Four Tools to Enhance Your Favorite Websites (part 2)

Welcome back to our countdown of four tools to enhance your favorite websites! If you're joining us in the middle, why not start with part 1?

# Pinterest

So how many of you out there use Pinterest? If you are anything like me, you use it too much. I save ideas for my kids' birthday parties, recipes, you name it! It can be such a pain, though, looking for the pin button on a page that you want to save. Luckily there is a way to get around that as well. You can add a button to your browser much like the one for Amazon that I mentioned above. It's a little more complicated but definitely doable:

https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/add-pin-it-button-your-browser

There are buttons for the web, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Each option has step-by-step instructions for how to install. It even allows you to pin pages that don't have a pin button already, as long as the page has a picture.

Sometimes the sheer number of things I have pinned gets overwhelming. I knew I needed to organize my boards to be able to find anything but I dreaded trying to manually sort through the 600+ desserts that I want to try. Then I found:

https://pin4ever.com/

It does require an install and it currently only works on Firefox but it's really helpful. It allows you to select a lot of pins at the same time and do bulk operations like moving them to a different board, finding duplicates, or deleting them. Now my desserts board has been broken into cookies, pies, cakes, etc. This is probably the first time that talking about a tool has made me hungry. This is just scratching the surface of what the tool can do.

# eBay

So now we come to eBay. Now there are tons of apps for eBay but I'm focusing on just the computer right now. Have you ever been on your computer near the end of an auction, gotten distracted, and missed out on a great deal? I have done that tons of times. In fact, many times when I sit down at my computer I end up not doing the one thing I really meant to do. In any case, eBay has a tool that will send you an instant message if you have been outbid or if a listing ends. That way, even if you forget to switch tabs and check on an auction, you will be informed if something important happens. Instructions for that can be found here:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/text-wireless.html# im

There's no need to install anything; you just turn on IM alerts in your communication preferences. It does require that you have an account with either AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live, or Yahoo! Messenger though.

So, have you learned anything new? I really hope so. I know that my life is a little easier thanks to these time-saving online tools. Do you know anyone that shops or Amazon or uses Pinterest? Why not share this article with them? I'm sure they'll thank you.