Previously on this site I’ve talked about using PhotoDropper to make importing and attribution of Creative Commons-licensed Flickr images easier.

However, yesterday on BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow requested a bookmarklet to create attribution lines for CC-licensed images. Earlier today, a user came through for him by making a simple “drag and drop” bookmarklet that you can add to your browser toolbar.

To use the bookmark, you simple navigate to the Flickr image you want to use (making sure it is CC-licensed) and then click the bookmarklet. You’ll be greeted with a popup that tells you to copy the HTML code that you then paste into your site/post below the image.

The only wrinkle in the bookmarklet is that it doesn’t 100% complete the license. It does not link to the actual CC license, though it does mention its name. This is hair-splitting but, considering it would be an easy fix I would still like it to be done (Note: I left a comment on the BoingBoing post about this but it hasn’t been put up yet).

Still, it is a great idea, especially for those who don’t use WordPress or would rather download and host the images themselves and not hotlinking off of Flickr’s servers (as PhotoDropper does). Other than that, I still largely prefer PhotoDropper as it formats the text better and uses the CC logo, making it a bit shorter of an attribution line.

For those who are interested in an even easier way, there is also a Flickr CC Attribution Helper script for Greasemonkey that places a textbox with the attribution code on every page. Though it can only be used with Firefox and with the Greasemonkey extension installed, for those using that system it may make a lot of sense.

However, this script neither mentions which CC license the work is being used under nor does it link to the license, just to the image and the user profile.

Still, either of these scripts will be better than most of the CC attribution that takes place, They both do a more complete job than most do on their own and I’m certainly almost anyone who licenses content under CC would be happy with the attribution as it does keep with the spirit of the license, if not the letter.

All in all, these are great ideas for citing Creative Commons works.

However, they also have a great deal of use when tracking down and stopping plagiarism, content theft or spammers. These bookmarklets, literally with the click of a mouse, can undo much of the dirty work that is required in the process of searching for and stopping infringement.

So what five bookmarklets are most commonly in the top of my browser? Here’s a quick rundown of my five favorite bookmarklets and how they can save you tons of headache when it comes to stopping misuse of your work on the Web.

Mahalo’s Plagiarism Detection Tool is one of the simplest bookmarklets imaginable. Previously covered here last year, the tool works by having you highlight text on a page, meaning your own content if you are searching for plagiarism of your work, and then clicking the bookmarklet to perform a Google search.

It is a simple tool that helps avoid some copy and paste work but also makes it great for quick anti-plagiarism checks. A great use, for example, is if you’re suspicious that a site is a spam blog or if you think you’ve read an article somewhere else before.

Certainly not a complicated bookmarklet, but one that is brilliant in its simplicity.

Need to know who is hosting a Web site? Considering sending a DMCA notice or filing a spam complaint? WhoIsHostingThis has a great bookmarklet to quickly locate the Web host of any page.

Though I previously covered WhoIsHostingThis earlier this year, I didn’t mention its very useful bookmarklet, which allows you to click the link on any page as you are surfing and then be taken to the best information they can provide about who is hosting that site.

Though WhoIsHostingThis is far from perfect, it works reliably enough for most Webmasters and it is by far the easiest solution available.

Stepping up both in terms of power and complexity from WhoIsHostingThis, Domain Tools offers a much more robust bookmarklet for determining who the host is of a site, as well as obtaining whois information for the domain and other networking tools.

Easy one of the most powerful bookmarklets on this list, it is also one of the most intimidating to new users. If you need help interpreting the results produced by Domain Tools, check out the “Finding the Host” page here on Plagiarism Today under the “Stopping Internet Plagiarism” heading.

Want to see how old a page is (approximately) or how long a piece of content has been on there? The Wayback Machine is one of the best and easiest tools you can use.

But while most who need to perform such searches are aware of the invaluable service the Wayback Machine can provide, few are aware that a programmer, Stephen Ostermiller, has created a simple bookmarklet for checking any page you’re on in the Wayback Machine.

The page also provides several other caching services including Coral Cache and Google Cache so you can check other sources for backup copies of a page.

Speaking of caching, before you file a notice against a Web page and get the infringing material removed, you may want to create a backup copy of the site should a dispute arise later.

WebCite is easily one of the best services for doing exactly that. Though it was designed to aid in the citing of sources for academic papers, its on-demand caching service is perfect for those that need to keep a copy of a page they expect to go down.

However, even better is that they offer a custom bookmarklet that not only lets you cache any page that you are visiting, but it emails you an alert when the caching is done, making it easy to keep a copy for your records.

It is the perfect on-demand caching solution for this purpose.

Conclusions

For me, my bookmark toolbar is very crowded. In addition to my other services, my anti-plagiarism bookmarklets take up a lot of room. I’ve had to find ways to organize them so I can have actual bookmarks available to me.

If you are serious about protecting your content or are routinely dealing with spammers, odds are you’ll find at least some of these bookmarklets useful.

In short, though bookmarklets can’t replace some of the more powerful anti-plagiarism tools, they can help make the process a great deal easier and can be very useful for “quickie” checks or information.

Since they are free and install with the click of a mouse, there’s almost no reason not to have them. If you don’t use them, you can always delete them and be done with it.

That alone makes them worth at least a try.

It is a bold initiative and, to help achieve that goal, Mahalo has created a simple javascript bookmarklet to look for plagiarized or duplicate content. The idea is that, by helping its human editors detect unoriginal content, they can better filter out unwanted sites from their results pages.

However, the tool they created is not just available to editors at the Mahalo site, but to anyone that might find use for it. But even though it’s not a powerful enough tool to warrant relying on it solely, there is enough is more than enough to make it a useful addition for any plagiarism-fighter’s toolbox.

How it Works

The idea behind the Mahalo tool is very simple. You add a bookmarklet, which is really a snippet of JavaScript code, to your browser’s bookmark bar. You then visit a site that you want to check for plagiarism, either for being plagiarized or for being a plagiarism, select a small block of text and then click the bookmarklet. You will be whisked away to a Google search result for the text you just selected.

The results are returned instantly and with Google’s typical reliability. Though the results will only be as good as the text that is selected, it is still the fastest way I know of to search the largest and most complete collection of Web sites available.

The idea is very simple and all the bookmarklet really does is save the steps of copying the text into your search box and adding the quotes. However, even though it only saves a few seconds per search, people who want to quickly use Google to check large volumes of work will likely find the bookmarklet useful.

Sadly enough, that might be a larger audience than anyone thinks.

Who It’s For

Very likely, this tool will find a place for blog editors and others responsible for posting the works of others on their sites. Though a tool such as iPlagiarismCheck (Note: See this article about iPlagiarismCheck before registering.) would be much better for more a thorough analysis of the content, this can provide an initial on a submission or a way to do checks in between more thorough inspections.

Also, bloggers might find this tool useful to do spot checks of their own works. Since creating Google Alerts is prohibitive time-wise for blog entries, Mahalo’s bookmarklet can be used to randomly inspect works and check for scraping/spam blogging whenever you have a free moment. Since it is present in your browser, there is even a reminder to perform such checks from time to time.

Finally, it can also be used by people who are investigating allegations of plagiarism. It would make it very easy, for example, a forum owner to check all of the works posted by a suspicious user. It could also help Webmasters check the other works of a plagiarist to see who or what else they might have ripped off.

In short, there’s a wide variety of people who may be interested in this rather simple bookmarklet. It certainly is not a major step forward in fighting plagiarism, but every improvement is a welcome one.

Conclusions

Personally, I don’t really see Mahalo’s tool replacing anything else out there. It really is nothing more than a shortcut to a Google search.

That being said, any short cut that doesn’t harm the end results is a shortcut worth taking. This definitely meets that criteria.

In the end, there is no reason not to install the bookmarklet in your browser, unless your bookmarks bar is already overflowing, so it makes sense to go ahead and grab it, even if it is only to play with it.

If nothing else, this tool shows that Mahalo is taking a serious look at these issues and is taking steps to keep their site filled with original content. The fact that others may derive some usefulness from their tool is just icing on the cake.

Hat Tip: Thanks to Andy Beard for tipping me off to this tool.