Research NotesTime for some serious Internet research
A free Chrome browser extension that helps you organize web pages and PDFs: add notes and tags, highlight and save quotes, sift through Google search results.
Research Notes
Research NotesA free Chrome browser extension that helps you organize web pages and PDFs: add notes and tags, highlight and save quotes, sift through Google search results.
A free Chrome browser extension that helps you organize web pages and PDFs: add notes and tags, highlight and save quotes, sift through Google search results.
You can later search from all notes across all topics.
Fixed a bug, where quotes were not saved through right click context menu, if extension's service worker was at that moment in state of inactivity.
Research Notes now uses Manifest v3, which is a new mandatory standard for Chrome extensions. This is purely a technical change, no new user features were added.
This is actually a second try to get to Manifest v3 (MV3). The previous try in June (versions 1.0.8.0 and 1.0.8.2, being in effect for a day before reverting to MV2) ended badly for some users (incl. me), in some cases losing pages data. What follows is a longer technical explanation, but a TLDR version is that the source of the problem has been located, fixed (if you discover the opposite, do let me know!) and the fix has now been tested also with a private beta version.
Hopefully all is now well, but if not, please send info to feedback@onlineresearchnotes.com. Just to be on the safe side in all cases, I urge all users to periodically backup data to a file (in all notes -page click on "Save data to file").
So, what happened in June and how has it been fixed? It was due to how MV3 extensions work differently from MV2 ones. Whereas RN with MV2 used a long-lived background page, which kept all the pages data ready for any tab that wanted to interact with it, MV3's background page (called a service worker) times out after some time of inactivity (usually 30 seconds or 5 minutes). In case of inactivity all data for topics, pages and searches was emptied and from that point saving any new data was adding to an empty dataset, in essence new data was overwriting the previous data. This is now remedied in 1.0.8.4, any request to service worker first triggers ensuring all necessary topics, pages and searches data is loaded so that new data is added to existing dataset, not overwriting it. Was this not tested in June? Yes, all functionality cases were tested over two weeks. But testing the June version was done in focused spurts, i.e. not letting the service worker to time out. Now the 1.0.8.4 testing was done specifically looking out for service worker timing out. Also, a private beta version of RN has been registered in Chrome Web Store, so RN’s functioning and also updating has also been tested in production environment.
Research Notes now uses Manifest v3, which is a new mandatory standard for Chrome extensions. This is purely a technical change, no new user features were added.
Currently published version 1.0.8.3 is actually the previous stable 1.0.7 version with Manifest v2. Properly working version with Manifest v3 is still in the works.
This version delivers mostly wishlist items requested by a user (thanks for the ideas and feedback, A!).
Table view gets an additional topic column, useful for cases where multiple topics are selected.
The column can also be added/removed from columns configuration:
To explicitly choose only pages that have no tags, tags filter gets an "Untagged" option:
Pages in List and Grid views can now also be ordered by page title:
And finally, search box is centered to simply emphasize that you can use this search to find any topic, search or page by page title, note, quote or tag across all topics.
For all users who have their data in multiple datasets (e.g. from multiple computers), there is now an option to merge datasets together. Just import the data from files on the all notes -page using the Load data from file option:
Next dialog prompts, whether the incoming dataset should overwrite current data or merge with it:
There is a "Wishlist" functionality, with which users can record their wishes for making Research Notes (RN) better. Feel free to put your ideas to the wishlist or send us an e-mail (feedback@onlineresearchnotes.com).
Click here for an overview of what features our users have wished for in the past.Install the extension at the Chrome Web Store:
FAQ - How do I use it?
You can add your thoughts and info about pages or PDF documents opened in Chrome.
RN icon next to the address bar. A Research Notes popup window opens.
Delete page data button to remove page data from your records.
bookmark the page and it will show up in the Research Notes bookmarks folder under chosen topic;
cross the page to mark it as processed or deemed unuseful - this let's you hide the page also from Google search results and all notes -page; Delete page data button erases any info you’ve added with Research Notes about this page.
Note: the popup window can also be opened by a keyboard combination - by default it is Ctrl+Shift+F or in Mac Command+Shift+F, but this can be changed in Chrome menu -> More tools -> Extensions -> click on the three layers up left -> Keyboard shortcuts.
By default the saved page is automatically also bookmarked. This can be changed in the extension Options menu:
In addition to regular tagging you can also assign values to page tags. Just use colon in the tag to indicate that it has a value attached to it.
For example, to record a page’s author, add a tag like Author: (author’s name).
Or, when searching for products and comparing good websites with alternative offerings, use tags such as product: (maker and model) or price: (price in some currency).
Having once entered the value tag (author in pictured case), it is displayed on its own so you can enter just the value part on next topic's pages.
You can later view your pages with tags on an all notes -page as a list or table.
In table view the value tags appear as sortable columns, for example with authors:
Save quotes from pages and highlight these.
First, select text on the page. From here you have number of ways to save a quote:
Note: this hovering popup is disabled by default, but can be enabled in extension Options menu.
The quote is highlighted on the page.
Quotes also appear in the page’s RN popup window, ready to be copied with the source address.
Here you can also add notes to each quote.
You can save images from webpages or add other images to page notes.
When studying a topic in-depth, save searches to remember what search terms you’ve used, which ones got great results and how far into the results you have looked.
On a tab, where Google or Google Scholar search page is open, click the RN icon next to the address bar. If needed, choose the right topic from the drop-down list or create a new one.
Press the Save searches button.
Research Notes search panel appears on top of the search page, detailing your topic’s saved searches. For each search term you can also add notes and view search statistics(Last - last time search term was used, F – furthest Google page seen, R – numeber of results retrieved, C – number of results clicked / opened, ★ – bookmarked pages, ⛝ - crossed pages, N - pages with notes, T – tagged pages, Q – pages with quotes).
Under each search result Research Notes adds buttons so you can bookmark, cross, add notes or tags to pages on the fly.
button or click the RN icon next to the address bar and press the Stop saving searches button.After taking notes, see them all on the all notes -page.
Click the 
Open all notes -button (visible in the Research Notes popup window or RN search panel) or right-clicking the RN icon next to the address bar and select Open all notes.
Alternatively, open the page via keyboard shortcut: by default it's Ctrl+Shift+S or in Mac Command+Shift+S, but this can be changed in Chrome menu -> More tools -> Extensions -> click on the three layers up left -> Keyboard shortcuts.
The all notes -page is opened in a new tab, displaying all your saved topics, searches and pages. There you can filter pages by text, tags, notes or bookmarks.
You can view your saved pages either in a Grid view - a compact overview of pages:
...or List view - simpler, linear order of pages:
...or Table view - easier to list or compare different attributes (e.g. tags) between pages:
On the all notes -page you can edit everything about your pages - tags, notes, quotes, bookmark or cross, page title or URL.
In Grid or List view:
All page fields are open to editing. Once done, click Save changes.
Table view:
Click on any field to edit. Once done, click Save.
The information that you save with the extension - page addresses, searches, notes, tags, etc - is stored exclusively in your browser and is not shared with anyone. We only collect anonymous analytics statistics to get an overview about how (which features) this product is used.
On installing the extension in Chrome Web Store, a notification informs about permissions granted to the extension. These permissions are needed for the extension to work properly:
Questions or feedback? E-mail us: feedback(at)onlineresearchnotes.com.
