WebExtensions to monitor web pages for changes

SiteDelta Watch and SiteDelta Highlight are two WebExtensions for Firefox and Chrome that add website monitoring functionality to the browser.

Both check a site for changes and notify you about them, and the core difference between the two is that Watch does so automatically and Highlight only on connect.

Monitoring web pages can improve workflows. I'm monitoring a specific page on a shopping site for instance -- Lego -- to get notifications when a product that I'm interested in becomes available.

You can do the same for other activities such as research, getting news updates, your friend's social media profiles, new media on web pages, and a lot more.

Both browser extensions are successors of Firefox's SiteDelta legacy extension.

SiteDelta Watch

SiteDelta Watch adds an icon to Firefox's toolbar after installation. It opens the list of monitored pages in the sidebar as well by default, but that list is empty obviously after installation.

You can add any public web page to the list of monitored pages by clicking on the extension's icon. There you have two options:

1. Open the configuration to adjust monitoring parameters.
2. Add the page.

Monitoring starts as soon as you add the page to the list of monitored web pages. You may want to open the configuration after installation though as you may modify certain monitoring parameters using it.

Note that the configuration is valid for all monitored pages. Here is what you can modify in the preferences:

• Remove page styles (disabled by default).
• Outline include and exclude regions (outline for changes).
• Check deletions (yes) and images (no).
• Ignore case and numbers (both disabled).
• Change scan frequency from 1440 minutes to another value in minutes.

You control the monitored pages using the sidebar in Firefox, but can also do so on the preferences page.

You may run manual scans from the sidebar menu or the preferences. Simply select a page in the sidebar, and click on the down arrow icon to display the options. Select scan page to run a manual scan at the time.

You may mark pages as seen, delete pages, or open them from the menu. The preferences come with an import and export option on top of that.

SiteDelta Watch comes with options to include or exclude parts of a page from being monitored. If you are only interested in a small part for instance, you can exclude the rest, or include that part only.

This is controlled after you add a page to the list of monitored web resources. Click on the down arrow icon that is displayed in the notification bar, and start to modify the configuration as you see fit using it.

SiteDelta Highlight

SiteDelta Highlight is the second extension that you may use for the monitoring of web pages. This extension checks pages only on connect, but does so more thoroughly than SiteDelta Watch.

You may use Highlight to monitor only specific parts of a page, or exclude parts of a page

You add a web page by clicking on the extension's icon in the browser's address bar. You may add it right away to the list of monitored pages, open the configuration, or the advanced options.

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To use the custom configuration for a page, click on the small down arrow icon after you click on the main toolbar icon of SiteDelta Highlight.

There you find the usual configuration options, and two to include or exclude regions. Click on "add new", and then select a region that you want included or excluded by clicking on it on the page.

The extension adds the rules to the list of included or excluded regions automatically; no hunting down for identifiers in source code, that is good.

The core configuration options are identical to the ones included in SiteDelta Watch. One difference is the new "enable SiteDelta context menu on pages and button" option that you may enable.

Closing Words

Both SiteDelta extensions monitor web pages, but they have different use scenarios. SiteDelta Watch automates the checking so that you receive notifications once a day (by default) if content changed on a monitored web page without visiting it.

SiteDelta Highlight offers more granular monitoring, but it requires that you visit the web page actively to start a scan for changes on it.

The developer notes that you can run both extensions side by side if you want.