The Problem with Standard Links
If you are doing academic research, collaborating on a project, or simply want to prove a point in an argument, you will frequently need to share a long, complex webpage with a colleague. However, if the crucial piece of information is buried deep within a 5,000-word article, sending them a standard URL is incredibly inefficient. You are forcing the recipient to use the “Find” feature or manually scroll through paragraphs of irrelevant text to locate the specific sentence you wanted them to read. Google Chrome solves this problem entirely with a feature called “Link to highlight,” which allows you to create a specialized URL that automatically scrolls the reader’s screen directly to the relevant paragraph and paints it bright yellow.
How to Create a Link to Text
This feature is built natively into Google Chrome on desktop; you do not need to install any third-party extensions.
- Open Google Chrome and navigate to the webpage containing the information you want to share.
- Using your mouse, click and drag to highlight the specific sentence or paragraph you want your colleague to read. (Keep the highlight concise; highlighting massive blocks of text can sometimes cause the feature to fail).
- Right-click anywhere directly on top of the blue highlighted text.
- From the context menu that appears, select Copy link to highlight.
Note: The URL is now copied to your invisible system clipboard. It will look identical to a normal link, but it will have a complex string of characters appended to the end (e.g., #:~:text=specific%20words).
What the Recipient Experiences
Open your email, Slack, or messaging app and paste the link. When your colleague clicks that link, their browser will open the webpage, completely bypass the top of the article, instantly auto-scroll down to the exact section you highlighted, and briefly highlight those specific words in a bright contrasting color to draw their eyes immediately to the data. This works seamlessly even if the recipient is using a different modern browser like Microsoft Edge or Safari.