Ask HN: Fastest way to collect and organize text from within browser?

by maxwelldone on 2/4/2023, 9:06:32 PM with 2 comments
Currently, what's the best tool[1] for this usecase? During browsing sessions I stumble on various things I'd like to make a note of (mostly text) and organize them into categories for later usage. E.g.: books I want to read, things I want to buy, stuff to explore further etc.

Right now, I just copy stuff and paste them into my notes app (Mac) but placing things in the right category takes time. Ideally I'd love something like selecting a piece of text -> context menu -> some app menu -> select/create category. Bonus point if there's an option to create tags.

The above is the bare minimum I'm looking for. Obviously would love more options like storing images, nested categories, comments on entries, and SQL like option to query underlying data programmatically.

I could write my own browser extension, maybe with a companion app but figured I'd ask here before re-inventing the wheel.

[1] Criteria for best: - Speed. - Privacy: would love to keep data locally.

  • by pamoroso on 2/4/2023, 10:00:58 PM

    I use the Google Keep browser extension. When I select a piece of text on a web page and click the extension's icon (or right-click > Save to Keep), a draft note pops up with the selected text and the page's link in the note's body. From there I can add more text to the body, insert a title, and add or select a tag. Once the note is in Keep more features are available such as attaching an image. And the note is accessible from any device.