Development build · Not yet in the Chrome Web Store

Install Link Meteor

Until Link Meteor is published in the Chrome Web Store, you can load the development build into desktop Chrome yourself. It takes about two minutes and needs no account.

Before you start

Link Meteor is built for desktop Google Chrome. It doesn't run on phones or tablets, and there are no Firefox or Safari versions.

What has been tested so far. Version 1.0.0 passed automated checks in Chrome for Testing on macOS, using synthetic pages and PDFs. They cover capture, the links inside PDFs, scrolling and following Next, capturing chosen pages, frames from other sites, exports and citation formats, imports, bookmarks, backup and restore, file downloads, PDFs as one ZIP or one PDF, and site access and permission removal, including Chrome's own permission prompts, each answered by hand. Page details lookup is checked with the test standing in for Crossref, DataCite and NCBI, so no test contacts them. The checks that need no extra permissions also pass on Windows and Linux. Each release is also checked by hand in everyday Google Chrome on macOS before it ships, and 0.3.0 was tried in Brave and Microsoft Edge. In Chrome 116, the oldest version Link Meteor supports, the automated checks that can run there passed, except one simulation of the page script, which stops partway because the test tool stops opening pages. Nobody has tried it by hand on Windows or Linux yet, and screen readers haven't been tested. If something doesn't work for you, please report it.

A development build is installed with Chrome's Developer mode. That's a normal Chrome setting for loading extensions from a folder on your computer; it doesn't change anything else about your browser.

Works in

Google Chrome: Tested by hand on macOS. Link Meteor needs Chrome 116 or newer, and that oldest version passed the automated checks that can run there.
Brave and Microsoft Edge: Version 0.3.0 was tested by hand on macOS. Load the ZIP the same way, from the browser's own extensions page with Developer mode on.
Firefox and Safari: Not supported.

Automated checks pass on Windows and Linux, but nobody has tried Link Meteor there by hand yet. If you try it there, or in another Chromium-based browser, a report of what worked helps.

Watch the steps

A 74-second walkthrough of this page: download, load the folder, pin the icon, capture a section of the practice page and export it. Steps that happen in your own file manager, Chrome's file picker or the toolbar are shown as labeled illustrations. Recorded with version 1.0.0.

No sound. Captions are part of the picture and are also available from the player's captions menu. 74 seconds, MP4, 8.1 MB. How the videos were made

Read the transcript

0:00
Picture The Link Meteor artwork with the title “Set up Link Meteor in desktop Chrome.”
0:03
Picture The Link Meteor install page scrolls to the download card, and the Download link-meteor-1.0.0.zip button is clicked.
0:03
Step 1: Download the ZIP from the install page.
0:07
Picture Illustration: the ZIP file becomes a folder named link-meteor-1.0.0 containing background, background.js, content, core, icons, manifest.json, ui and vendor.
0:07
Step 2: Unzip it into a folder you’ll keep. Chrome loads Link Meteor from there.
0:11
Picture The Chrome Extensions page: the Developer mode switch is turned on, revealing Load unpacked, which the pointer moves to.
0:12
Step 3: Open chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode.
0:15
Step 3: Then choose Load unpacked.
0:18
Picture Illustration: in the file picker, the link-meteor-1.0.0 folder is selected; it contains manifest.json.
0:18
Select the unzipped folder, the one that contains manifest.json.
0:22
Picture The Extensions page shows the Link Meteor 1.0.0 card.
0:22
Link Meteor 1.0.0 now appears in your extensions.
0:26
Picture Illustration: the Extensions puzzle-piece menu is opened and Link Meteor is pinned, so its icon appears in the toolbar.
0:26
Step 4: Pin it from the puzzle-piece menu so the icon stays in view.
0:30
Picture On the practice page, the search results section is selected. The card reads “9 links selected.” Copy text + URL reports “Copied anchor text and URL as two spreadsheet columns,” then Add to collection saves them.
0:30
Step 5: On the practice page, press the shortcut…
0:34
Step 5: …and drag across one section.
0:37
Compare the count with the section’s answer key: 9 links.
0:40
Copy text + URL puts two columns on your clipboard.
0:43
Or add them to a collection to review later.
0:45
Picture The Link Meteor side panel lists the captured links beside the practice page. Export opens the export view, where CSV is chosen and downloaded.
0:46
Step 6: Click the Link Meteor icon to open its side panel beside the page.
0:50
Step 6: Export shows exactly which links it will use.
0:54
Step 6: Pick a format and download. Here, CSV.
0:57
Picture The Chrome keyboard shortcuts page lists Link Meteor’s commands, and the pointer rests on the “Select a region of links” shortcut.
0:57
If the shortcut doesn’t work, change it at chrome://extensions/shortcuts.
1:01
Picture In the side panel, the help button opens About and help: “Link Meteor version 1.0.0, made by Ryan Kamp,” links to the guide, bug reports and suggestions, the website, source code and optional sponsorship, and a note that bug reports are public.
1:01
Help, bug reports and suggestions are under About and help.
1:06
Reports are public, so leave out private URLs and data.
1:09
Picture Closing card with the promises, the website address and “Made by Ryan Kamp.”

Download

Link Meteor 1.0.0, development build · 2907 KB ZIP

Download link-meteor-1.0.0.zip

SHA-256 4c862132f068423231dd66d864ac09b4b8121f7dfe869db50dc9328cae3933bf

To check the file, compare its SHA-256 with the value above. On a Mac, run shasum -a 256 followed by the file's path in Terminal; on Windows, run certutil -hashfile with the path and SHA256 in Command Prompt.

Or build it from source

The source is on GitHub. With Node.js 22 or newer, run npm run build in the project folder; there are no packages to install. Then load the dist folder in the next step.

Load it into Chrome

Unzip the download into a folder you'll keep. Chrome loads the extension from that folder every time it starts, so don't delete or move it afterward.
Open chrome://extensions. Type it into the address bar and press Enter.
Turn on Developer mode. The switch is at the top right of the Extensions page.
Choose Load unpacked and select the unzipped folder, the one that contains manifest.json. It holds background.js and manifest.json, and the folders background, content, core, icons, ui and vendor.
Pin it. Open the puzzle-piece menu in Chrome's toolbar and pin Link Meteor so its icon stays visible.

Chrome may occasionally remind you that developer-mode extensions are turned on. That reminder is expected for any extension loaded this way.

First capture

Open the practice page, a page of synthetic links made for trying Link Meteor.
Click the Link Meteor icon to open its side panel beside the page.
Press ⌥ ⇧ L on a Mac, or Alt Shift L on Windows and Linux, then drag across the reading list. Choose Add to collection and watch the links arrive in the panel.

The practice page on the left and Link Meteor's side panel on the right, showing the collection Urban heat islands: sources with 102 links, the This page tab with the Scroll to the end first and Follow Next, up to 20 pages options, Capture this page and Select a region, a note about the previous capture of 95 links, a search box and the first captured link with its DOI tag. — Two actual screenshots side by side: the practice page, and the workbench rendered at side-panel width. Chrome's own side-panel frame isn't shown.

The first time you open the side panel, a welcome card offers Allow on all sites (recommended), so you can hold a key and drag on any site, or Choose sites later. Chrome asks once if you allow all sites. Otherwise, it asks for extra permission only when you use a feature that needs it, such as capturing several tabs at once. The privacy page lists every permission and why it's asked for.

Keyboard shortcut

The default shortcut for selecting a region is ⌥ ⇧ L on a Mac and Alt Shift L elsewhere. If another extension already uses it, Chrome leaves Link Meteor's shortcut unassigned, and the side panel says Not set.

To change it, open chrome://extensions/shortcuts, or choose Change next to the shortcut in Link Meteor's side panel. You can always use the Select a region button or Chrome's right-click menu instead.

Update or remove

Update

Download the new build and replace the contents of your Link Meteor folder with it, keeping the same folder. Then open chrome://extensions, press the reload button on Link Meteor's card, and reload any pages you had open. Your collections are kept. From version 0.3.0 on, you can also download a backup first. Version 1.0.0 restores backups made with 0.3.0 and later, but a backup made with 1.0.0 can't be restored by 0.5.0 or earlier; update first, then restore. Updating to 1.0.0 adds no permission, so Chrome doesn't ask for anything new.

Remove

Choose Remove on Link Meteor's card in chrome://extensions. This deletes your saved collections, because they are stored only in this browser. Download a backup or export anything you want to keep first.

Troubleshooting

Nothing happens on a page: Chrome doesn't let extensions run on its own pages (like chrome:// addresses), the Chrome Web Store or incognito windows. On ordinary pages that were already open when you installed or updated, reload the page once.
The shortcut doesn't respond: Check chrome://extensions/shortcuts. Another extension or your operating system may be using the same keys.
Some links weren't captured: Content that hasn't loaded yet isn't there: for pages that load more as you scroll, tick Scroll to the end first. Frames from other sites are read only where Link Meteor has access to their sites; the capture report names them and offers Allow these sites. See limits and coverage.
Capture this PDF can't get the PDF: Some sites send a sign-in page instead of the PDF, or the address has expired. Download the PDF, then choose Import links and the file. A PDF opened from your computer is always read from its file: choose Choose this PDF…. See the links inside PDFs.
Capture this page says Link Meteor doesn't have access: Chrome gives Link Meteor access to a page when you click its toolbar icon there, and that access ends when the tab moves to another site. If you allowed all sites, this doesn't come up. Otherwise, Link Meteor asks Chrome for the new site in the same click; if you decline, the capture reports that access was denied. When Chrome hides the page's address, Link Meteor offers Allow on all sites instead. You can also click the Link Meteor icon again while you're on the page (it may be under the puzzle-piece menu), then choose Capture this page.
Hold-key drag doesn't start on a site: Check that the site isn't under Never on these sites in Link Meteor's Site access settings. If Chrome's own site access for Link Meteor (in the puzzle-piece menu) is set to On click, hold-key drag can't run, and Link Meteor explains why. Typing in a text box, search field or editor never starts a selection.
A multi-tab capture says Access denied: Chrome asked whether Link Meteor could read those sites, and the request was declined or the permission was later removed. Capture again to be asked again.