Something I do quite a bit is email links to interesting articles I come across to people I think would find it interesting. While you can manually copy and paste the URL and paste it into an email, I use the built in browser function:
- Firefox: Right click on the page and select “Send Link”.
- Internet Explorer: From the Page menu, select “Send Link by Email”.
Both functions create a new mail message in your configured email client (Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, etc.) with the page title as the subject and the respective link in the body. From here you can add any text you want prior to sending. Simple enough.
With this functionality native to the browser, why would you use a toolbar to do the same function? The only reason I bring this up is because with the roughly 18 million browser toolbars out there, I am sure a good number of them capture to and from email addresses to use for who knows what. Now I do not have data to back this up, only a cynical/non-naive hunch.
Unless you use a web based email client which is not supported, the browser function for sending links should meet your needs 99% of the time so why use anything else? Am I missing something here? If so, let me know in the comments.
Like what you read?
If so, please join over 28,000 people who receive our exclusive weekly newsletter and computer tips, and get FREE COPIES of 5 eBooks we created, as our gift to you for subscribing. Just enter your name and email below:
Hi Dave,
I don’t feel you are missing anything. I feel you make complete sense.
Folk generally download a plethora of extra add-on’s & toolbars that, firstly, they never fully utilise and, secondly, that drastically slow down their browser.
On their own, to your point, Firefox / IE provide 99 – 100% of the functionality one requires for our daily routines.
Kind rgds,
Dorian
I use this function all the time, and it is the main reason that I don’t use Google Chrome – it doesn’t have a “send link” option (or page preview for printing, which is another big problem).
Through all this years, I was copying and pasting the URLs to my email.
Thanks for uncovering this hidden treasure. It’s something that’s been there but many aren’t aware of – until you said so.
We appreciate your tips!
Hi Dave – I like your idea and have been trying to use it
for a long time. Every time I clicked SEND LINK, it tried to use Outlook. But I use Thunderbird.
So your message here caused me to poke around TBird and I found this setting: Tools — Options — General –
“Always check that Thunderbird is the default”
Solved the problem – the Send LInk opens TBird.
Thanks for pushing me to solve this.
John Wyman
Syracuse, NY
Do people not read the author of the article before referencing them in a post? It’s Jason Faulkner, not David Risley, haha xP
Great tip Jason! I wish there was a way to configure it to use webmail as well. I don’t mind copying and pasting for the time being though.
In Firefox, you can (for the popular ones):
http://www.pcmech.com/article/setting-gmail-or-yahoo-mail-as-default-in-firefox/
Sounds good and would be useful for me but nowhere in the Internet Explorer I have can I find “Page” in any menu. Only Page I can find is a sub-folder under “File” which is called “Page Setup”…but I don’t think that is the “Page” you are referring to.
The Page menu is on the Command Bar which is on the same level as your tabs.
If you don’t see it, right click in some empty area next to a tab and from the menu select “Command Bar” so it becomes checked.