If you are like me, then you use the internet or an intranet a great deal on a daily basis.

And if also like me, you tend to use the same online resources again and again, then it makes sense that getting to those online resources as fast as possible makes for a great boost in productivity. Enter 'QuickLinks'.

QuickLinks are a set of links that you have that you want to get to quickly. This may take the form of Bookmarks or a Browser Speed Dial plugin, both are good options.

However, what I have found works best for me is something I have custom built for my own needs.

A simple html file called quicklinks.html that contains a number of categorized hyperlinks that are easily filterable and selectable. I set it as my browsers default page and whenever I want to get to a commonly used link, I simply..

1. Open a new browser or tab, (the search box is automatically focused),
2. I start typing a few letters, (this filters the links)
3. I tab onto the link I want, and then hit enter.

Extremely fast.

Here it is in action (with some obfuscation)..

So useful has this been in fact, I now share it with the rest of my team in its own repository that the team can update with new links.

When I get the chance, I will put a generic version of it in a new repository on my GitHub that you are more than welcome to fork or make your own version of.

You can see below by my poor (but effective) javascript that I set a keyup listener on the searchbox on page load. I also focus the search box immediately. You'll also notice that the filterLinks methods hides all links whose text and urls don't contain the search phrase.

Building and sharing your own collection of links or having communal QuickLinks is a great way of promotion Organisational Learning within your business.

I have even toyed with creating a website where collections of links can be created by individuals and shared, but that is another rainy day project.

-- Lee