✦ TRAIL - Visual History Mapper

Transform your browsing history into an interactive cosmic constellation map.

Features

🌌 Constellation Map

• Favicon Stars: Each website is a star with its actual favicon
• Constellation Lines: Temporal connections between sites visited together
• Nebula Background: Animated cosmic atmosphere with twinkling stars
• Force-Directed Layout: Physics-based positioning for natural clustering

🎨 Visual Design

• Glassmorphism UI: Frosted glass panels with backdrop blur
• Category Colors: Auto-detected categories with unique colors
  • 🔵 Tech (GitHub, Stack Overflow, docs)
  • 💗 Social (Reddit, Twitter, Discord)
  • 🟠 News (CNN, NYT, TechCrunch)
  • 🟢 Education (Coursera, Khan Academy)
  • 🔴 Shopping (Amazon, eBay)
  • 🟣 Entertainment (YouTube, Netflix)
  • 🩵 Finance (PayPal, Robinhood)

🎛️ Interactive Controls

• Time Filters: View 1h, 24h, 7d, 30d, or all time
• Search: Find specific domains instantly
• Zoom & Pan: Navigate the cosmos freely
• Export PNG: Save your constellation as an image

📊 Statistics

• Total stars (unique domains)
• Visit counts per site
• First/last visit timestamps
• Connection strength between sites

Installation

Chrome Web Store (Coming Soon)

Developer Mode

1. Download the latest release
2. Open Chrome → Extensions → Developer mode ON
3. Click "Load unpacked"
4. Select the extension folder

Usage

1. Browse normally - TRAIL silently tracks your journey
2. Click the extension icon - Opens the cosmic control center popup
3. View your map - Click "Open Constellation Map"
4. Explore - Click stars to see details, drag to rearrange

Privacy

• All data stored locally in Chrome storage
• No external servers or tracking
• Optional: Data can be encrypted and scattered to DuckDNS for cross-device sync

Architecture

Chrome Extension
├── Background Script    → Tracks history & categorizes sites
├── Popup              → Cosmic control center with stats
├── Constellation      → D3.js visualization
└── Storage            → IndexedDB for local persistence

Category Detection

TRAIL automatically categorizes websites using URL pattern matching:

// Example patterns
/stackoverflow\.com/i → 'tech'
/reddit\.com/i         → 'social'
/youtube\.com/i        → 'entertainment'
/\.edu$/i              → 'edu'

Tech Stack

• Manifest V3 - Latest Chrome extension format
• D3.js v7 - Force-directed graph visualization
• Chrome Storage API - Local data persistence
• Chrome History API - Browsing data access

Development

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/CrazhHolmes/TRAIL-Extension.git

# Load in Chrome
# 1. Open chrome://extensions/
# 2. Enable Developer Mode
# 3. Load unpacked → Select folder

Roadmap

• Core constellation visualization
• Category-based coloring
• Time range filters
• Search functionality
• PNG export
• Session analytics (dwell time)
• Cross-device sync via DuckDNS
• Trending constellations
• Shareable constellation links

License

MIT - Built by Wizardrytezch

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"Every website is a star. Your browsing history is a galaxy."