The 12 Best Bookmarklets Every Browser Should Have (2024)

Online Tech Tips is reader-supported. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Learn more.

Bookmarklets are small pieces of JavaScript that run in your web browser. They appear to be bookmarks/favorites, and are just as clickable, but instead of opening a webpage when selected, they execute the JavaScript code they’re programmed to run.

JavaScript snippets like you’ll seebelow expand the functionality of your browser without requiring anyadditional installations. They’re used to expedite tasks that wouldnormally take several clicks to complete.

You’ll grow to love usingbookmarklets for many reasons:

• Updates are never needed (unlessto customize).
• They’re highly customizable sothat they work exactly how you want.
• System resource usage is extremelylow compared to full-fledged browser add-ons.

How To Use Bookmarklets

Using a bookmarklet is as easy asclicking it. It’s the setup process that might confuse some people.

On this page are bookmarklets writtenin their JavaScript form. This isn’t how you’ll see them in yourbrowser once you’ve “installed” them, but you need to see themthis way in order to get them added to your browser window.

Here’s what to do – highlight the bookmarklet code that you want (only the code, nothing else), copy it, and paste it into a new bookmark in your browser.

For example, in Chrome, right-click thebookmarks bar and select Add page. Name the bookmark, but inthe URL area, paste the JavaScript code. Use the Save buttonto save the bookmarklet right where you clicked.

Tip: There are several situations where a bookmarklet might come in handy, so having a single folder on the bookmarks bar where you store all of them is a great idea.

12 Best Bookmarklets

Search Any Site

If you’re always searching through a particular website, but you hate opening it to use their search box, click this bookmarklet to run a site search on Google. What this does is it lets you type into the pop-up box anything you want to search on the website in question.

javascript:(function(){void(q=prompt('Whatare you lookingfor?',''));if(q)location.href='http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3A'+'online-tech-tips.com'+''+escape(q)})()

Note: This bookmarklet needs to beedited to fit your situation. Erase online-tech-tips.com andreplace it with the address to the site you’re researching.

View Wayback URL

If the webpage you’re wanting to read is no longer available, is throwing an error, or the website as a whole has been taken down, you might still have luck finding it on Wayback Machine.

Select this bookmarklet to see if there’s a recent archive of it on Wayback Machine, from where you can view the page or entire website just as if it were live.

javascript:location.href='https://web.archive.org/web/*/'+location.href

Gmail This

If you love Gmail, you’ll love thisemail bookmarklet. Click it while on any page to instantly open theCompose box from Gmail and autofill the page heading into the subjectfield and auto-paste the URL into the body. All you need to do isaddress it and send it off.

javascript:(function(){popw='';Q='';d=document;w=window;if(d.selection){Q=d.selection.createRange().text;}elseif(w.getSelection){Q=w.getSelection();}elseif(d.getSelection){Q=d.getSelection();}popw=w.open('http://mail.google.com/mail/s?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=&su='+encodeURIComponent(d.title)+'&body='+encodeURIComponent(Q)+escape('%5Cn%5Cn')+encodeURIComponent(d.location)+'&zx=RANDOMCRAP&shva=1&disablechatbrowsercheck=1&ui=1','gmailForm','scrollbars=yes,width=680,height=575,top=175,left=75,status=no,resizable=yes');if(!d.all)setTimeout(function(){popw.focus();},50);})();

Share On Facebook

The Facebook bookmarklet makes sharing links on Facebook easy. Visit the page you want to share with your friends, and then click this bookmarklet to open the Share on Facebook page where you can add text, tag friends, limit who can see the post, and insert emojis before sharing.

If you share a lot on Facebook, this will quickly become your friend.

javascript:vard=document,f='https://www.facebook.com/share',l=d.location,e=encodeURIComponent,p='.php?src=bm&v=4&i=1563462283&u='+e(l.href)+'&t='+e(d.title);1;try{if(!/^(.*\.)?facebook\.[^.]*$/.test(l.host))throw(0);share_internal_bookmarklet(p)}catch(z){a=function() {if(!window.open(f+'r'+p,'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,resizable=1,width=626,height=436'))l.href=f+p};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else{a()}}void(0)

Paywall Bypass

A paywall is the last thing you want tosee when trying to read a news article, but you’re not withouthope. Using Outline.com,this bookmarklet can bypass paywalls on some websites in just a fewmoments.

javascript:void(window.open('https://outline.com/'+document.location.href));

Tip: This is just one method of several that can help you get around a paywall.

View Hidden Password

Can’t remember the password that yourbrowser saved? If all you see are asterisks (which is normal) but youdon’t know what they translate to, click this bookmarklet for apop-up that shows your password in plain text.

javascript: (function() { var s, F, j, f, i; s = ""; F = document.forms; for (j = 0; j < F.length; ++j) { f = F[j]; for (i = 0; i < f.length; ++i) { if (f[i].type.toLowerCase() == "password") s += f[i].value + "\n"; }} if (s) alert("Passwords in forms on this page:\n\n" + s); else alert("There are no passwords in forms on this page."); })();

Shrink URL

Sharing really long URLs just isn’tpretty. Use this URL shortener bookmarklet to instantly convert thepage’s URL into something much cleaner, courtesy of Shrunken.com.

javascript:void(location.href='https://www.shrunken.com/index.html?agreeTerms=1&submitted=1&longUrl='+encodeURIComponent(location.href.replace('http://','')));

Enable Right-Click

Some websites have right-clickingdisabled, which can be rather frustrating if you want to save animage. Use this bookmarklet to instantly unlock the restriction.

javascript:void(document.oncontextmenu = null)

Enable Text Selection

Similar to the bookmarklet above, thisone lets you select text on sites that don’t let you.

javascript: (function() {function R(a) { ona = "on" + a; if (window.addEventListener) window.addEventListener(a, function(e) { for (var n = e.originalTarget; n; n = n.parentNode) n[ona] = null; }, true); window[ona] = null; document[ona] = null; if (document.body) document.body[ona] = null;} R("click"); R("mousedown"); R("mouseup"); R("selectstart"); })()

Find Shared Logins

Need to get into a website but youdon’t have a user account? Maybe you were banned or you don’twant to go through the sign up process. Either way, use this BugMeNotbookmarklet on the site in question to see if there are any publicuser accounts that you can sign on with.

javascript: (function() { var url = ('http://www.bugmenot.com/view/' + escape(location.hostname)); w = open(url, 'w', 'location=no,status=yes,menubar=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=500,height=400,modal=yes,dependent=yes'); if (w) { setTimeout('w.focus()', 1000) } else { location = url } })();

Download Full-Size Instagram Image

One easy way to downloada full-size version of an image on Instagram is withthe Instantgram bookmarklet. Open the image you want to isolate fromthe page and then click the bookmarklet to launch the full-sizeversion in a new tab.

This bookmarklet is far too long tostore here on this page, so go over to the Instantgramwebsite and drag the button at the top into your bookmarks bar to useit.

Convert Page To PDF

Saving a web page to a PDF file makes it super easy to share and store. From any webpage, just click this PDF bookmarklet to start converting it on the Web2pdfconvert.com website. You can download it to your computer or save it in Dropbox or Google Drive.

javascript:void(window.open('https://www.web2pdfconvert.com#' + location.href))