Here’s a little known secret: bookmarklets work on your iPhone.

But wait, what are bookmarklets?

Bookmarklets are little pieces of Javascript code that can be saved as ordinary bookmarks in your web browser. They enhance your browsing experience by giving you super-instant access to useful tools and special functionality.

There are billions of them, and below are my favorites. These work wonderfully on a computer, but they’ll add an extra boost of functionality to your iPhone.

To use, just drag the links into Safari’s Bookmarks Bar and synch them to your iPhone via iTunes. Next, bring up the Bookmarks Bar folder on your iPhone and simply tap the bookmarklet you want to use.

Functionality

1. Find in this page
This really should be built-in to the iPhone: the ability to find a word or phrase on the current page. Results are in bold and highlighted in yellow directly on page. (Now works in both Safari 2 and 3)

2. Open links in new window
Makes links appear in new windows when you tap on them. Read more here

3. Find similar sites
Gets a list of similar sites via similicio.us

4. Display all images
View all images on the current page in a new window

5. List all links
Takes all links from the current page and lists them in a new window

Reference

6. Dictionary
Look up a word on Dictionary.com

7. Thesaurus
Find synonyms for a word on Thesaurus.com

8. Wikipedia
Find an article on Wikipedia

9. Translate to English
Translates the current page to English. (Google automagically detects the language)

Out & About

10. Movie times
Get movie listings and showtimes in your zip code

11. Rotten Tomatoes
No one wants to see a rotten movie. Check the reviews before you buy your tickets

Search

12. YubNub
This is my personal favorite. It let’s you rapidly access over 10,500 search services and tools via shortcut commands. Read more here.

13. IMDB
Look up your favorite movie, celebrity, or tv show

14. AllMusic
Look up your favorite music artist or band

15. Amazon
The whole world is pretty much on sale here

16. eBay
For everythign else, there’s ebay

17. Google Images
Get pics of just about anything

Want more?

Check out these sites:

• Bookmarklets.com
• Samrod’s Functional Bookmarklets
• Smashing Magazine’s roundup of bookmarklets, favelets, and snippets

Thanks goes to Sean for pointing this feature out to me.

Update (July 18, 2007): Looks like a few folks are having problems with the Find in this page bookmarklet. I’ve now replaced it with an alternative version based on a bookmarklet by slayeroffice. This version will also tell you the number of results found. Please let me know how this works for you.

Update (July 19, 2007): The Find in this page bookmarklet now works in both Safari 2 and 3. It looks like it was an issue with URL encoding.

Do you have a favorite bookmarklet? Go ahead, plug it in the comments!

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