We built a Chrome extension to stop losing track of AI tools

We test a lot of AI tools. Occupational hazard of running an AI tools directory.

The workflow was always the same. Find something interesting, open a tab, think "I'll come back to this," close the tab, forget it existed. Or worse, bookmark it in a folder with 300 other bookmarks and never find it again.

Notes apps didn't really fix it. You'd write "check out X tool, looks good for writing" and three weeks later have no idea what X tool actually did or whether you even tried it.

So we built something.

AI Tools Explorer for Chrome is a browser extension that lets you save any AI tool with a right-click. A small dialog opens with the URL and page title already filled in. You add a star rating, a quick note, any tags you want, and hit save. Done in about ten seconds.

Everything lives in the toolbar popup. Search by name, URL, note text, or tag. Filter by tag. Sort by date saved, rating, or title. Edit any entry whenever your opinion on a tool changes, because your first impression of a tool and your impression after actually using it for a week are rarely the same thing.

A few things we were firm about from the start:

No accounts. You shouldn't need to create an account to keep a personal list of tools you've tried.

No cloud sync. Everything stays in your browser using Chrome's built-in storage. Nothing is transmitted anywhere.

No data collection. Zero. There's no backend server, no analytics, no tracking of any kind.

We also added two features that come from running the directory:

A "Check on AI Tools Explorer" option in the right-click menu, so you can instantly search whether a tool is listed on our directory and read the full profile before saving it to your collection.

And a "Surprise me" button that pulls a random tool from the directory when you want to discover something new without a specific goal in mind.

It's free. No subscription, no premium tier. The extension is also open source.

If you're someone who evaluates AI tools regularly, whether you're building a stack, doing competitive research, or just genuinely curious about what's out there, this should make that process a lot less messy.

Chrome Web Store: AI Tools Explorer for Chrome

GitHub: https://github.com/AIToolsExplorer/ai-tools-explorer-chrome-extension

We'd love to hear what you think, and if there's a feature missing that would make it actually useful for your workflow, drop it in the comments.