Summarize on hover

lou

This feature would allow users to get a short summary of a web page as a pop-over modal, by hovering for a couple of seconds any link from the search results screen.

This new implementation would allow the user to get a summary of pages from the search page much more quickly.

This is feature that I really like on the browser Arc, if you hover a link with your cursor for a couple of seconds, it will display a short summary of the page so you don't have to actually visit the page and look for the information (example there: https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/03/arc-browsers-new-ai-powered-features-combine-openai-and-anthropics-models/?guccounter=1).

I know there is already the possibility to summarize from clicking on the 3 dots and then summarize, but this UX is much more easy.

Vlad

lou Interesting idea. Can you highlight few use cases where this would be useful?

lou

Vlad I personally use it when I want to quickly check the content of a webpage and compare it with the other search results.

For example, in the demo on the Techcrunch page above, they are looking for things to do in Oaxaca. I'd use that feature to have a quick glance at the top search results and I weed out the pages mentioning the exact same places.

I saw an interview of the Arc founder and he said this feature has become one of the most popular of the browser.

Vlad

lou Would you be able to upload a video showing what example Kagi search page would look like in Arc with this feature enabled?

lou

Vlad

Somehow the pop-overs are not showing up on the screencasts, but here are a couple of screenshots examples (using Google on Arc):

Sorry I wasn't clear, the feature already works in Arc with Kagi:

But I was suggesting to implement it directly into the Kagi search results page so people who do not use that browser could enjoy the feature as well! I actually only use Arc at work but not as a personal browser.

Vlad

lou I finally got some time to try this in Arc.

My impression is that this is just a (good looking) gimmick. There is very little useful information produced by these summaries and most of the time the summary does not tell me anything useful about the content I will find on the page.

I like the idea but it feels the implementation is not as good. Is this a bad use case?

lou

Vlad Yes I totally agree that depending on the use case this can just be a gimmick. That's not a feature I use every day but on specific use cases. I mostly use it when I want to quickly compare the content of web pages.

I use it for example for:

Recipes
Trip ideas
News (I want to see if a website seems to have a bias I do not agree with for ex)
Clickbait titles
Very specific research (is the content really about what I'm looking for?)

About the usefulness of the information displayed, I would trust that Kagi would display more useful stuff, I am a subscriber because I trust Kagi to display the most useful info it can!

I also realized since my last post I that this could potentially be costly for Kagi because it makes it so easy to trigger summaries request. So I understand that it could not be a financially wise feature to make right now.

Vlad

lou

I would trust that Kagi would display more useful stuff, I am a subscriber because I trust Kagi to display the most useful info it can!

We are happy to give it a shot. Can you help define what "more useful stuff" is with some concrete examples?

carl

Hover is not the best choice for accessibility, it should be a clickable button. Remember that people are on their phones and tablets a lot of the time.

lou

Vlad

I think the summarizer does a very good job most of the time. From my use cases examples from above, it is not so good at summarizing recipes (not listing ingredients, the different steps are unclear). Same for traveling websites, the information is summarized for sure, but the bullet points do not feel easier to comprehend than the non-summarized version.

I think what Arc does well is adapting the formatting to the type of information. Just using several bullet point titles can make things more clear, for example:

Ideally the perfect summarizer would be even more adaptable and decide on its own which format is the best I guess!

carl
Yes, there should definitely be an alternative for accessibility and mobile. I spend a lot of my time on my laptop so the hover is the most practical for me, that's why I suggested it!

carl

Another point worth making is that anybody with an iPhone can already preview all links before opening, by holding on it. Or force clocking on a MacBook