Websites are in the Eye of the Beholder

Running shoes, SUVs, cell phones, dog collars, vacations, the list of customizable products grows every hour. So why not the way you view websites?

Ever heard of Bookmarklets (or Favlets for you IE folk)? I’ve been hearing more and more about them lately, so I decided I should probably see what the deal was. Here’s what I found…

Want italic text or to view images at 300%?- no problem. If you want to view websites with black backgrounds and white text, you can do that too. You can even get a listing of all links or e-mail addresses on a site.
Bookmarklets are Javascript modifications that override URL code.

The concept was in mind during the invention of Javascript, and has been used since 2001, according to Wikipedia.

Greesemonkey allows Firefox to run live modifications or only for specified sites.

If you are looking on Amazon for a book, you can roll over the book title link and Bookburro will show you the prices of that book on other sites. It will even show you if that book is available at local libraries.

So what does this mean? Well, if you are a web designer it means that people will not always see your pages as you want them to. That custom color you worked so hard to get just right for the background- replaced by pink or white. It also allows users to find contact info quickly or blow up a tiny picture of your product.

All I’m saying is that you should keep these kinds of tools in mind when you are developing/recreating your web presence and find ways to make them beneficial. Why not even offer links to Bookmarklets on your site? (FYI- Bookmarklets don’t seem to work very well on Flash sites.)