Where's my Web 2.0 Copy-and-paste?

by phil on Saturday May 9, 2009 11:43 AM

You know how when you highlight and copy something from a web page paste it into Microsoft Word or any other rich text interpreter, it gives you waay too much formatting? For example, it copies all the tables, the large fonts, and all the broken images, and it doesn't even look like the source anyway?

I want like a simple HTML copy and paste. Something that copies only the simple, bloggable, elements. Like the italics, bold-tags, blockquotes, and most importantly the a-hrefs.

So many times I just want to copy a link and its link text so I can paste it into a tweet or a blog post, and it requires a handful of alt-tabs, copy-pastes, and click-n'-drags.

Seems like something that would have to be an OS or Browser-level fix. Something truly Web 2.0.

Hell, they could make an Extension for Firefox that intercedes your copy function so that it copies simple HTML. Hell, maybe I should make that! (Or maybe it already exists).