Okay so this is a little embarrassing to admit —
I launched bulkpictools.com three months ago and genuinely forgot to check
the analytics for like two weeks straight.
When I finally opened Google Search Console, I had to look twice.
Month 3 traffic was more than Month 1 and Month 2 put together.
I'm not going to pretend I have a clean explanation for this. I did some SEO
work around the end of Month 2 — rewrote a bunch of meta descriptions, cleaned
up the page content so it actually matched what people were searching for,
stopped being lazy about alt text. Basic stuff. The kind of stuff you tell
yourself you'll do later and then actually do later.
Did that cause the jump? Maybe. Probably? Google took its time, which, honestly,
very on-brand for Google.
But while I was waiting for the SEO stuff to kick in (or not), I shipped
something that I've been wanting to build for a while.
A background remover. Except the whole model runs in the browser.
No server. Zero backend calls. The image never goes anywhere.
I know "client-side AI" sounds like it should be complicated but the actual
core of it is pretty straightforward once you get ONNX Runtime Web set up:
const session = await ort.InferenceSession.create('./model.onnx');
const tensor = preprocessImage(imageData);
const { output } = await session.run({ input: tensor });
applyAlphaMask(canvas, originalImage, output);
The annoying part wasn't the model. It was memory. When someone tries to
process 10 high-res photos back to back, things get ugly fast. Still working
through that. Releasing > perfect, etc.
The thing nobody mentions about client-side inference is how weird it feels
the first time it actually works. You drag in a photo, the model loads,
and suddenly the background is just... gone. Locally. No spinner waiting
on a server response. It's fast in a way that feels slightly wrong.
Privacy-wise it's also just cleaner. I don't have to store anything,
process anything server-side, or explain to users where their photos go.
They go nowhere. That's the whole point.
Quick note on how this actually gets built:
I have a full-time job. This entire project gets worked on during my commute —
phone in one hand, trying not to miss my stop with the other. Most of the
testing happens on my phone screen, which is a chaotic way to do QA but
also weirdly effective because if it works on a moving subway, it works.
I'm not romanticizing the grind or whatever. It's just the actual situation.
You ship with the time you have.
Anyway. Month 4 starts now. Continuing to validate the AI tools,
fix what's broken, and figure out which features people actually use
vs which ones I thought they'd use (always humbling).
If you've built anything client-side AI recently — especially anything
dealing with image processing in the browser — drop a comment.
I'm curious what models you're running and what memory headaches
you've run into.
bulkpictools.com — go break something and tell me what breaks.
Top comments (4)
i've been seeing this alot lately — people are tired of bloated web apps and just want simple, privacy-first tools that do one thing well. honestly, going back to nuxt and building for real utility instead of chasing the hype cycle is a smart move. bulkpictools hits that sweet spot of solving a genuine daily friction point without the extra noise. i'm currently messing around in cursor on some small trackers and realized the same thing — good enough to ship is better than perfect and stuck. glad to see the traction is finally catching up to the work.
Thanks so much for this, Jill! 🥰
Bulkpictools was built exactly for folks craving simpler, privacy-first tools.
Excited to share I’m launching a browser extension soon to cut even more steps—users can process images directly in their browser, no extra tabs needed!
Your “good enough to ship” line is our north star too. So glad the work is getting traction!
browser extension makes total sense — no tab switch, no friction. "good enough to ship" got me past the perfectionism trap too. side note — have you listed bulkpictools on stackapps.app? it's built for exactly this kind of indie tool, simple, privacy-first, does one thing well. feels like a natural fit.
Hi Jill! Thank you so much for this thoughtful recommendation and tip on stackapps.app — you’re totally right, it’s such a natural perfect fit for bulkpictools, I’ve already noted this platform down.
To share my current trouble: my browser extension has been stuck in the store review queue for a full week now, with zero progress updates or feedback at all. I’m honestly feeling really lost and at a loss right now, and it even made me second-guess that “good enough to ship” mindset you talked about earlier.
Once this endless review process finally finishes, I’ll get bulkpictools listed on stackapps.app immediately!