Improve your web browsing experience with bookmarklets

Launch a web browser and visit the Marklets website. You can browse through the immense list of available bookmarklets or search to see if there is one available for a particular website.

Here, for example, we have searched for bookmarklets that could be used to enhance the Youtube website: type Youtube into the box at the top of the page and click Search to view a list of related bookmarklets.

Click a link in the results list to view a detailed description of the bookmarklet and find out what other users think of it. To install a particular bookmarklet, scroll down the page to the Download Bookmarklet heading. Now right-click the button below this and, from the pop-up menu, select the option to create a browser bookmark or favourite – the wording varies between web browsers.

In Internet Explorer, select the Add to Favorites option (click Yes if a security warning is displayed). From the Create In dropdown menu, ensure that the Favorites Bar option is selected and then click Add after entering a suitable title for the link. In Firefox, right-click the installation link and select Bookmark This Link. From the Folder dropdown menu, select the Bookmarks Toolbar option, enter a meaningful name for the link and click Save. The bookmarklet is now installed and ready to use.

Now visit the related website to test the new bookmarklet. We added the 'Download from Youtube' bookmarklet: when you are using the bookmarklet, download options will be added beneath any video played in Youtube. Use the dropdown menu to select the video quality and then right-click the Here link to save the file – the exact name of the option varies between browsers.

Bookmarklets can be treated just like any other bookmark and organised into folders, if you want. However, large numbers of bookmarklets can become tricky to manage, which is where Marklet’s own bookmarklet comes in handy. Click the Home link at the top of the Marklets website, then click the Marklets.com Bookmarklet link and finally bookmark the bookmarklet in the same way as before.

When visiting any website, click the Marklets.com bookmarklet and a pop-up window will appear. Use this window to search the Marklets.com website for suitable bookmarklets, without the need to switch sites. Enter a search term in the text box before pressing Enter. Clicking the small arrow alongside an entry in the results list will visit the bookmarklet's page, ready to install it. Alternatively, just click the bookmarklet name to run it immediately – no installation required.