Web Highlighter Tools and Extensions

A web highlighter can be a bookmark, an extension, a browser feature or a service with an account, and the right one depends on whether you want to point, mark or keep. This section explains each kind, compares the established products on the things that matter (anchoring, export, privacy, funding) and says which we would use in which situation.

None of the products named here paid to be included, there are no affiliate links anywhere on the site, and where our own tools are the right answer we say so, and where they are not we say that too. The extension comparison is the place to start if you want saved highlights. Text fragment links explained is the reference behind the generator.

Two shorter pieces round it out: what a bookmarklet is and how to read one before trusting it, and the difference between annotation layers and read-later apps, which explains most of the confusion people have about where their highlights went.

A word on what this section is not. It is not a directory of every highlighter ever published, and it is not ranked by stars. Each page answers one question a reader actually asks (should I install this, how does that link work, where did my highlights go) with enough detail to act on, and it is re-checked at every quarterly rebuild so the browser and product notes stay current.