Show HN: Stringmark – Chrome extension that makes online research easier
stringmark.com
stringmark.com
I developed Stringmark based on my own needs: I sometimes have to do research very intensively and in a very short period of time. Often then, I have a lot of tabs open and every time I come across a sentence/paragraph that interests me, I add the webpage to my Bookmarks or to my Reading List to be able to go deeper later.
But more than 30 bookmarks later, I don't remember why I saved a specific webpage, which sentence or paragraph interests me and I end up losing productivity and time.
Yes, after doing some research I saw some extensions that offers similar features, but all of them have either a complicated user interface, or too many useless features (personal opinion) AND most of them require login…
In my opinion, it should be as simple as using the default Bookmark and Reading List features of the browser.
That's why I developed Stringmark, a small and easy-to-use Chrome Extension that allows you to save a piece of text and the URL from any webpage. And thanks to Chrome Text Fragment feature, your selected text is highlighted when you click on any link from Stringmark.
I already plan to add new useful features and I am of course open for feedback. Please check it out and let me know what you think (no login required)!
I apologize for the lack of precision concerning where the data is saved.
I'll just copy paste one of my comment here:
"In my opinion, it’s a pain to have recurring cost for small extensions/apps like Stringmark. But as @razemio said, it’s (most of the time) necessary when the service uses a backend. As I said, I want to avoid recurring cost and that’s why I decided to use chrome.storage. Also, as another comment and @razemio said here, the sync storage of Chrome is limited in size: ~100kb which is roughly 370 highlights in Stringmark because the text you are able to save is limited in size (~120 characters). Also, the local storage of Chrome is unlimited in size.
It means that you can have ~370 highlights that are synced through your devices. Honestly, I think that it is enough but you guys are right I should precise it in my website, I’ll update it ASAP!
@bruth that is the reason why the product will never go away since I don’t have backend costs!
In order to attenuate this sync storage size limitation I plan to add these features: Limit the number of highlights per list; Let the users decide to save a specific list locally or using chrome sync; Export lists by email and/or in various file format in order to free up space; Import lists easily
The other solution is to add another premium plan with a recurring cost and where I would use a database backend for these users so that they can really have ‘unlimited’ highlights synced.
Tell me what you guys think about these solutions!"
However what I can tell is making extension in firefox is more fun than chrome in manifest v2.
Unrelated, you probably don't want to be selling 'lifetime premium' anything, even when it's not clear what that means at an early stage. It's a small and low-priced thing as it is, painting yourself into a 'lifetime' corner with potential customers is not worth the certain future hassle and misunderstandings.
The data is stored using 'chrome.storage'. So it's either stored locally if you aren't signed in to Chrome Browser or stored in the Google servers if you are signed in. So the sync happens using your Google account. (https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/stora...)
Concerning the 'lifetime' word, I get your point. I just wanted to highlight the fact that you only pay once for the premium features and that it's not a 'subscription business model'.
"In my opinion, it’s a pain to have recurring cost for small extensions/apps like Stringmark. But as @razemio said, it’s (most of the time) necessary when the service uses a backend. As I said, I want to avoid recurring cost and that’s why I decided to use chrome.storage. Also, as another comment and @razemio said here, the sync storage of Chrome is limited in size: ~100kb which is roughly 370 highlights in Stringmark because the text you are able to save is limited in size (~120 characters). Also, the local storage of Chrome is unlimited in size.
It means that you can have ~370 highlights that are synced through your devices. Honestly, I think that it is enough but you guys are right I should precise it in my website, I’ll update it ASAP!
@bruth that is the reason why the product will never go away since I don’t have backend costs!
In order to attenuate this sync storage size limitation I plan to add these features: Limit the number of highlights per list; Let the users decide to save a specific list locally or using chrome sync; Export lists by email and/or in various file format in order to free up space; Import lists easily
The other solution is to add another premium plan with a recurring cost and where I would use a database backend for these users so that they can really have ‘unlimited’ highlights synced.
Tell me what you guys think about these solutions!"
Also, the free version seems pretty useless if there is no way for me to export my data and it only shows the three first lines of an annotation
Since you ask for feedback, here are some ideas:
* Group highlights from the same url
* Save all open tabs as a list
* Reader mode
* Archive the urls in my lists in some way; preferably as a single html fileConcerning the free version, I get your point I'll think about it!
Concerning the data : "The data is stored using 'chrome.storage'. So it's either stored locally if you aren't signed in to Chrome Browser or stored in the Google servers if you are signed in. So the sync happens using your Google account. (https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/stora...)"
Thank you so much for the ideas :)
> No login required, no useless features.
Does this mean there’s also no dependency on an external server? That’d be super refreshing.
Can’t wait for the Firefox version.
My cynical self tells me the product won't improve or your intention is generate enough hype to make a quick exit and the product will go away.
You should make this is a recurring cost.
Plenty of products I have used have had one time payments and it has worked out fine. Sometimes in the future they switch to a subscription model or add other paid features but that usually doesn't happen until they start to have investors and have pressure to generate more revenue.
Pocketcasts is an example of this. They had a one time fee for each platform you bought their product on. Eventually many years later they switched to a subscription model but allowed people who had the original one-time fee to keep it forever which was nice.
As I said, I want to avoid recurring cost and that’s why I decided to use chrome.storage. Also, as another comment and @razemio said here, the sync storage of Chrome is limited in size: ~100kb which is roughly 370 highlights in Stringmark because the text you are able to save is limited in size (~120 characters). Also, the local storage of Chrome is unlimited in size.
It means that you can have ~370 highlights that are synced through your devices. Honestly, I think that it is enough but you guys are right I should precise it in my website, I’ll update it ASAP!
@bruth that is the reason why the product will never go away since I don’t have backend costs!
In order to attenuate this sync storage size limitation I plan to add these features: Limit the number of highlights per list; Let the users decide to save a specific list locally or using chrome sync; Export lists by email and/or in various file format in order to free up space; Import lists easily
The other solution is to add another premium plan with a recurring cost and where I would use a database backend for these users so that they can really have ‘unlimited’ highlights synced.
Tell me what you guys think about these solutions!
I was aware they were using Chrome.Sync and that it did not impose a cost so that changed things in my head.