Bookmarks are a time-honored tradition on the internet. It doesn’t matter if you are using desktop browsers or mobile browsers, you very likely have some bookmarks of your favorite sites. But did you know that there are other ways aside from bookmarks to access your favorite sites? In some cases, they can actually be faster than bookmarks. Let’s take a look at them.
1. Mozilla Firefox Keyword
The Mozilla Firefox keyword is actually a little bit of a cheater on this list because it does involve bookmarks. Here’s how it works. You create a bookmark. Then you find it, right click on it, and click Properties. From there you can set a keyword for the website. In our screenshot above we used ‘lforg’ for Lifehack.org. Once that keyword is set, you simply type lforg into the address bar and the site will load on its own. This can be a great way to just type a few keystrokes and get to the sites you love faster.
2. Google Chrome Search Engines hack
Google Chrome can do something similar to Firefox’s keyword trick but it takes a little more set up. If you go into the address bar, right click, and click to Edit Search Engines, you’ll be taken to the screen you see in the screenshot above. Add any website with a name and a keyword. From that point forward you can type that keyword into the address bar and the site will automatically pop up just like the Firefox example.
3. Text Expansion
This one is a little obscure because not a lot of people use text expansion. Here’s how it works. You download an application like this one for Windows. Using this software you can set the application to replace a phrase you type with something else. For instance, if you set ‘lforg’ to be replaced with the web address for Lifehack, the app will automatically replace that keyword with the site address whenever you type it. You can do FB for Facebook, GPlus for Google+, or whatever takes your fancy!
4. Use your own web history
Once you’ve done some web browsing, sites you frequently visit will pop up once you start typing them in the address bar. As you can see above, when I type the letter P, Google Plus, Google Play Store, and PayPal pop up. If I were to type F, then Facebook would pop right up. Based on the sites you visit, just typing a couple of letters can bring up prior pages that you have visited in the past. This a fun way to keep your bookmarks clean and set up is very easy. Simply browse the web like normal and the browser does the rest!
5. On mobile, turn sites into icons
On iOS and Android, you can take any web page and turn it into an icon on your home screen. The process for both is pretty much the same. On iOS you click the action button and then click Add to Homescreen. That website will become an icon on your home screen that you can tap and get to at any time. On Android, it’s a matter of using the menu in your browser to do essentially the same thing. Bookmarks on mobile aren’t as rich or easy to organize as desktop bookmarks, so this is a great way to save your favorite sites on mobile.
6. Chrome pin tabs
Google Chrome pin tabs is one of the most unique ways of saving sites. Instead of closing out of tabs, you right click them and click Pin Tab. As you can see in the screenshot the tab is minimized into a much smaller version of itself where all you can see is the website icon. These pinned tabs stick around when you close and re-open the browser, making them extremely useful if you’re on the same websites all the time.
Wrap up
We don’t anticipate bookmarks going anywhere anytime soon. With some proper management, they can still be a very efficient way of organizing your favorite sites. However, if you do want to try a new way, these solutions can offer similar efficiency and help you stay a little more organized.
Featured photo credit: Of Zen and Computing via ofzenandcomputing.com
