New Chrome Extension Lets You Link to Specific Web Text

What has got to be a dream for writers, communicators, marketers and salespeople – this new extension from Google allows direct linking to specific web page text… Not just the page itself but the actual specific text on a web page.

It is called Link to text Fragment.

Why is this important?

Often, an article will link to another article for support and force the reader to read the linked article looking for the text in context or to do a search for the text in question. This takes time and dissuades readers from clicking.

Now, links to text can lead the reader directly to the supporting information, allowing for more rapid context, understanding and clarity.

To give you an idea of how this works, Tapcart raised $10 million in Series A funding a month ago. The CEO Eric Netsch praised his team in a press release.

When you click on the second link above, you see the text in question highlighted:

You can see – rather than include the full quote, the writer can summarize the thoughts and allow the reader to investigate quickly if they are so inclined.

This is a far-faster way to absorb information and as we are constantly bombarded with ever-more information, anything that speeds the process of absorption up is welcome.

This works with many but not all browsers, Safari and Firefox are not onboard yet. Also, there may be some uses when linking with Twitter. Don’t worry though – these browsers will just link to the top of the page – as links did before this extension came out.

You can also link to multiple text areas on a page using an & to separate. This needs to be done manually though. We tried it – basically, you just need to use the extension more than once and copy and paste the end of the URL starting with “text=”.

For more check out The Verge and the web.dev blog.


 

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