NewsBlur Web Story Sharing Enhancer

WHAT IT DOES

NewsBlur Web Story Sharing Enhancer reads story titles and links from the NewsBlur reading page and adds customizable share buttons directly to each story. The extension supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email, and Copy Link sharing options. Each story gets its own set of share buttons, making it easy to share interesting articles without leaving the reader. The extension tracks which stories you have shared, with visual indicators showing shared status. A share counter displays the total number of shares per story, helping you keep track of your sharing activity. The settings panel lets you enable or disable specific share platforms, toggle share count visibility, and clear your share history. Share data persists across browsing sessions, so your history is always available.

WHERE IT RUNS

This extension works on all NewsBlur pages at newsblur.com and its subdomains, specifically on the reading view where stories are displayed. It runs on the main feed page, individual story views, and any page showing story lists. The extension operates entirely within your browser and does not access NewsBlur's servers directly—it reads only what is visible on the page you are viewing. It works alongside the free BotGentz extension, which provides the necessary scripting environment.

HOW TO USE

Install the extension, then navigate to newsblur.com and open your feed. The extension automatically detects stories and adds share buttons below each one. Click the extension's icon in your browser toolbar to open the settings panel. Use the platform toggles to enable or disable specific share buttons. The "Show share counts" toggle controls whether share count badges appear next to stories. The "Refresh Stories" button manually updates all stories with share buttons. The stats panel shows total stories shared, total shares made, and the time of your last share. The "Clear Share History" button removes all stored share data. To share a story, simply click the desired share button—the link will open in a new tab or copy to your clipboard.

DYNAMIC STORY INJECTION WITH MUTATION OBSERVER

Unlike simple page-load scrapers, this extension uses a MutationObserver with a debounced callback to detect dynamically loaded stories. NewsBlur uses infinite scrolling and dynamic content loading, which means stories are added to the page without full reloads. The observer monitors the story container for added and removed elements, detecting when new stories appear as the user scrolls. When a change is detected, the callback is debounced to prevent excessive re-processing, allowing the extension to apply share buttons only to newly added stories without re-processing existing ones. This efficient approach uses a per-story check to avoid duplication, ensuring that each story receives exactly one set of share buttons. The observer also catches story updates when reading state changes, ensuring that share indicators reflect the current state.

THE PANEL

The panel supports drag-to-move anywhere on the page. It remembers its position per site, so it stays where you placed it on newsblur.com. Click the panel header to collapse it down to just the minimized bubble, or click the expand handle to show the full panel. The panel can be resized by dragging the bottom-right corner. Press the Escape key to close the expanded panel and return to the minimized state. All panel settings, including position, size, collapsed state, platform selections, share count visibility, and share history, are saved per site and persist across browsing sessions.

PLEASE NOTE

This extension requires the free BotGentz extension to be installed and active, as it provides the underlying DOM injection and script execution environment. NewsBlur's website changes periodically, and story element structures, class names, and page layouts may be updated. When that happens, the extension may stop detecting stories until an update is released. The extension stores your platform preferences, share count visibility setting, share history per story, and total share counts locally in your browser's storage using GM_setValue. Share data is stored as key-value objects with story IDs and share timestamps. No data is ever sent to any server, and no personal information is collected. The extension does not read or store your NewsBlur login credentials, email, or any identifying information. It only reads story titles and links from the page. You can clear all stored settings and share history at any time using the "Clear Share History" button or by clearing your browser data for newsblur.com.