TIL: One-Click WebPage to Markdown Extraction
A bookmark button that turns a webpage into LLMs context
Markdown is the best format for feeding webpage content to LLMs. I was manually typing https://r.jina.ai/ before every URL to extract the page content in markdown format. It was tedious.
Then I saw Jeremy using a bookmark bar button to do this instantly. I assumed it was complex and shelved the idea. But then I thought: why reinvent the wheel?
Jeremy might have shared the code. I asked Discord bot, it wasn’t Jeremy but another user posted it with the implementation, though it was difficult to read in Discord message.
I fed the message context to an AI with the question: “I want a button on my bookmark bar that adds r.jina.ai before my current URL. How?” Five minutes later, it worked. Now any page I visit—one click, instant markdown.
The Bookmarklet
javascript:location.href=‘https://r.jina.ai/‘+location.href(Note that this code is giving error - as substack is changing the vertical quotes into curly quotes, get the right code from this page)
Right-click your bookmarks bar → Click on Add page → paste the code above as the URL → done.
What I Learned
Build on others’ work instead of reinventing wheels. Starting from scratch feels like learning, but building on existing solutions gets you further, faster.
Simple solutions exist—we just overcomplicate them in our mind. The “complex” solution I avoided? One line of JavaScript.
Small friction adds up. This saves 10 seconds per page. I do it dozens of times daily. That compounds.
AI excels at bridging the “how do I actually do this?” gap. I had the code but not the implementation steps. AI filled that perfectly.
The question I’ll keep asking myself: what friction in my workflow will I eliminate next?
How I use AI as a writing partner:
Gather context to feed into AI - collect the story, key points, and structure
Use AI to quickly turn notes into first draft
Edit for clarity and tone
Iterate on specific parts - try multiple versions of title and ending
Reflect on purpose of the document, closing question
Refine iteratively - each pass gets simpler and clearer
AI handles the drafting. I handle the thinking, structure, and editorial decisions.
Core principle: use tools for speed, keep control of what matters.