ShortNews

Preview linked news articles on public HTTPS pages before opening them.

ShortNews helps you understand an article before opening it. Clicking the ShortNews toolbar icon only opens that tab's side panel; it does not inject or activate ShortNews. On every public HTTPS page, including Google News, only a trusted click on **Allow on this site** allows the exact origin in that tab. The choice remains allowed across reloads and same-origin navigation while other tabs stay off. It clears on toggle-off, different-origin navigation, tab close, browser restart, extension reload or update, or consent revocation, and Show ShortNews card plus AI Summarize for this page require prior activation. Retrieval and transmission remain gated by first-use consent and the master toggle. ShortNews works across public HTTPS article links without requesting any site access at install time. Eligible passive link-preview summaries use reusable caching. If passive extraction cannot verify full text, an explicit **Open page to summarize** card action asks the side panel to offer optional Chrome site access for that publisher; only a trusted click on **Allow publisher access** can launch Chrome's one-origin prompt. If granted, ShortNews opens one inactive article tab, summarizes bounded rendered plaintext with tab-scoped no-service-cache handling, closes the tab, and releases the optional origin if ShortNews requested it for that action. Independently, the explicit current-page action uses only the tab-scoped no-service-cache path and its current-document cache still clears on reload or navigation. ShortNews launch access is included at no charge while the early user base grows. Future versions may introduce optional paid plans or paid continued AI access for higher usage, premium capacity, or long-term operation, with clear notice before any pricing change. Core browser controls, saved cards already on the device, sign-out, privacy controls, and deletion controls remain accessible. Deliberately hover a text or image story link, or choose Show ShortNews card from its right-click menu, to see: - The complete headline and useful article context. - One concise AI-generated summary. - A quick metadata-based summary when available. - Simple Good Summary, Bad Summary, and Slow Summary feedback controls. ShortNews does not ask users to choose raw input or output word counts. It prepares at most a 10,000-character article candidate, and the service selects context automatically: the control path and adaptive `normal` tier use at most 5,600 article characters; `short` uses the useful candidate up to 4,000; `expanded` selects high-signal corrections, qualifications, entities, or headline answers up to 9,000; and `live` stays within 5,600 while favoring the lead and recent updates. On a cache miss, the AI provider receives no more than 9,000 selected article characters. Every tier keeps the output to two or three compact bullet points. Adaptive assignment is a staged server-side rollout derived deterministically from the article URL and content version or a content-derived fallback, never from an account, installation identifier, or session. Privacy-safe diagnostics and aggregate feedback distinguish only control/adaptive mode, short/normal/expanded/live tier, and bounded selected/candidate character counts; they do not contain article text or generated summary text. If a publisher returns only a JavaScript shell, use **Open page to summarize** on the failed preview card, then click **Allow publisher access** in the side panel, or open that article and use **AI summary for this page** in the popup or **AI Summarize for this page** from the page right-click menu. The failed-link action asks Chrome for optional site access to that publisher origin only from the side panel button, opens one inactive temporary article tab if granted, activates ShortNews only there, requests up to 32,000 characters of visible plaintext from allowlisted article containers, summarizes it with `cache: false`, closes the tab, and releases the optional origin if ShortNews requested it for that action. For an already-open page, **Allow on this site** must be on for that exact origin in the tab before **Summarize** or **AI Summarize for this page** is available. ShortNews retries credential-free retrieval first. If it remains insufficient, or a fragment-routed URL requires the rendered page to verify the exact state, the explicit action requests up to 32,000 characters of visible plaintext from allowlisted article containers in that exact top-level tab and document. The extension derives at most a 10,000-character summary candidate from a rendered snapshot, and no more than 9,000 selected article characters go to the AI provider on a cache miss. It sends no page HTML or publisher cookies, never scans the whole body, and watches no later page changes. The text may reflect subscriber or signed-in content already visible through the active or temporary publisher page's existing session. ShortNews preview processing is off by default. Before the first preview, it explains that deliberate hover, the Show ShortNews card right-click menu choice, the explicit **Open page to summarize** failed-link action, or the explicit current-page action from the side panel or page right-click menu can retrieve the selected publisher article. Summary actions send relevant text to the ShortNews service for article verification and, only when no reusable summary matches, to an AI service provider for summary generation. The rendered-link and current-page actions still require their own clicks. Nothing is retrieved or transmitted until you choose Enable previews and keep Show previews on. On every public HTTPS site, including Google News, clicking the toolbar icon only opens that tab's side panel. The packaged page helper is injected only after a trusted click on **Allow on this site** for the exact origin in that tab. The choice remains allowed across reloads and same-origin navigation while other tabs stay off, and clears on toggle-off, different-origin navigation, tab close, browser restart, extension reload or update, or consent revocation. **Show ShortNews card** and **AI Summarize for this page** require prior activation. ShortNews declares no install-time host permissions or content scripts, and declares optional public-HTTPS host access only so Chrome can ask for a publisher origin after the separate **Open page to summarize** click and a trusted **Allow publisher access** side-panel click. Preview retrieval and transmission remain inactive until first-use consent and the master preview toggle are enabled. Hover previews start publisher or summary work only after the deliberate-hover delay, right-click link previews start only after choosing Show ShortNews card on an allowed tab and origin, the rendered failed-link fallback starts only after the separate **Open page to summarize** card click and side-panel publisher-access prompt, and the rendered current-page fallback starts only after the separate side-panel Summarize click or page right-click command. Normal page clicks keep working. ShortNews does not require an account or user-entered service token, and previews, summaries, saved cards, and shared article conversations work while signed out. It does not collect browsing history unrelated to stories you preview or explicitly summarize. Turning off Show previews closes the card, prevents new work, clears tab-only caches, and cancels browser-side requests where possible; current-document summary caches also clear on reload or navigation even when the same-origin site allowance remains on. Work already accepted by the ShortNews service or its AI service provider may finish, but its result is ignored. Google sign-in is optional and begins only when you click **Sign in with Google** and approve the optional identity permission. Chrome obtains an email-scoped Google access token, which ShortNews sends over HTTPS only to the fixed official ShortNews service for server verification. While you remain signed in, Chrome may obtain or refresh the token again as needed to renew the short-lived ShortNews session; every verification uses that same fixed route and handling. ShortNews does not store that Google token or send it to a custom endpoint, article or summary payload, publisher, AI provider, feedback, diagnostics, or logs. The returned signed ShortNews Google session, email address, and displayed account name are stored only in local extension storage while you remain signed in. Signing out removes those local values, clears Chrome's token cache, and releases the optional permission. Saved cards and conversation read markers remain on your device; posted shared article conversation comments are uploaded to ShortNews and visible to users viewing the same normalized article link. ShortNews may reuse an unchanged non-live passive link-preview summary from a bounded 150-entry browser cache for roughly ten minutes and from the service for up to two hours. The explicit rendered-link and current-page actions always use 25-entry, five-minute tab-scoped caches and send `cache: false`. A detected article change uses a different content-version entry, live and breaking stories bypass reuse, and failed verification does not display an older AI summary. Reusable keys are partitioned by the input policy, mode, and tier. The service cache stores only the generated summary under a one-way hashed version key, not raw article or candidate text, a raw selected URL, or an account, installation, or session identifier. Read the complete privacy policy before installing: https://gist.github.com/goku1248/5f27c75a819e42b588305111489ec5a2