3.0

Major UX Overhaul

Complete visual redesign with modern glassmorphism aesthetic, restructured UI architecture, and significant improvements to the recommendation engine.

UI/UX

• Dynamic Island Header — Floating pill-shaped header with settings that expand inline via smooth slide animation
• Glassmorphism Design — Backdrop blur, semi-transparent surfaces, and layered depth throughout
• Now Playing Card — Redesigned music display with large album artwork, scrolling track/artist names (marquee effect), and inline metadata (genres, BPM)
• History Cards — Compact cards with album art thumbnails, source page links, and expandable "More Info" sections containing Spotify embeds
• Theme System — Light and Dark themes with CSS custom properties for consistent token-based styling
• Dual-Range Popularity Slider — Set both minimum and maximum popularity bounds instead of just a threshold
• Hidden Scrollbar — Cleaner look with optional toggle to show scrollbar
• Custom Checkboxes — Rounded toggle switches with smooth animations

Performance

• Singleton Summarizer — AI model instantiated once per session and reused across all requests, eliminating repeated initialization overhead
• Lazy-Loaded Embeds — Spotify iframes only load when "More Info" is expanded
• GPU-Accelerated Animations — All transitions use transform and opacity for 60fps performance

Recommendation Engine

• Expanded Genre Mapping — Comprehensive mapping table covering 50+ genre synonyms and mood-to-genre conversions
• Multi-Strategy Search — Four-tier fallback: genre-filtered → multi-genre text → playlist mining → simple search
• Artist Diversity — Track selection pools are diversified by artist before random selection
• Improved Scoring — Tracks scored by genre relevance (85%), popularity (7.5%), and tempo match (7.5% bonus)
• Range-Based Filtering — Popularity bounds expand iteratively (±10) if no matches found

Technical

• Process Cards Module — Extracted to processCards.js with minimal status indicators and auto-dismiss on completion
• Content Extraction Script — Moved Readability injection to dedicated extract-content.js
• CSS Architecture — Complete rewrite using CSS custom properties (--color-*, --radius-*, --spacing-*)
• Settings in Header — Removed footer; settings now expand from Dynamic Island

Bug Fixes

• Fixed scrollbar rendering white in dark mode
• Fixed settings panel clipping content at bottom of viewport
• Fixed checkbox visual state not updating on toggle
• Fixed source link text illegible in light mode
• Fixed album art hover state showing redundant play button overlay

2.4

Release Notes - Version 2.4

🎵 Major Improvements to Music Recommendation Engine

🎨 Artist Diversity Enhancement

• Problem Solved: Recommendations were showing too many tracks from the same artists (e.g., multiple Olivia Dean tracks)
• Solution: New artist diversity algorithm ensures recommendations come from 20+ different artists
• How it works:
  • Groups tracks by artist before selection
  • Takes top track from each unique artist (up to 20 artists)
  • Fills pool with remaining top-scored tracks (up to 30 total)
  • Randomly selects from this diverse pool
• Result: More variety in recommendations, including classic artists like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and other soul/R&B legends

Enhanced Multi-Genre Search

• Multi-genre support: Now searches using 1, 2, or 3 genres simultaneously for more accurate matching
• Random genre selection: Varied search strategies for diverse results:
  • 40% chance: Uses all available genre combinations
  • 30% chance: Uses 2 strategies (single + multi-genre)
  • 30% chance: Uses 1 strategy (randomly selected)
• Prioritized search order: Multi-genre searches are tried first when multiple genres are detected
• Shuffled strategies: Selected strategies are randomly shuffled for additional variety

Improved Scoring Algorithm

• New scoring weights:
  • 85%: Genre relevance (increased from 65% - now the primary factor)
  • 7.5%: Popularity (reduced from 30% - quality filter only)
  • 7.5%: Tempo relevance (bonus only, increased from 5%)
• Better prioritizes tracks that match detected genres over pure popularity
• Genre matching checks track names and artist names for genre keywords

Tempo/BPM Integration

• Tempo keyword mapping: BPM ranges now map to relevant keywords:
  • < 70 BPM: slow, ballad, ambient, calm, peaceful
  • 70-90 BPM: chill, mellow, downtempo, laid-back
  • 90-110 BPM: moderate, steady, groovy
  • 110-130 BPM: upbeat, lively, energetic
  • 130-150 BPM: fast, energetic, intense
  • 150+ BPM: fast, intense, aggressive, high-energy
• Sparse tempo usage: Tempo keywords used intermittently in searches to avoid over-reliance
• Tempo scoring: Small bonus (7.5%) for tracks with tempo-related terms in names (no penalty if missing)
• BPM number detection: Bonus for tracks with actual BPM numbers in track names (e.g., "120 BPM")

API Compatibility Updates

• Removed deprecated APIs:
  • Spotify Recommendations API (deprecated in late 2024)
  • Spotify Audio Features API (deprecated)
• Improved error handling: Better fallback strategies when APIs are unavailable
• Search-based approach: Now relies exclusively on Spotify's Search API with genre filters for more reliable results
• Better error messages: More informative logging when Spotify API calls fail

Better Genre Mapping

• Expanded genre support: Better mapping of mood-based genres:
  • romantic → r-n-b
  • aggressive → metal
  • lo-fi → chill
• Valid genre validation: Only uses Spotify's valid genre seeds for search filters
• Fallback handling: Safe defaults when no valid genres are detected

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed search stopping early when first strategy found 50 tracks (now tries all strategies)
• Fixed "chill chill" duplicate tempo keyword issue in search queries
• Improved handling of genre combinations in search queries
• Better error messages when Spotify API calls fail
• Fixed popularity threshold fallback logic

🔧 Technical Changes

• Refactored search strategy system for better maintainability
• Added tempo keyword generation based on BPM ranges
• Improved track scoring with genre keyword matching
• Enhanced logging for debugging search strategies
• Added artist diversity algorithm to all search functions (primary, fallback, playlist)
• Improved track deduplication across multiple search strategies

📊 Performance Improvements

• More efficient search strategy execution
• Better track pool management (up to 30 tracks from 20+ artists)
• Reduced redundant API calls

📝 Notes

• The extension now works entirely with Spotify's Search API (no deprecated endpoints)
• Genre matching is now the primary factor in track selection (85% weight)
• Tempo is used as a bonus factor only, since tempo keywords in track names are inconsistent
• Artist diversity ensures you won't see the same artist repeatedly in recommendations
• Popularity threshold still provides quality filtering, but is no longer the dominant factor

2.1

Minor Update

Fixing the incorrect manifest.json to have the correct version and a renewed Chrome Origin Trials token for the Writer API

2.0

2.0 Release

• Settings
• Improved User Interface

1.0

major

Added all propcolor styles.