Google recently launched the Link to Text fragment browser extension that supports the “Scroll To Text Fragment” feature and made it easy for people to link specific pieces of text within a page.
The “Scroll To Text Fragment” feature was first introduced in February 2020, when Google launched the version 80 of the browser. The feature is still considered controversial because it allows users to deep-link web documents without using anchors. It will enable them to create links that upon clicking could take them to a specific piece of text on a page.
Many privacy researchers raised complaints against the feature. Here is an example:
Imposing privacy and security leaks to existing sites (many of which will never be updated) REALLY should be a “don’t break the web”, never cross, redline. This spec does that.
— Pete Snyder (@pes10k) February 18, 2020
Regardless of the complaints, Chrome still supports the feature. Google is doubling down on its support for the feature with the release of this new browser extension.
Link to Text Fragment Chrome Extension
Initially, it was somewhat cumbersome to create a link that utilizes the ‘Scroll to Text Fragment’ capability in Google Chrome. However, anyone can automatically generate a link to a piece of text on any page, with the introduction of the Link to Text Fragment browser extension.
Here is the description of the browser extension is called on Google Chrome Web Store
Browser extension that allows for linking to arbitrary text on a page.
This extension allows for easily creating a special link to the currently selected text on a page via the context menu. When opening such a special link, a compatible browser will scroll the selected text into view and highlight it.
The Scroll to Text Fragment is currently supported on Google Chrome only. If you are trying to use the feature on other browsers, then the text fragment links will act as regular links. There are talks for other browsers to support this feature, but that remains to be seen.
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