane to share? Let's hear well-nigh it in the comments.