The problem SummUp solves

SummUp is a powerful tool that solves the problem of information overload by providing a quick and efficient way to summarize large amounts of text. This can be particularly useful when reading news articles or research papers, which can often be quite lengthy and time-consuming to read in full.

With SummUp, users can simply install the Chrome extension and then click the SummUp icon to generate a summary of the page they're currently reading. The extension works by using OpenAI APIs to analyze the text on the page and extract the most important information while leaving out extraneous details and filler text.

This makes it much easier for users to get a quick overview of the content on a page without having to read through the entire article. The summaries generated by SummUp are typically just a few sentences long, making them easy to read and digest quickly.

In addition to generating summaries, SummUp also has a feature that allows users to ask the extension a question based on the text content of the page. Simply click on the SummUp icon in your browser's toolbar, type in your question, and the extension will use NLP techniques to find the answer within the article text.

SummUp can be a valuable tool for anyone who needs to read a lot of text on a regular basis, whether for work, research, or personal interest. By providing quick and efficient summaries of long articles and other texts, SummUp helps users save time and improve their productivity.

Although ChatGPT can be used to summarize text, it may not be as effective for summarizing content from links. Copying and pasting text manually can be a time-consuming process and may not be practical for summarizing multiple articles or documents. Additionally, ChatGPT may not be able to accurately summarize the key points of an article if it doesn't have access to the full context of the text.

Challenges I ran into

When building this project, I initially encountered the challenge of not knowing how to build Chrome extensions. To overcome this, I spent time reading through the documentation and learning by doing, experimenting with different approaches until I was able to successfully build the SummUp Chrome extension.

Another challenge I faced while building this project was my limited knowledge of OpenAI and other relevant technologies. To address this, I sought insights and advice from mentors and other participants, as well as from ChatGPT, which was a valuable resource for learning more about these technologies. Through a combination of trial and error and guidance from others, I was able to gain the knowledge and skills I needed to complete the project.

Figuring out the workflow between content.js, popup.js, and background.js was a major challenge while building the SummUp Chrome extension. The interactions between these different components can be confusing, and it was often difficult to determine where an error was coming from. As a result, debugging even small errors could take a significant amount of time. I had to spend a lot of time carefully tracing the flow of information between these different components in order to identify and fix issues.

Building this project was a significant challenge, particularly since I was working on it solo. From ideation to learning the necessary technology to figuring out how to build it, and building it, I had to handle every aspect of the project myself. As a result, I had to stay awake throughout the duration of the hackathon in order to complete the project on time.
PS: Super grateful to the people on the organizing team and my friends for constantly being there to encourage me!