Those who want to try a different method of navigating links on websites, can use some extensions for the Chrome and Firefox browsers that allow you to open a preview of the links in a pop-up . In this way the user can immediately see what it is, immediately checking if it is worth clicking on it or if you want to avoid wasting time going to that site.
With this type of extensions you can see, automatically, a quick and miniaturized preview of the site that hides behind a link, just by hovering over it .
This method of navigation is particularly useful when doing searches, to see if the link leads to a good or bad site, with a quick glance.
The extension on Chrome is called EZLinkpreview, easy, light and with several options to customize its behavior.
As it is installed, you can immediately test the effectiveness of the add-on by hovering the mouse over a link on this page or in a Google search.
In a pop up, a small window, you quickly load the site to which the web link leads.
Moving the mouse, the pop-up disappears automatically.
The size of the pop-up window is dynamic and changes depending on the size of the screen or the main browser window.
The preview window can be enlarged and locked by pressing the CTRL key and remains open without disappearing.
The extension was designed for all types of links, including image and video links.
If you find an interesting page, you can look at it enlarged without having to click on it while on a web page with miniaturized photos, you can immediately see the enlarged image by hovering over the mouse, in preview.
EZLinkpreview also works on the Youtube site to open videos without clicking them, opening them in a separate window at the single mouse-over.
If you don't like the fact that each link opens by itself in a pop-up, there are two useful options on the extension page.
You can exclude a particular site from making the previews of the links appear, putting the domain in the list of Blocked URLS.
You may prefer that the pop-up preview windows not appear when you hover the mouse over a link but when you hover the cursor and hold down the Shift key on the keyboard at the same time.
In this way you can activate the preview function only manually, when maybe you do searches or check lists of links.
On Firefox, the same thing can be achieved with Simple Preview Link, an add-on that allows you to open websites, in preview, by hovering the mouse over the links .
Interclue is useful in the same way only it has the defect of keeping an almost useless button bar on the top of the pop-up.
By clicking on the Interclue icon at the bottom right of Firefox you can configure some options to make the previews appear: "mousehoover" (automatic mouse-over), if you have to hold down the CTRL key, if you have to click the Interclue icon .
Also this extension makes the automatic enlargement of images and photos, without having to open them in a separate page.
In other article, some Chrome and Firefox extensions for:
- automatic zooming of images online .
