4 ms·

Show HN: Extension for full-text browser history search

29 points by ApbNfMR 1y ago

Hey. I’ve been working on Rearview, a browser extension that makes browsing history more useful. It’s available for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. What it does: - Full-text Search: Search page content, not just URLs or titles. - More Filter: Organize history by date, time, or visits. - AI Assistant: Get insights from your history. (Optional, with your own api key.) Everything stays local in IndexedDB. Feedback & Feature request welcome. BTW, since Firefox does not provide a favicon URLs implementation (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1315616 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1315616),I am currently requesting icons in Firefox via https://icon.horse/ https://icon.horse/, the performance seems not ideal. Is there a more recommended solution?

jbellis 1y ago
Oh, cool. I want this but not quite badly enough to work all the corner cases out. Were you able to figure out how to sync pages visited on mobile?
- ApbNfMR 1y ago
  What’s your intended synchronization effect? Browsing on your phone and later retrieving that history on your PC? Or ensuring a fully consistent experience across both devices? The latter could be a challenge for the current local storage structure.
baal80spam 1y ago
Wouldn't storing each and every visited page's text bloat IndexedDB a lot?
- ApbNfMR 1y ago
  I don’t store full copies of all html text, only those containing readable articles. I’m researching how to align the index with the browser’s own history retention period,will be release soon. For my personal use, it’s primarily about: Retrieving sources I’ve briefly glanced at & Summarizing recent readings on specific topics. I’m still unsure whether to position this system for long-term archival purposes.If so, I might consider integrating storage solutions like WebDAV as an optional.
- khaki54 1y ago
  You actually don't need to store the pages themsleves, just the indexes. This is a fairly common use case with Marklogic so I'm sure it can be done with other databases.
pogue 1y ago
How and where is the full text of every page I visit getting stored & for how long?
- KomoD 1y ago
  "All browsing history, search indexes, and extension settings are stored locally on your device and are not uploaded to the developer server." It's in the privacy policy.
  - pogue 1y ago
    I saw that. It meant where is it going to be stored locally, for how long and what is the size going to look like. I imagine that's going to be a very large cache to keep them forever essentially.
- vgb2k18 1y ago
  IndexedDB file
renegat0x0 1y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
droideqa 1y ago
Cool! Reminds me of Falcon[0][1]. [0]: https://github.com/lengstrom/falcon/ https://github.com/lengstrom/falcon/ [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12479977 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12479977
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
circularfoyers 1y ago
Seeing the GitHub link made me assume for a second this was open source, which it's disappointingly not. The LLM search is interesting, but it's not interesting enough for me when there's already an open source full text history extension that I've been using https://github.com/iansinnott/full-text-tabs-forever https://github.com/iansinnott/full-text-tabs-forever
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

29 points by ApbNfMR 1y ago

jbellis 1y ago

Oh, cool. I want this but not quite badly enough to work all the corner cases out. Were you able to figure out how to sync pages visited on mobile?

ApbNfMR 1y ago
What’s your intended synchronization effect? Browsing on your phone and later retrieving that history on your PC? Or ensuring a fully consistent experience across both devices? The latter could be a challenge for the current local storage structure.

baal80spam 1y ago

Wouldn't storing each and every visited page's text bloat IndexedDB a lot?

ApbNfMR 1y ago
I don’t store full copies of all html text, only those containing readable articles. I’m researching how to align the index with the browser’s own history retention period,will be release soon. For my personal use, it’s primarily about: Retrieving sources I’ve briefly glanced at & Summarizing recent readings on specific topics. I’m still unsure whether to position this system for long-term archival purposes.If so, I might consider integrating storage solutions like WebDAV as an optional.
khaki54 1y ago
You actually don't need to store the pages themsleves, just the indexes. This is a fairly common use case with Marklogic so I'm sure it can be done with other databases.

pogue 1y ago

How and where is the full text of every page I visit getting stored & for how long?

KomoD 1y ago
"All browsing history, search indexes, and extension settings are stored locally on your device and are not uploaded to the developer server." It's in the privacy policy.
- pogue 1y ago
  I saw that. It meant where is it going to be stored locally, for how long and what is the size going to look like. I imagine that's going to be a very large cache to keep them forever essentially.
vgb2k18 1y ago
IndexedDB file

renegat0x0 1y ago

[flagged]

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

droideqa 1y ago

Cool! Reminds me of Falcon[0][1]. [0]: https://github.com/lengstrom/falcon/ https://github.com/lengstrom/falcon/ [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12479977 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12479977

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

circularfoyers 1y ago

Seeing the GitHub link made me assume for a second this was open source, which it's disappointingly not. The LLM search is interesting, but it's not interesting enough for me when there's already an open source full text history extension that I've been using https://github.com/iansinnott/full-text-tabs-forever https://github.com/iansinnott/full-text-tabs-forever

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]