Sift

A Chrome extension (Manifest V3) that re-ranks Google results with TypeSafe Jev. It moves results that answer the query to the top. It folds away sales pages and SEO filler.

How it works

1. content.ts scrapes the organic results on google.com/search. Sponsored blocks are skipped.
2. The service worker sends one Jev call per result, and all calls run at the same time. Each call asks five atomic questions (src/rank/questions.ts): four Noul questions (answers the query, promotional, SEO filler, discussion) and one Score question (depth, 0 to 3, normalized to 0 to 1).
3. src/rank/plan.ts combines the answers into a weighted score and sorts the results, highest first.
   • A result is flagged when its promotional or filler probability is at or above flagThreshold (default 0.85).
   • A flagged result is hidden only when the depth answer's confidence is at or above hideMinConfidence (default 0.6). Otherwise the result is dimmed.
   • A result whose scoring failed stays in its original position.
4. src/serp/render.ts reorders the page, adds a reason badge to each flagged result, and puts the hidden results under a "Show N hidden results" toggle. The results glide to their new positions, so you can see what moved.
5. src/serp/toast.ts shows a translucent panel in the corner when the page changed, for example "Reordered 3 · hid 2". Its Show original button restores Google's order exactly, and Re-apply reorders the results again.

Features

• Search intent. Each search gets one extra question: is it transactional ("buy nike pegasus 41", "pizza delivery near me")? If so, sales pages are not hidden and not penalized. A research search like "best vpn" still filters them.
• Site rules. Always boost or always hide a site. You can set a rule from a result's badge or its "Why here?" button, or from the Sift right-click menu on a result link. Rules are synced with chrome.storage.sync and apply without an API call. An open results page re-ranks as soon as a rule changes. The settings page lists the rules and lets you remove them.
• "Why this rank?" popover. Click a badge, or the "Why here?" button that appears when you hover over a result. The popover shows every factor with its value and whether it raises or lowers the rank.

The motion follows Apple's fluid-interface guidance:

• Springs are critically damped (src/serp/motion.ts), so nothing overshoots.
• An interrupted animation starts from the element's current position on screen.
• The panel arrives from the bottom and leaves the same way.
• With reduced motion, the panel fades instead of moving, and results are placed without a glide.
• With reduced transparency or increased contrast, surfaces become solid.

Scores are cached in chrome.storage.local for 7 days. The cache key is a hash of the question set, the query, and the URL, so a change to a question discards the old scores automatically. On 429 and 529 responses, the client retries with exponential backoff and jitter.

Setup

npm install
npm run build        # outputs dist/

To load the extension:

1. Open chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode.
2. Click Load unpacked and select dist/.
3. On the options page, which opens on install, enter your TypeSafe API key.

The key is stored in chrome.storage.local. It is not in the package and it is not synced.

Development

Command	Purpose
npm run check	Lint, type-check, test, and build. Run this before you commit.
npm run watch	Rebuild on change.
npm run fix	Apply Biome formatting and safe lint fixes.
JEV_API_KEY=... npm run smoke	Score sample results with the live API. Use it to tune question wording.

When Google changes its markup

All DOM assumptions are in src/serp/selectors.ts. When results stop being re-ranked:

1. Save a real results page.
2. Update test/fixtures/serp.html to match the new markup.
3. Update the selectors until test/serp.test.ts passes.

Known limits

• The evidence is only the snippet. The title, domain, URL, and snippet show sales copy and listicles well. They are weaker evidence for whether a page answers the query. A possible next step: fetch the top pages and send their first ~1,500 characters. Put this behind a setting, because it is slower.
• Only www.google.com is matched. To support other Google domains, add them to static/manifest.json.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Before you open a pull request, run npm run check. CI runs the same command.

When Google's markup changes and results stop being re-ranked, update src/serp/selectors.ts and test/fixtures/serp.html together.

License

MIT