SWYoon Labs

UPDATE · v1.3.0 Just keep jotting — it tidies itself up Simple Side Note — the lightweight notepad that lives in your browser sidebar — is out in 1.3.0 . In one line: "Less cleanup by hand, and every delete is undoable." 📝 At a glance 🧹 Auto-clean old memos — unpinned memos clear themselves after a chosen age (7 / 30 / 90 days) 🗑️ Trash — deleted memos are kept for 30 days and can be restored anytime 📌 Pin = "keep this" — pinned memos are never auto-cleaned 🛡️ Off by default — nothing is removed until you opt in 🧹 Auto-clean old memos — the headline feature Every lightweight notepad has the same dilemma. It's great for jotting things down the moment they pop up , but over time most of those turn into throwaway notes you no longer need — and deleting them one by one is quietly annoying . So 1.3.0 adds ⚙️ Settings → Saved...

UPDATE · v1.2.0 Never lose a note again Simple Side Note — the lightweight notepad that lives right in your browser sidebar — is now on v1.2.0 . In one line, this release is all about "keep your data safe, and keep your hands on the keyboard." 📝 At a glance 💾 Backup & Restore — export all your notes to a single file and import them back anytime ⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts — ⌘/Ctrl+S to save, ⌘/Ctrl+F to search (toggle in Settings) 🖥️ OS system fonts — San Francisco on Mac, Segoe UI on Windows, applied automatically 🐛 Small fixes — unified color-button tooltip language, and more 💾 Backup & Restore — the star of this release As your notes pile up, one worry grows with them: "What if I lose all of this?" Until now you could export notes one at a time as HTML or Markdown, but there was no way to back up everything at once. Delete the ex...

📅 Published June 2026  ·  ⏱ 5 min read  ·  ✍️ SWYoon Labs By the end of this post, you will have five searchable grammar memos living in your Chrome sidebar — organized by topic, ready in one click, and fast enough to check mid-sentence while you are writing an email or a message. The tool is Simple Side Note , a free Chrome extension. The setup takes under ten minutes. After that, adding a new grammar rule takes about thirty seconds — right-click, type two lines, save. What You Will Have When You Are Done Five memos in your sidebar, each named after a grammar topic you actually struggle with. Every entry inside them follows the same three-line format — rule, example, your confusion. And a search bar at the top that finds any entry in under ten seconds by keyword. The next time you wonder whether to write "I have been waiting" or "I was waiting" — instead of opening a new tab and re-searching, you type "p...

📅 Published June 2026  ·  ⏱ 5 min read  ·  ✍️ SWYoon Labs You learn a great phrase. You feel proud. Three days later, you cannot remember it, where you saw it, or what it meant. This happens to almost every English learner because most "study" is really just passive exposure — reading something interesting once and trusting your memory to hold onto it. It will not. Memory needs a system, not good intentions. Below is a 5-minute daily routine that solves this, using Simple Side Note , a free Chrome sidebar notepad, together with Google AI Mode. No new app to learn. No subscription. Just five concrete clicks, every day. What You'll Need Simple Side Note installed in Chrome (free, no account required) Access to Google AI Mode (google.com → "AI Mode" tab) 5 minutes, once a day The Routine, Click by Click 1 Minute 1 — Open one memo, name it "Daily Phrases...

📅 Published June 2026  ·  ⏱ 6 min read  ·  ✍️ SWYoon Labs There is a particular kind of frustration that only language learners know. You are in the middle of a Google AI Mode session. The AI just gave you the perfect explanation of a phrase you have been hearing everywhere — natural, contextual, exactly what you needed. You think, "I have to save this." So you open a new tab. You navigate to your notes app. By the time you get back to the AI response, the moment is gone. Your focus has scattered. The sentence that felt so clear a moment ago now feels like something you half-remember from a dream. This is the tab-switching problem — and it is quietly one of the biggest obstacles in modern language learning. In this post, I will show you a simple workflow that eliminates the problem entirely, using a free Chrome extension called Simple Side Note . Why Tab-Switching Kills Your Study Flow Focus is ...

📅 Published June 2026  ·  ⏱ 7 min read  ·  ✍️ SWYoon Labs The right Chrome extension can turn your browser into a full English learning environment — without paying for expensive apps or switching between tools. This list covers the best free Chrome extensions for English learners in 2026, organized by what they actually help you do. Whether you want to look up words faster, improve your writing, or build a vocabulary list without breaking your reading flow, there is something here for every learner. How to Choose the Right Extension Before diving in, a quick framework. The best combination of extensions depends on what stage you are at: Beginner to intermediate: Focus on translation and word lookup tools Intermediate: Add writing improvement and vocabulary-building tools Advanced: Focus on nuance, tone, and natural usage — not just definitions Most learners benefit from using two or three extensions together, not ten. Pick one from ea...

Update summary: Simple Side Note 1.0.2 increases the default text size, replaces a crowded formatting toolbar with direct controls, and saves the current note before creating another one. A side panel has different readability needs Simple Side Note started as a personal tool for keeping notes beside articles, documentation, videos, and AI-assisted research. The first editor used 14 px text, which looked acceptable in isolation but felt too small during a long reading session. Version 1.0.2 raises the default editor size to 18 px. The change reduces the amount of text visible at once, but that is a reasonable trade-off in a narrow panel where readability matters more than page density. The larger default is particularly useful beside: technical documentation; video transcripts; language-learning material; long search or research results; code review notes. Direct font-size controls Instead of hiding common actions in a general formatting menu, the editor provides dir...

5 Reasons Google AI Mode Is Better Than a Dictionary – The Keyword AI & Technology 5 Reasons Google AI Mode Is Better Than a Dictionary The trusty dictionary has served us well for centuries — but in 2025, there's a smarter way to look things up. Here's why Google AI Mode has become the better first stop for understanding anything. 1 It Explains Words in Context, Not Just in Isolation A dictionary gives you a definition and maybe a sample sentence written by a lexicographer in 1987. Google AI Mode understands the context of your actual question . Ask what "liminal" means while researching architecture, and you'll get an explanation tailored to spatial design — not a generic philosophical definition you have to mentally translate yourself. Key insight: The same word means different things in law, medicine, and everyday conversation. A...