Simple bookmarklets are also great for developers and QA people who need to access online bug systems. I have bookmarklets for several different Bugzillas: if someone references a Mozilla bug by number, all I have to do is type in mozbug 233853 and it goes straight to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=233853, while gimpbug 120829 will do a comparable search in GIMP/Gnome's Bugzilla.

These examples all have simple URLs, but they don't have to. I once built up a complex Google query to find XKCD cartoons by keyword: xkcd %s site:xkcd.com -site:forums.xkcd.com -site:fora.xkcd.com -site:blag.xkcd.com. Of course, I saved it as a bookmarklet. Now any time I want to search for a cartoon, all I have to do is type xkcd keywords.

Simple bookmarklets are a great timesaver and a lot of fun -- give them a try! In the next installment, I'll describe more complex bookmarklets, the sort that use Javascript. They're even more powerful!

Akkana Peck is a freelance programmer whose credits include a tour as a Mozilla developer. She's also the author of Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional

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