# Wanted: Highrise Chrome Extension

By [The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman](https://nickgrossman.xyz) · 2012-07-01

delicious, highrise, miscellaneous, wanted

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**Update:** [**I built it**](http://wayback.theslowhunch.net/2012/07/highrise-chrome-extension/)**.** I've used [Highrise](http://highrisehq.com) as a lightweight CRM for a few years now.  It's fine for my needs -- basically keeping track of people who I meet on email. The thing that really made Highrise start to work for me is integration with Gmail, via [Rapportive](http://rapportive.com).  Being able to add someone to my highrise, and add some tags and notes, right from my inbox, has been awesome.  I use it every day. But there is still something I really need that I don't have.  You see, tracking people and companies in Highrise works really well for _people you're already connected to_.  I.e., people who you've been introduced to over email -- so that you can add them via Rapportive; yadda yadda.  The problem wtih that is that there are lots of people and companies that I want to track in Highrise that aren't yet in my inbox. This is another version of the "[strategic networking tool](http://wayback.theslowhunch.net/2010/11/strategic-networking-tool/)" problem that I wrote about a few years ago. So, for now, I have a hacked together solution that involves using Highrise for folks I meet on email, and [Delicious](http://del.icio.us) for people and companies I don't know yet.  This is an OK start, but it's missing a key feature: collaboration.  The kinds of notes and tags we use in Highrise are _internal_ -- meant for team discussion and not for public consumption.  So, by using Delicious, I can write public notes & tags (which are fine most of the time anyway), or I a can save private links -- but if I do that they're not accessible via API and I can't get them into Highrise no matter how much I want to. So here's what I want, ideally.  A chrome extension that gives me a delicious-like experience for adding content to Highrise.  I've taken a few half-hearted stabs at making one, but haven't gotten there yet. **Here's the idea in pictures** (click each to enlarge). In my head, I've been calling this "Eyes on the Street". I use Highrise via Rapportive to track people I meet over email.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/02eab31a5055168171606ef9e7f87086.png)

This give me a nice, searchable browseable view in Highrise, which I can share with my team:

![](https://live-ngis.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2-highrise.png "2-highrise")

For people I don't know yet and haven't met on email, I use delicious to keep track.  There is a nice browser extension for this; it's really easy.

![](https://live-ngis.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/3-delicious-1024x506.png "3-delicious")

So I get a similarly nice, searchable view in Delicious.  However, any links I mark as private I can't share w/ my team :(

![](https://live-ngis.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/4-delicious.png "4-delicious")

**So here's what I want:** A browser extension that looks a lot like the Delicious extension, that lets me tag people and companies in Highrise (just like I can do via Rapportive in my inbox).  If it's a new person, I create a new entry.

![](https://live-ngis.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/5-person.png "5-person")

If the person is already in the system, I can add additional links / notes:

![](https://live-ngis.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/6-person.png "6-person")

The same thing works for companies:

![](https://live-ngis.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/7-company.png "7-company")

The extension could show a badge when other people from my team have noted a given URL and/or left notes.  Conversation (in the extension and in Highrise) ensues.

![](https://live-ngis.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/8-company.png "8-company")

This is pretty easy to make, I think.  If I were a better programmer I would have made it already. But rather than burn another whole evening futzing around writing my first chrome extension, I'm writing up the idea here :).  Basically, the extension can talk to Highrise directly via JS/XML, or via a proxy server that sits in the middle.  The advantage to the latter (drawn below), is that you can take advantage of [Highrise wrapper libraries](https://github.com/37signals/highrise-api), rather than writing directly to the raw API.

![](https://live-ngis.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/9-diagram.png "9-diagram")

That's it!  Is there anything out there like this? If so I haven't found it.  If anyone wants to take this idea and run with it I would be forever grateful.

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*Originally published on [The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman](https://nickgrossman.xyz/wanted-highrise-chrome-extension)*