How to Chat with Friends About a Website Right on the Website

While there’s no shortage of messaging apps, there’s really no solution for discussing, commenting and having a conversation about a website, right there on the website. Yes, you can just copy the link and share it on a Slack channel or in a Facebook chat and then talk about the website there. But then it’s difficult to keep track of the conversation (have you ever tried to search for something in a Facebook chat?). Also complicated is pinpointing which part of the article you’re talking about exactly.

This is one of those bizarre problems that one thinks should have been solved already. Thankfully, there’s someone trying to do that as we speak. It’s called Point.

What’s the Point…

Point is a Chrome extension (mobile apps are coming soon), where you can highlight text directly from the website, quote it and then discuss it with your friends on Point in a clean little window in the bottom-right corner of the screen. You can tag one or more contacts.

And just like any other chat app (but for this one particular website), there’s a conversation view and you’ll get notified when a contact replies to your message. The dropdown menu will also show you a history of all the points you’ve ever made.

Thanks to a recent update, it’s now possible to send Points to your friends who haven’t signed up for an account. Just tag an email address and they’ll receive an email with the highlight and your comment. They can choose to sign up for an account if they want to reply back.

Point for Personal Highlighting and Commenting Use

The problem with Point is that it’s a Chrome extension. While their onboarding experience is quite good, Point’s reach is limited. I suspect only your geeky friends will sign up for Point.

But you don’t need them to get the most out of Point. I think it works great even if it’s all you. I’ve been on the lookout for a service that would let me highlight stuff on the web, let me jot down quick notes without it being turned into a big deal. I wanted something casual. I didn’t want to do the whole thing where I send stuff to Evernote and have to deal with how to organize it all.

This is where Tags shine. I can use a hashtag in a conversation and then access all the websites tagged with the said hashtag easily from the extensions button. This can be a good replacement for a bookmarking service.

When I’m reading something and I find an anecdote I need to research more or just something funny or insightful, I can just point it to myself. Now it’s stored in the extension’s history where I can access it (and search through) anytime. Soon I hope I’ll be able to do this from my phone as well.

The Future of Point

I hope these guys find a way to integrate with other notetaking services, even if it’s via IFTTT. Just having a single archive of all my highlights in Evernote would be great.

Try out the extension and let me know what you think about Point in the comments below.