https://andregarzia.com/2025/09/linkgraphs-are-fun.html

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Linkgraphs are fun

As far as I am aware, link graphs were pioneered by Artemis calm web
reader, you can read about their take on it as Artemis Link Graph. In
their own words:

    Artemis Link Graph is a web extension that tells you when the
    page you are viewing has been linked to in a post from a website
    you follow on Artemis.

    You can use this extension to discove]r what websites you enjoy
    are saying about different web pages.

    -- Source: Artemis Link Graph | Artemis

It is a very neat feature. It works by surfacing posts from sites you
follow that mention the page you're current reading. In an age of
algorithimic timelines trying to herd you into content that improve
their metrics and the profit for their shareholders, having such
organic connections is a blessing.

How it works in artemis

This is how it works in Artemis

I mentioned in The Web Should Be A Conversation that I want to go
back to a human-centric web instead of this agentic bullshit we've
been forced into. Linkgraphs seem a wonderful tool in that direction
cause they provide immediate, actionable, interesting connections
between what interests you and those you subscribed to.

Artemis is a wonderful calm web reader. If you're in the mood to try
a different web reading / blog reading experience, I believe you
should give it a try.

    I find it quite cute that two calm web readers with cat mascots --
    Artemis and BlogCat -- are both developed in Scotland, must be
    something in the water.

Inspired by Artemis, I decided to implement the same feature in
BlogCat. Still, credit is due and they did it first.

In BlogCat, the linkgraph surfaces as a page action. If you're
viewing a page that has been linked in a post from a site you follow
you'll see the little cat popup.

If you click the popup, you'll see the list of posts that linked to
the page you're viewing.

[d90e6b4e-b]

This is how it works in BlogCat

I would love to see other blogging clients (feed readers? Can we
settle on a name for these type of apps?) implementing such feature.

How it is implemented in BlogCat

I followed Artemis very close but didn't use any of their code cause
the underlying implementation of data storage and general workflow is
very different between both clients.

Artemis is a SaaS that exposes the linkgraph as a JSON that is then
read by their extension and saved to session storage.

BlogCat is a WebExtension, a full web reader inside Firefox. When you
open the reader view, BlogCat fetches the feeds it needs to fetch and
then calculates the linkgraph by extracting all the links from all
the posts and saving them to session storage. The linkgraph is only
rebuilt when you open the reader view (BlogCat doesn't do background
fetching of feeds).

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My photo Andre Alves Garzia Andre Alves Garzia

Andre is a Mozilla TechSpeaker focused on decentralisation
technologies and is an active member of the Secure Scuttlebutt
community. In the recent years he published books about Firefox OS
and managed a Web Literacy program in vulnerable neighbourhoods of
Rio. He is a firm believer in empowerment through technological
experimentation. His now lives in London with his wife, cats and more
IoT boards than he can ever put into use.