I'll admit, I'm a huge Firefox fan, and always found add-ons to fill my browsing needs. Then Google launched Chrome, and I had to give it a try. Chrome has now become my default browser on my XP laptop, and while trying to find workarounds for add-ons, I spent some time with bookmarklets.
I've used bookmarklets before, but never for anything more than sharing a story on FriendFeed. Now that I'm having to use them with Chrome, I'm falling in love with them, and have decided to share my top 8. I'd like to see others listed in the comments, and I have a few others, but 8 is enough for now.
This bookmarklet was the inspiration behind this post. X-Robots SEO Tool is a bookmarklet that can be utilized in either Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera on Windows and OS to find information vital to search engine optimization. The tool was built in collaboration with developer Cooper Harris and will continue to be developed to help SEOs. The beauty of this bookmarklet is that no updates need to be downladed since the tool is changed on our end. Just add the bookmarklet to your bookmark's toolbar, and begin to audit the web.
Drag to Bookmark Bar: X-Browser SEO Tools
Allows you to email the current web page you’re on via your Gmail account. There are a lot of tools that help with this, but this one seems the easiest.
Drag to Bookmark Bar: Gmail This
Sometimes sharing with gmail just isn't enough. Share This allows you to share the current web page you’re on to 20+ social bookmarking and social networking sites. All the heavy-hitters are there, so you'll be able to tell the whole world how Obama MUST be a evil because he doesn't wear a flag pin.
Drag to Bookmark Bar: ShareThis
I use Delicious daily. I know there are other, and arguably better social bookmarking services, but to me, it doesn't get any better than delicious. There are actually two bookmarklets you can use with this site, but I'll just post the one that allows you to directly bookmark sites.
Drag to Bookmark Bar: Bookmark on Delicious
Sure, ShareThis from above will allow you to post to Facebook, but this is just a nice and simple bookmarklet to add the page you're viewing to Facebook.
Drag to Bookmark Bar:
If you're not using FriendFeed, you're a tool. But if you are using FriendFeed, this bookmarklet will allow you to post your current page to your main feed, or to any of your rooms. It's simple, but full of options. This is a must if you ever find yourself trying to post to FF.
Drag to Bookmark Bar: Add to FriendFeed
I use a ton of different tools for screen caps, but this one is one of the easiest, making this one of my favorite bookmarklets. "kwout" is a way you quote a part of a web page as an image with an image map. To use this service, all you need is to add the bookmarklet to your favorite browser.
Visit Site for Bookmarklet
This list wouldn't be complete without a Twitter reference. If you've ever looked for a dead-simple way to update your twitter status, this is the bookmarklet for you. You have to go to the site to create the bookmarklet, but it's as simple as providing your login info. So head over, make a bookmarklet, and get twittering.
Visit Site for Bookmarklet
Related Reading:
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms
Teaching With the Tools Kids Really Use: Learning With Web and Mobile Technologies
Ultimate Guide to Google Ad Words, 2nd Edition: How To Access 100 Million People in 10 Minutes
