The Good, The Bad

and

THE BOOKMARKLETS

This is actually my second post for "Fill Up Your Toolbox", in which I am taking a look at several of the Browser-Bar "Bookmarklets" that were recommended for this week.  Of the five that were suggested:  Printliminator, Quietube, KeepVid, DestroyTheWeb adn Site Specific, I managed to work with three of them. 

Here is what I found in working with them:

Printliminator (http://css-tricks.com/examples/ThePrintliminator/)

Only print out the parts of a web page that you actually want.

This site / bookmarklet seemed to work fairly well.  It was easy to install - just drag and drop, and didn't require any real sign-up process.  I did notice that when selecting what you don't want to print, it can be a little touchy as to what is selected. Sometimes it will let you select the entire column, sometimes it only picks out small, individual sections.  I also found that it doesn't always send to the printer correctly, if it sends at all.  I actually had better luck saving the print as a PDF file, then printing, than what I did trying a direct print of the page.  This could be my printer, I am not certain, as I have not had the time to try this at another location...  

Overall, this is a neat and potentially very useful tool, as it can eliminate (with a little work) all of the "fluff" that comes with trying to print standard web pages.  Something that I will definitely use.

The next site that I looked at was 

Quitetube (http://quietube.com/)

which filters out all of the advertisements and extraneous distractions from the YouTube website.

I want to make note of that specification:  the YouTube website.

I actually tried this tool on several other video streaming sites (Kissanime, Crunchyroll, Hulu, to name a few) and found that more often than not it actually interfered with the video stream.  It still blanked out the advertisements and external links, but it also blanked out the video.  Again, this might be a setting issue, I am not sure, but when it worked for one site and not several others, I am inclined to believe that it might be site specific.  Either way, it is a good tool for classroom / YouTube use, as it will remove many of the distractions which occur when using that site.

The last site that I had the time to explore didn't do so well.  It was

KeepVid  (https://keepvid.works/)

which is supposed to allow you to download streamed videos from multiple sites, including YouTube, Lynda, Hulu and other s.

When I first searched for this site, I ended up "registering" for something that had nothing to do with KeepVid, even though it was supposed a direct link to obtain the software.  It wasn't.  Not a good way to start off.  I then checked a different link, which told me to insert the URL for the video that I wanted, and it would download it.  I copied and pasted the URL, and was told that it could not find the link, even though I had it up on another monitor at the same time.  The site was a Lynda.Com video, so it might have something to do with the login, but it definitely didn't live up to its advertisement.    Again, this might be a YouTube specific application.  If so, I have limited use for it...