How to Edit Any Web Page Live in Your Browser
July 8th, 2008 | Filed under Blogging, Design.How easy is it to edit any webpage on any website in your browser? Very simple and easy. Paste a simple code into the location bar and you can actually edit any page on any site in realtime. Though this sounds like fun, it can have serious implications.
Let me start by surprising you with my million dollar Adsense earnings for today!
Ok so its a fake screenshot and I did not use Adobe Photoshop or any image editing software, so how did I do it? Here is the magic code spreading across the web which can edit any webpage
javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0
Simply copy and paste it into the location bar of your web browser when you are on any page and you can now edit it. Though this is a cool tool to have some fun, it is dangerous tool used by scamsters to create fake screenshots and websites resembling the original to misinterpret facts and for phishing attempts. So you need to be alert on the web and not believe everything you see…
You don’t actually need to remember that code - To make this process faster, use the Edit Page bookmarklet (drag to your browser bookmarks toolbar, and click when needed). Try it on this page now by simply placing the cursor on any text, deleting it or editing it. These edits are not permanent and limited to your browser window only. Refresh the page and its gone. Techzilo lists many such bookmarklets to modify webpages.
I checked that this code works on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Although it is easy to edit any page by altering its html code, this real time editing is amazing. Opera web browser also has a built in special feature to do this - View > Source, edit in Source Editor and “Apply Changes”.
Firefox users can also try the Firebug firefox extension, a powerful tool that lets you edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page, and is popular among webmasters and web designers. Greasemonkey is another popular firefox extension that modifies the web and allows you to customize the way a webpage displays and functions using small bits of JavaScript.
You now know how easy it is to modify web content and even a kid could do it. Beware of what you see online… it could not be true!
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Comments
GoingLikeSixty | 9/07/08 #
This is really FREAKY simple. I’ve already earned my million dollars, hit the top of Yahoo Buzz and the front of Huffpo.
wow. just wow.
Directory Pond Wallace | 9/07/08 #
oops, it’s really a funny code, never try before.
srinivas | 9/07/08 #
Wow.. Super.
Quakeboy | 9/07/08 #
This is sooo coool !
Marc Savoy | 9/07/08 #
This is indeed a neat little trick but to what end?
Editing the page provides no permanence in the manner in which it was edited and restarting the browser reverts the page back to its intended online appearance. It also un-enables all page usability features such as hypertext linking and the ability to post comments, essentially
transformed into a dead screen copy page.
The option to edit any web page has been around for quite some time available via the Firefox add-on ‘Remove It Permanently’ where you can edit any page permanently with all page usability features intact.
Keith Dsouza | 10/07/08 #
Wow this is funky, wonder how many users use this to fool around with their stats and earnings. Lol.
Bum | 10/07/08 #
Cool!
I have seem some very nice bookmarklets but this one is on of the best.
pjaraj | 17/07/08 #
This is Coool…..
Mark | 27/08/08 #
Great Post. I saw this before and wanted to find it again and came accross your site. Much more informative than the original one I visited .
If you can do this in the browser, why can’t you make web pages like this? I know, semantics, smantics. haha
Cool. Thanks
Dwayne Charrington | 11/09/08 #
Wow, thanks for the heads up on the Opera trick. I am relatively new to Opera (I switched from Firefox), I haven’t looked back since. I missed Firebug, but Opera has features that come close enough for me.
Leland | 29/09/08 #
Woah… this is actually useful! When you’re on a page for a long time (Wikipedia, video games, etc.) you can use this to get rid of advertisements! Very cool, thanks for sharing!
Ricks | 29/10/08 #
Or use firebug
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