Hack 62. Google with Bookmarklets

Create interactive bookmarklets to perform Google functions from the comfort of your own browser.

You probably know what bookmarks are. But what are bookmarklets? Bookmarklets are like bookmarks but with an extra bit of JavaScript magic added. This makes them more interactive than regular bookmarks; they can perform small functions like opening a window, grabbing highlighted text from a web page, or submitting a query to a search engine. There are several bookmarklets that allow you to perform useful Google functions right from the comfort of your own browser.

If you're using Internet Explorer for Windows, you're in gravy: all these bookmarklets will most likely work as advertised. But if you're using a less-appreciated browser (such as Opera) or operating system (such as Mac OS X), pay attention to the bookmarklet requirements and instructions; there may be special magic needed to get a particular bookmark working, or indeed, you may not be able to use the bookmarklet at all.

Google Translate! (http://www.microcontentnews.com/resources/translator.htm)

Puts Google's translation tools into a bookmarklet, enabling one-button translation of the current web page.

Google Jump (http://www.angelfire.com/dc/dcbookmarkletlab/Bookmarklets/script002.html)

Prompts you for search terms, performs a Google search, and takes you straight to the top hit thanks to the magic of Google's I'm Feeling Lucky function.

The Dooyoo Bookmarklets http://dooyoo-uk.tripod.com/bookmarklets2.html collection

Features several bookmarklets for use with different search engines—two for Google. Similar to Google's Browser Buttons, one finds highlighted text and the other finds related pages.

Joe Maller's Translation Bookmarkets (http://www.joemaller.com/translation_bookmarklets.shtml)

Translate the current page into the specified language via Google or AltaVista.

Bookmarklets for Opera (http://www.philburns.com/bookmarklets.html)

Includes a Google translation bookmarklet, a Google bookmarklet that restricts searches to the current domain, and a bookmarklet that searches Google Groups. As you might imagine, these bookmarklets were created for use with the Opera browser.

LuckyMarklets (http://www.researchbuzz.org/archives/001414.shtml)

Tara's bookmarklets taking advantage of the I'm Feeling Lucky feature in Google Web Search, Google News, and Google Images.

Milly's Bookmarklets (http://www.imilly.com/bm.htm)

An incredible collection of bookmarklets for all things Google: Web Search, Images, Directory, Definitions, Cache, the Google site itself, and many more, Google or otherwise.