PageGuide: Browser extension to assist users in navigating a webpage and locating information

2026-04-26

AI Summary

Users often struggle to efficiently locate information, execute multi-step tasks, and resist distractions while browsing web pages, yet existing AI assistants lack visual grounding to page elements. This work proposes PageGuide—a browser extension that, for the first time, directly anchors large language model (LLM) outputs to the HTML DOM structure and implements three interaction modes via a frontend visual overlay: Find (highlighting target elements), Guide (step-by-step task guidance), and Hide (suppressing distracting content). This approach introduces a triple innovation of verifiable answers, followable actions, and a decluttered interface. User studies demonstrate that Hide improves accuracy by 26% and reduces task time by 70%; Guide increases task completion rates by 30%; and Find decreases reliance on Ctrl+F by 80% while reducing search time by 19%.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Intelligent User Interfaces
• Natural Language Processing: Language Grounding & Multi-modal NLP
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Data and user privacy-enhancing technologies for the Web
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Efficiency and scalability of Web search engines
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web measurements

Abstract

Users browsing the web daily struggle to quickly locate relevant information in cluttered pages, complete unfamiliar multi-step tasks, and stay focused amid distracting content. State-of-the-art AI assistants (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) and browser agents (e.g., OpenAI Operator, Browser Use) can answer questions and automate actions, yet they return answers without showing where the information comes from on the page, forcing users to manually verify results and blindly trust every automated steps. We present PageGuide, a browser extension that grounds LLM answers directly in the HTML DOM via visual overlays, addressing three core user needs: (a) Find-locating and highlighting relevant evidence in-situ so users can instantly verify answers on the page; (b) Guide-showing step-by-step instructions (e.g. how to change password) one at a time so users can follow and perform actions by themselves; and (c) Hide-hiding distracting content-giving users a chance to decide to hide an element or not. In a user study (N=94), PageGuide outperform unaided browsing across all modes: Hide accuracy improve by 26 percentage points (86.7% relative gain) and task completion time drops by 70%; Guide completion rate increases by 30 percentage points; and Find reduces manual search effort, with Ctrl+F usage falling by 80% and task time decreasing by 19%. Code and demo is at: pageguide.github.io.

Problem

• web navigation
• information location
• distracting content
• user verification
• multi-step tasks

Innovation

• browser extension
• LLM grounding
• visual overlay
• DOM anchoring
• user-guided navigation