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Posted by u/rex123 2 years ago
Launch HN: Zenfetch (YC W23) – Turn notes/browser history into an AI assistant
Hey everyone! Akash and Gabe here from Zenfetch (https://www.zenfetch.com) - a Chrome extension that transforms your saved web browsing into a personal chatGPT and search engine. Here’s a demo video: https://www.loom.com/share/abe9d40dc82545a482be55b631f9bf2a?...

How it works: (1) Optionally import your existing saved web browsing through one of our integrations or through a URL CSV import. (2) Click the Zenfetch icon in a tab to save any PDF, YouTube video, note, article, email, forum post, etc. Zenfetch can save almost anything across the internet. (3) Zenfetch indexes the text or transcript and adds that information to your personal knowledge assistant. This is done on your computer so you don’t have to worry about paywalls, logins, etc. (4) Use the dashboard or side panel to search your knowledge or chat with your personal knowledge assistant.

We built Zenfetch to solve our personal problem: we were reading tons of content but using little to none of the information. While searching for solutions, we found that most tools were good at storing information but not at retrieving it. We even found that search functionalities on existing read-later tools got worse the more content we saved.

A few examples of how our users use Zenfetch: “What was that article I read on the new nuclear fusion company?”, “Analyze this strategy based on the Lenny Rachitsky article I read”, “Summarize Karpathys video introducing LLMs”, “Which research papers mentioned the increase in carbon emissions?”, “Compile the different perspectives I’ve read on climate change”, and more.

Zenfetch is free for the first 14 days and then costs $14.99/mo (No credit card needed for the trial).

We’d love for you to try it out and let us know what we can do to improve your experience! While we only work on Chromium-based browsers right now, we’re actively working on browser compatibility and integrations. Let us know which ones to prioritize!

miller_joe · 2 years ago
I’ve been using this for a few weeks. I converted to a paying customer. I’ve imported some but not yet all of my bookmarks.

I’ve been collecting bookmarks in Evernote and now obsidian for about a decade. I try to add as many tags as I hope will allow me to find an article again later. It’s often many months before I need to find something. My success rate at remembering a term from the title or the right tag is not great. I’ve been pretty impressed with zenfetch’s ability to search and find exactly what I was looking for. And this doesn’t even scratch the surface of what it can do when you want it to synthesize answers from many articles for you.

They’re also working on indexing your saved tweets which I’m excited about. It’s a giant pain to try to find liked tweets.

rex123 · 2 years ago
Thanks! Saved tweets is our next integration : )
thehamkercat · 2 years ago
What about privacy? Why is no one here talking about privacy?
gabev · 2 years ago
Thanks for bringing this up, as privacy is one of (if not THE) highest priorities for us.

Happy to answer any questions you have, here are some preliminary notes that might be helpful:

1. We don't sell your data. Our business model is subscription based and we have DPAs with model providers to ensure none of that data is used for training 2. All data you explicitly save to zenfetch is encrypted in transit and at rest.

In the future, we'd like to move to a local-first platform where the data storage and processing takes place on your own machine

thehamkercat · 2 years ago
> and at rest.

What did you mean by this? The data (articles which users save) you store remains encrypted?

jordanab · 2 years ago
Looks great! At first glance, this appears to be the service I've been searching for. I'm currently using raindrop to bookmark items I intend to read later, but its search and recollection functionality leaves much to be desired.

I'm definitely going to give it a try. However, for it to become a permanent part of my routine, it would need a Safari browser extension and an iOS app (compatible with both iPhone and iPad) to allow easy sharing and saving of content from within other apps. Stuff that Raindrop supports.

Additionally, is there an API available so that I can manually script or route content from currently unsupported sources?

rex123 · 2 years ago
Thanks for the feedback! We're working on making our extension cross-browser compatible. For the iOS experience, what's the highest priority for you: being able to save things from iOS or access chat/other functionality?

No API just yet, but if there's an integration you're looking for let us know and we will prioritize that. Thanks!

jordanab · 2 years ago
For iOS it's being able to save things first. The ability to use the chat on iOS is a second priority for me.
singhuler · 2 years ago
Are there any plans to releasing a desktop app? It would be nice to combine the current use case with a "chat with my documents/pdfs" flavor as well.
squirrel · 2 years ago
Gabe/Akash will tell you their plans I'm sure, but I'm already using it to import PDFs and other documents via the web, so I don't feel the need for anything on the desktop. (A local version would be stupendous for client confidentiality, but I'm not holding my breath for that.)
rex123 · 2 years ago
Couldn’t have said it better myself! We do want to support a local version in the future as local models get better. However today you can upload PDFs. If there’s any other file types you want to upload let us know!
giovannibonetti · 2 years ago
This reminds of Rewind [1]. I'm not affiliated to them in anyway, but I have been using their product for a few months and finding it quite useful. Their approach of screenshotting everything and saving it locally is more convenient for me, at least.

[1] https://www.rewind.ai/

gabev · 2 years ago
Thanks, we actually used Rewind in the past.

We simply found that there were things we didn't want in our first brain, let alone in our second brain. That's why we've taken a curated content approach.

Rewind captures everything, while Zenfetch only stores the content you've explicitly saved to signal there is value.

I don't need to be reminded of the accidental clickbait article I've opened :)

moneywoes · 2 years ago
doesn’t that run locally as well?
giovannibonetti · 2 years ago
I think the data capture, compression and storage is, but the AI part isn't. If I understood it correctly, the latter is done by sending data to ChatGPT.
travelton · 2 years ago
Very cool! Index my Google Email, Drive, and Calendar. "Find the receipt for that TV I bought from Best Buy 7 years ago."
rex123 · 2 years ago
Thanks! Right now don't have automatic integrations for those yet but we do allow you to individually save emails and docs. Full integrations and sync for Drive and Email coming soon!
xpe · 2 years ago
So at present one needs to export a Google doc as PDF first? But then it won't have a stable URL, seems to me. Is there a way to upload (e.g. drag and drop -or- using a local folder) a PDF directly?
obaid · 2 years ago
Very interesting product. How is this compared to https://save.day?
squirrel · 2 years ago
I’m using zenfetch intensely for research using my own work (hundreds of podcast episodes and blog/forum posts) and others’ (books, articles, and more). Results so far are largely excellent, with the occasional bug fixed quickly. RAG as a service is tremendously beneficial and zenfetch means you don’t have to roll your own.