5 Things About QuickOnlineTips You Never Knew

How well do you know your favorite tech blog? Here are 5 things about quickonlinetips (QOT) I bet you did not know, from our original name in 2004 to the posts that first put us on the map.

Quick answer: QuickOnlineTips started on Blogger in 2004 as “Quick Online Tips That Work”, a hobby blog of how-to tips with lots of screenshots. It once used the short domain QOT.me, and its early hits were a Del.icio.us tools list, a mosquito racket post linked by BoingBoing and Engadget, and a Flickr tools list that held PR7 for years.

5 things about quickonlinetips you never knew

I first shared these five facts in December 2010. They are still part of our story, so here they are again, with a few notes on what has changed since.

1. Quick Online Tips That Work

Yes, that was the original name of this blog when we started it on Blogger in 2004. The really earliest readers in 2004 might remember. It was started as a hobby and meant to showcase some how-to tips and tricks, some extra long articles with lots of screenshots. But as the brand developed, “That Work” was cropped out in favor of a shorter brand name (which I think is still too long).

The idea has not changed much. Our tagline today is “Tech help that works. Since 2004.” so the “that works” part found its way back.

2. Our short domain name

Did you ever use QOT.me instead of typing the super long domain name quickonlinetips.com? We set it up as a short domain that redirected to the main site, so you could type qot.me on your browser or mobile device much quicker. If you followed us on Twitter (now X), you probably knew that already. Today the simplest way in is still quickonlinetips.com, or just search for QOT.

3. First most popular post

It was called Absolutely Del.icio.us. This was the first collection of all Delicious tools (the bookmarking site was called del.icio.us before Yahoo! bought it). It was a superhit on del.icio.us and consistently topped the traffic charts for being the most shared bookmark on del.icio.us!

Delicious itself is long gone, but social bookmarking taught us a lot. If you still want a way to save and find pages later, see our guide on the fastest way to bookmark web pages.

4. Top PR linked post

BoingBoing linked to it. Engadget linked to it. It got a newbie blog barely a few months old the most high PR links from the top blogs in the industry (unfortunately we were on Blogger then). So what was it about? A mosquito electric racquet which is sold for a few hundred rupees on the streets of India. It got us more traffic in a day than we had ever got.

5. Longest time highest PR page

Great Flickr Tools was the highest PR7 page on QOT for several years. Every Flickr tool developer wanted to be listed on it, and we still continue to update the article. It was refreshed again in 2026 as a guide to the best Flickr tools today.

QuickOnlineTips today

Google stopped showing public PageRank long ago, and many of the services we wrote about in those early years have closed. QOT has changed with the web, but the goal is the same: clear, practical tech help. Here is what you will find on the site now:

• Updated how-to guides: older tutorials are being rewritten for 2026 so the steps still work.
• Free web tools: simple one-page online tools such as calculators, converters and checkers.
• Free games: quick browser online games and puzzles for a short break.

We will continue to share interesting tips about our site. Back in 2010 we had 25,000 subscribers by email and RSS, and you can still follow along so you never miss our articles.

FAQ

When did QuickOnlineTips start?

QuickOnlineTips started in 2004 as a hobby blog on Blogger, under the name Quick Online Tips That Work.

What does QOT stand for?

QOT is short for QuickOnlineTips, the name of this blog.

What was the first popular QOT post?

Absolutely Del.icio.us, a collection of tools for the del.icio.us bookmarking site, which became one of the most shared bookmarks on del.icio.us.

What does QuickOnlineTips cover today?

Practical tech help: how-to guides for apps, devices, blogging and online safety, plus free online tools and games.