JavaScript I Find Useful
Sorry non-geek readers, but I am compelled to write a geeky post. Now that the weather has improved I shall be out and hopefully post a bit more about my days!
I use Safari 4.0 Beta on my Mac, and I’ve been using three useful JavaScript Bookmarks (though one more than the others.) So in order of preference, here are three interesting bookmarks that you should consider adding to your own Bookmarks toolbar. They’re similar in effect to GreaseMonkey scripts but suit me better because they apply to any page and can be clicked on at your preference.
1. Readability
Readability is a script that transforms a cluttered web page into something actually readable. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you visit a news service that has a thousand ads, side bars, menus and all sorts of other links cluttering your screen, when all you really want to read is the main content. Just like the old Internet!
In steps Readability. In one magic click of a button (or menu-item, depending on your way of looking at it) your page is transformed; the clutter is gone and all that remains is the main article you wanted to read in the first place. If you want to go back to the original page, just click reload.
Readability is customisable so the pages you choose can be output to a few different styles of your preference.
Here’s a before-and-after shot as one example of an article I clicked on today:
And after:
The transformation is very cool! You can go to the Readability website here, and there are links and instructions on how to add it to your browser.
2. Google Translate on-the-fly
Here’s all it is:
javascript:void(location.href='http://translate.google.com/translate?u='+location.href)
and this script will pipe your page through Google Translate as quick as that!
Bookmark it here. You probably won’t use it too often unless you visit any foreign websites, but on the occasions that you do you’ll be glad you’ve got your quick and easy link! Do you need some news in French?
3. Subscribe…
A little superfluous considering most modern browsers auto-detect RSS, but it can’t hurt, but this little script finds any RSS Feed within a page and takes you to it in Google Reader. Unless you’re using a third party RSS utility like Reader Notifier (also quite useful) then this will be of some use.
Here’s the code:
javascript:var%20b=document.body;
var%20GR________bookmarklet_domain='http://www.google.com';if(b&&!document.xmlVersion){void(z=document.createElement('script'));
void(z.src='http://www.google.com/reader/ui/subscribe-bookmarklet.js');
void(b.appendChild(z));
}else{location='http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/'+encodeURIComponent(location.href)}
And a bookmarkable link.
I hope you enjoyed this little venture and I hope you can take away at least something useful! If you have any other ideas or suggestions feel free to comment and tell everyone. If I’ve helped anyone by posting this information then please comment and let me know!
And finally… go and check out Cool Iris. Yes, it does seem to be “professional software” but for the moment it’s apparently free. I usually don’t bend for these sorts of plugin things but I tried this one and it really is quite good. It’s a full-screen interactive media plugin for your browser and is extremely useful for Google Images, Flickr, sometimes Facebook and probably several other media sites. It’s pretty snazzy. Check the website out and you’ll see what I mean.
