Hypothesis - a public-by-default web annotation tool 預設公開的網上標註筆記工具
A flexible online highlighting, note-taking, and sharing app. What sets it apart from Omnivore and Glasp is that you get to control each note's visibility: by default all notes are public and published, but you can make a note private, viewable to you only, by either creating it in a private group or setting it to "to me only" in a (default) public group. I tested this and it works as claimed.
Anyone can read and search for a public note without a Hypothesis account.
Hypothesis doesn't compete head-on with Omnivore because it isn't also a reading app, but in my opinion it kind of eats Glasp's lunch simply by having a functioning Obsidian plugin that syncs to Obsidian, like Omnivore does. However, Glasp uniquely offers a very cool capability of video annotations for YouTube. (2023-12-16) YouTube annotation is now possible with Hypothesis, for videos that have subtitles at least. #todo Test videos with purely Chinese subtitles.
This tool seems rather popular with teachers and students because it integrates with learning management platforms like Canvas.
Quick verdict: 4.5 stars 強力推薦
Pros
- Free
- Open source
- Flexibility in access control: a public note by default can be set to private
- No account or login required to read anyone's public notes
- Simple RTF (rich text formatting) in comments; allows pictures and links
- Obsidian integration
- Searching is top-notch
- Said to comply with annotation "standards"
- More convenient in-place (the web page) quick highlighting and noting action than Omnivore, which is a reading app first, requiring adding the web page to collection before highlighting/noting is possible.
- Video annotation for YouTube: a huge plus for me.
Cons
- 2023-12-16 Annotations NOT fully synced for the first time (for example, a heavily annotated YouTube video on Readwise Reader).
- Updated annotations don't sync successfully to Obsidian the way Omnivore does.
- A tedious workaround: delete the Obsidian note, reset (in plugin setting), and sync again.
These two problems with Hypothesis may nudge me into trying out Reader to see if its sync is always complete and covering updated highlights and annotations.
- The Sync button in Obsidian "toolbar" and the Reset button in Settings are too "quiet" -- they don't give you feedback after clicking and I don't know if the click registered or not.
- Caution: can reveal private web content (the highlighted portion) if the note is set to public
- No iOS app; web-based
- The suggested solution for iOS (loading through via.hypothes.is) is crappy and practically useless.
- Not also a reading app like Omnivore
- Certain web domains aren't enabled; similar limitations as Glasp, more limited than Omnivore
- Loading of the annotation UI (after clicking the Chrome button on a web page) can be a bit iffy
Observations while using it 使用心得
Access control: sanity check 檢驗權限：無誤
Before login
After login
Pictures can be selected along with text 圖片和文字可一起擷取，成功同步到Obsidian
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