Raindrop/Extensions/Data Miners

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Data Mining messages is a how we provide more value to the user than just displaying the pure text of a message. By looking for patterns in our conversations we can help people get more information and do more faster.

Almost every data mining extension works in this way:

1. Find a pattern in a message
2. Possibly call out to an external service for more meta-data about the pattern
3. Create (emit) a document about the information

Here are some examples of different services:

Photo Services

When people share links to their online photographs they are really sharing the photos themselves. Our goal is to get a thumbnail of the image, a title, location, and any other data that might be interesting.

Flickr

The Flickr data mining extension scans messages for flickr URLs it recognizes. Currently this handles both flickr.com URLs and the shortened flic.kr URLs.

Here you can see the code for when the Flickr Data Miner was first added and here when the flick.kr urls where added as well.

Here are the latest versions of the Flickr data mining extension.

• JSON Registration File
• Data Mining Extension

Link Shorteners

With the rise of Twitter there are a growing number of link shortening services. These services are excellent for saving on the number of characters in your messages however they hide the real location of links and can make messages harder to understand.

In Raindrop we expand these links to get their full URL, title, and any other information which might be interesting. This allows us to give the person more information about the link before clicking on it.

Currently Raindrop cannot data mine the full URL of shortened links which are expanded. There a limitation where a shortened link which points to youtube, flickr, or other another service will only show up as the full URL and will not be data mined further so a thumbnail or title can be retrieved.

Bit.ly

The bit.ly URL expander uses the API for expanding shortened links found in messages.

Here's the initial commit of the bit.ly extension

The extension does the following:

1. Search for bit.ly links in messages
2. Call out to the bit.ly API for the link title and other meta-data
3. Create (emit) a document describing the expanded link

Here are the latest versions of the extension:

• JSON Registration File
• Data Mining Extension

BudURL

A BudURL extension has not been implemented yet, do you want to take it on?

budurl.com offers an API for expanding shortened links found in messages.

Video Services

The intention of the Video service is to grab a thumbnail, title, location, and inline video player of a video link used in a message. With this information we can create a much better video experience that allows people to view the video inline.

YouTube

Here are the latest versions of the YouTube extension:

• JSON Registration File
• Data Mining Extension

Vimeo

Here's the initial commit of Vimeo link support into Raindrop.

Here are the latest extension files:

• JSON Registration File
• Data Mining Extension

Links

Certain web sites offer simple APIs for retrieving more information about the products they offer. We can optimize for many of these sites by creating extensions that find those links and grab interesting information from the sites to expand on the link given.

Mozilla Add-ons

This extension is a suggestion that has not been developed. Try it out!

Using the AMO API Raindrop can retrieve additional information about an Add-on link being sent via email.

If someone sends a link like: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748

Raindrop can find that link and retrieve the extra meta data via the API by constructing a URL like this: https://services.addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/api/1.3/addon/748

Now you'd just need to create a quick AMO UI extension helper to display the real title, image, and author; you could even offer an install button for a link sent.