Making Technorati tags irritating? Drag this to your bookmarks.

Though I’m fairly technically savvy I’ve been a rotten script student. Oh, one time I had programming down pretty cold. These days, as a confirmed end-user, I learn as much as I have to to get by.

One thing is Technorati tags. Simple looking enough, but even though I can hand-code HTML, I have to understand what I’m coding. And typing all those greater-thans, less-thans, and remember the rel attribute contribute to errors almost every time.

Not long ago I stumbled on the Magical Sheep Bookmarklet (for Firefox only–IE hates long favelets), and was quite amazed. This is a string of javascript that acts like a link. Dropping it on your bookmarks bar creates a one-step, grab-it-and-go way of generating a line of Technorati tags (including multi-word tags) that make it as easy as typing a few words, then copying and pasting.

Once installed as a bookmark, the bookmarklet is activated just like clicking the link. When this happens, a sheet with an entry box unfurls. Just type your line of terms, separated by commas, and click “OK”. The sheet disappears to be quickly replace by another with CSS-agreeable code, with the code in the box already highlighted for copying/cutting; one does so, then dismisses the sheet.

For instance, for this, if I type the terms “Magical Sheep, bookmarklet, Technorati Tags, HTML” into the bookmarklet, I get returned the following:


<span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags:
<a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/
Magical+Sheep" rel="tag">
Magical Sheep</a>,
<a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/
bookmarklet" rel="tag">
bookmarklet</a>,
<a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/
Technorati+Tags" rel="tag">
Technorati Tags</a>,
<a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/
HTML" rel="tag">
HTML</a>
</span>


It even comes complete with a class spec, for quick’n'easy CSS styling.

I find this useful because someone else does the coding, it’s CSS compliant, and all I do is cut and paste–and when your blog is Blogger, you have to do some of this yourself.

Get it and get tagging. [1] It’s available here, at the “A Consuming Experience” blog, which has a lot of tutorial wisdom. Find the link that reads “Technorati Magical Sheep Bookmarklet—Baaaaaaa!“, drag it to your Firefox toolbar, and save yourself a step.