With Hi!light, visitors to a website share highlighted text in realtime.
Try it! There’s a toggle under this panel – turn it on. A status emoji will appear in the top right. If you see a smile, there’s someone else on this page too.
Now: select some text, as if you’re going to copy it.
Your selection will be shared automatically with all the other people also on this page. It will appear for them as highlighted words. It’s anonymous. Your data isn’t stored.
If somebody else selects some text, it’ll be highlighted for you. But if you’re not on the same page at the same time, you’ll never see it. It works only if you’re both on the same page at the same time.
Tip: If you want to experiment on your own, use two completely different browsers, or have one window in private/incognito mode.
Try now: enable Hi!light for the panel above
Why
Hi!light in action
We have a vision of a warmer, more social web. Not as fully collaborative as Google Docs, or as crowded as Facebook, but a web where you can see life on the other side of the screen.
If you’re in a meeting, you should be able to share a link in the chat to a particular webpage, then select the paragraph you’re talking about and have it highlighted for everyone. Well, now you can… if the site owner has enabled Hi!light.
How it Works
For site visitors:
(About opt-in)
(About the status HUD)
For site owners:
(About Pusher)
Install
Install Hi!light on your own site! You’ll need
A line of Javascript at the top of each website
Some edits to your templates, to pick out certain tags
The ability to return some custom JSON from your backend
An account with Pusher (it’s free if your site is small)
Hi!light in action