It seems the bookmarklet I offer in the latest Mac 911 column (a bookmarklet that creates a new email message that contains the URL of the currently active Safari webpage) has set the creative juices flowing. Reader Chris Konizer has fashioned an interesting bookmarklet that embeds the URL of the currently active page in your browser in an IM message. He explains:
I’ve been meaning to try out using bookmarklets and this was the one that finally lit the fire and got me to do it. It got me thinking though—if I can do this with my default mail program, why not IM the link?I played around a bit with the script and came up with this bookmarklet.
As with the bookmarklet in Christopher’s article, store this as a bookmark named “IM This!” or whatever tickles your fancy. When you want to send a page to a buddy, simply click the bookmark, add the buddy(s) you want to chat with and send the IM. You can customize the link further and enter a buddy’s IM for the screenname parameter (it will address the IM to them), and entering text between the + symbols in the message parameter.
It seems to work in Safari and Firefox (even worked in M$) and launches your default IM program (iChat for me).
In order to fit the bookmarklet’s code on this page I embedded it in a link. To make it work as Chris describes, click on the link above and drag it into your browser’s Bookmark Bar. Alternatively, Control-click on the link above and choose Copy Link to Clipboard from the contextual menu. Highlight the text in your browser’s Address field and paste.