Tech Terminology: Bookmark

The Internet is home to a vast amount of knowledge. Undoubtedly you’ll find yourself revisiting certain sites more often than others to take advantage of the information contained within. Thankfully, the bookmark system is a great way to make this happen, giving users an easy and efficient way to navigate back to frequently-visited websites.

What Are Bookmarks?
Just like how a regular bookmark can mark where you were last in a book, a digital bookmark can help you mark a web page so you can revisit it at a later time. You can create a bookmark of a web page by using the Ctrl + D keyboard shortcut. Depending on the browser, you can also click on a specific button to bookmark a singular page. For example, the button in Google Chrome is the star-like icon in the right-hand side of the task bar.

One thing to note is that bookmarks might be called something else in other browsers. Generally, they will be referred to as either Bookmarks or Favorites. You can also view your entire list of Bookmarks or Favorites by clicking on the menu for your chosen web browser and selecting Bookmarks (for Chrome, it’s the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the browser).

Why Use Bookmarks?
It’s clear why you should use bookmarks; you can save countless hours of your workday just by keeping a list of your most viewed websites close at hand. This lets you cut down on time spent typing addresses into the search bar, eliminating the possibility of you typing a mistake and visiting the wrong website, forcing you to correct yourself and potentially even visit a completely different website.

Ultimately, the time saved by using bookmarks adds up, and you might be surprised by how much you actually wind up saving in the long run. Plus, it just makes your life easier--any technology that does this should be taken advantage of, not pushed to the side and ignored.

So, why not give it a try? Go ahead and make Washington Works’s blog one of your bookmarks. That way, you’ll never miss out on great tech terms or tips and tricks again.