LightUp
AI-Powered Annotations for every page on the web. Dec 2024
Project Overview
Platform
Role
Funding
Downloads
Timeline
The Itch: 'The Tab-Switching Hell.'
It was kind of personal. I mean reading online is a battlefield for focus. We've all been there. You're deep into a fascinating article, you hit a complex term or a name you don't know, and the "curiosity tax" kicks in.
You highlight the text. You open a new tab. You search. You click a link. You skim. You find the answer. You try to find your original tab.
By the time you get back, your flow is shattered. Your "deep read" has turned into a shallow-click-fest.
This exact frustration was the starting point. I was inspired by the simple, elegant inline notes on lyric sites like genuis.com and thought, "Why can't we have this... for everything?"
Boxes Inside Boxes: A Representation of What Knowledge Could Be.
Knowledge is not a flat surface but a dynamic structure—boxes within boxes, each containing layers of meaning waiting to be unpacked. Every concept holds the potential to expand, revealing deeper connections and insights. I was obsessed with this concept for a period of time; this phrase kept the fire of the idea alive in my mind. It satisfied my intellectual curiosity and pushed me to explore the idea further. The question became: how can this way of thinking live on a page?
LightUp was my answer. Highlight a sentence, and a small window opens—a box that unveils hidden depths. From there, new dimensions of understanding unfold, allowing you to explore ideas without losing your place.
By keeping this exploration within the bounds of the same page, LightUp creates a dynamic representation of how knowledge grows: contained yet infinite, simple yet profound.
The problem I set out to solve.
I wanted an experience that:
• Lives where the words are (no new tabs).
• Is gentle and minimal (stays out of the way).
• Can scale across any page and language with AI.
That shaped both the UX and the technical choices from day one.
From idea to shape — the design and interaction
I kept the UI deliberately small and modest. LightUp sits as a toolbar icon; you highlight text and a compact popup appears with clear options: Explain, Summarize, Translate, Analyze, or an open 'Ask anything' flow. Keyboard shortcuts make the experience fluid for power users. The goal was to make discovery feel like margin notes coming alive—quick, contextual, and reversible.
The technical journey — pragmatic choices that let me ship.
I needed something that would feel native in the browser and be straightforward to develop and iterate on. A few pragmatic decisions:
Plasmo framework & modern web tooling. since i alraedy know react i wanted to go with it.
Flexible AI backends: Rather than lock the product to a single model, I built LightUp to work with OpenAI, Google Gemini, Grok (xAI), and even local LLMs (llama.cpp / Text Generation WebUI). That choice felt important for openness and for users who prefer local-first privacy. It also meant adding a configuration layer to let users pick a backend and an API key.
Simple activation and state: Selection-triggered popups, modes, and keyboard shortcuts kept the runtime logic focused; this reduced permissions and surface area for bugs. I also tuned the UI to respect light/dark themes and to animate subtly so the tool feels alive but not distracting.
Mentions & Recognitions.
Peerlist — LightUp was included in the “Best Chrome Extensions” list, featured as Project of the Day, and highlighted among the top 10 Chrome Extension builders out of 179+ participants. The snapshots below capture those shout-outs and my project page on the platform.
SaaSHub — Ranked in the “Top 9 AI Annotation Tools” for 2025.
AITrendyTools — Listed among popular AI tools.
Chrome Web Store — Featured in the “New & Noteworthy” section.
What users are saying:
This is one of the most beautiful parts of the project—seeing people from around the globe using it, enjoying it, and even emailing me personally to thank me for creating it.
Jay Kadam - product designer at Peerlist: Jay said LightUp feels like Dia Browser but everywhere—and he keeps it in his top five extensions on his browser.
Student after testing LightUp: A student tester used LightUp to translate dense papers without juggling extra tabs.
Student after using LightUp: Another student loved how inline summaries suddenly made technical blogs approachable.
Teacher after using LightUp: A teacher shared how much they love LightUp and even walked their students through it in class.
What I learned.
Preserve the reader's rhythm: The smallest interruptions matter; a tool that saves seconds but saves cognitive momentum is more valuable than one that adds shiny features.
Design for graceful defaults: Users should be able to install and get value in seconds—then dive into settings if they want more control.
Closing — why this project matters to me
LightUp began as a small, personal fix for a tiny frustration: the friction of curiosity. Building it taught me that design's quiet heroism is about preserving attention and creating small windows of clarity. For me, LightUp is less about replacing deep reading and more about honoring it—offering just enough light where a sentence asks to be understood.
