extension-annotation-sidebar

Discover what people are saying about any webpage: a sidebar browser extension that shows you real-time discussions about the sites you visit (bsky atm).

i also made a web app if you want to test it first (no installation needed)
note: bsky is likely removing unauthenticated /search access so will need to login to see posts unless I make a proxy or my own search cluster (comment if you have ideas #8)

pondering

what's on my mind; a north star to move towards. please check these out!

• Chatting with Glue, 2020
• The Garden of Forking Memes, 2020
• Loom: interface to the multiverse, 2021
• Bible references, footnotes, commentaries, concordance

Install Links

and other Chromium browsers (not Arc)

and friends

What it does

• Automatic Post Discovery: As you browse the web, the extension automatically shows posts that mention your current webpage
• Actions: Log in to like, repost, and reply to posts directly
• Annotate: select text on the page to quote and annotate

Privacy Considerations

• Since the extension automatically searches a backend (Bluesky) using your current URL, your IP address would be visible to it's servers. This only matters since it's done "automatically", otherwise it's the same as just searching a url in the searchbox on the website.
• Note: this is a moot point if you are logged-in and like/reply.
• To account for this:
  • Only auto-search on sites you trust
  • Enable manual mode to control when searches happen
  • Or just use a VPN

Future Ideas

• Cross-Platform Search: Integration with other "open" social platforms (HN, Arena, local Obsidian?)
• Smart Filtering: Filter posts from your follows??

Local Download

You may need to build the extension yourself if the zip (not source code) isn't there (see below)

• Download the corresponding zip from releases
  • Chorme: go to chrome://extensions/ and click "Load unpacked" (enable Developer Mode)
  • Firefox: go to about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox and click "Load Temporary Add-on…"

Local Dev

bun install
bun run dev
# check /.output folder
bun run build
bun run build:ff

Related

• I made an older repo that does a similar thing for Community Archive (since Twitter API is not exactly open): https://github.com/hzoo/extension-find-annotations
• https://emilyliu.me/blog/comments
• https://github.com/joneslloyd/bluniversal-comments
• https://github.com/czue/bluesky-comments
• Hypothesis annotation: https://web.hypothes.is/start
• History of annotation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_annotation