Linkpreview
Dev tools
link preview tester
SHOW HN2024
362points
85comments
#134of 3,515 in 2024
Top 4%of 2024 by points
How HN took it
DebatedReal support and real criticism
17 positive, 11 neutral or asking, 5 mixed, 16 critical, out of 49 comments about the project. Thread score +0.03.
Execution: 1 for, 15 againstDesign: 6 for, 0 againstIdea: 4 for, 0 againstPricing: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful, shows previews in the context of each platform's real interface
From 3 comments
Well done! Nice to play with. Seeing it in context of each platform's default interface is *chefs kiss* a nice touch. - It sounds like meta-crawlers for each platform might…
mcint on HNThis is really awesome, I’ve been looking for this exact tool. Putting the preview in the context of a real message / post makes it more useful.
izakfr on HNstraight to the point without any fuss. well done
valbis on HN
Clean design, less cluttered than alternatives
From 2 comments
I use that too, but I think I'll use linkpreview in future simply because the results are less cluttered.
msephton on HNAbove broke for me for few of some of the previews. You have to click to see various previews and it's slow. OP's version shows them all on the same page, it's cleaner, has more…
farzd on HN
Objections
Previews don't match real platform output (WhatsApp, Android, LinkedIn images, X cropping)
From 4 comments
The WhatsApp preview is not accurate at all compared to my Android. Is this designed around how it would look on iphones?
adithyassekhar on HNI thought exactly the same! Also, I'm not sure why, but LinkedIn is showing all of our pages with the wrong image. If someone is smart enough to figure it out please let me know.…
coppolaemilio on HNVery helpful. Great job! The X preview seems to crop on the left for a couple sites I tried. Not sure if that is accurate or not. Those sites look good in the other previews. I…
iJohnDoe on HNWell done! Nice to play with. Seeing it in context of each platform's default interface is *chefs kiss* a nice touch. - It sounds like meta-crawlers for each platform might…
mcint on HN
Fails on URLs without https and invalid URL errors
From 3 comments
Great little tool, but please don't force me to type https:// and just add it automatically when I type something like example.com
FinnKuhn on HNI tried google.com. It says invalid url. looks half baked. can you not force to write protocol.
darkbatman on HNWhy this tool over https://socialsharepreview.com/ or https://www.opengraph.xyz/ or https://socialmediasharepreview.com/ ? Feedback... You're failing on URLs that don't have…
dbg31415 on HN
Does not use platform user agents, so results can differ from real fetches
From 2 comments
Neat tool. A couple of suggestions: I'd make it fetch the meta tags and image using the user agent string of the services you're showing previews for. For example, Twitter/X…
matteason on HNThis is half-baked for now. For a lot of SPA, we generate OpenGraph images if the user-agent matches a certain pattern, e.g. if it's Facebook, Discord, Twitter, etc. making a…
holistio on HN
Fetch failures on sites behind Cloudflare and similar services
From 2 comments
> failed to fetch meta tags See this a lot. So you're seeing the same problem I am in my side projects -- Cloudflare, Fastly, etc must have an anti-abuse / anti-AI scraping…
reporter7 on HNYou might have issues with sites behind Cloudflare, or similar type services.
progmetaldev on HN
Requests
Accept URLs without the https protocol
From 2 comments
Great little tool, but please don't force me to type https:// and just add it automatically when I type something like example.com
FinnKuhn on HNWhy this tool over https://socialsharepreview.com/ or https://www.opengraph.xyz/ or https://socialmediasharepreview.com/ ? Feedback... You're failing on URLs that don't have…
dbg31415 on HN
Add more platforms such as LinkedIn, Slack, Pinterest, Mastodon
From 3 comments
Missing linkedin and also missing mastodon. Neat tool! If the page is missing something it would be helpful with some text on how to improve such as what should be done.
shinryuu on HNWhy this tool over https://socialsharepreview.com/ or https://www.opengraph.xyz/ or https://socialmediasharepreview.com/ ? Feedback... You're failing on URLs that don't have…
dbg31415 on HNOh, this is nice! I would love to see a Slack unfurl sample. I don't entirely understand why Slack unfurls are unpredictable sometimes, but for example, an Instagram reel link…
wlonkly on HN
Show what to fix, not just the preview
From 2 comments
Why this tool over https://socialsharepreview.com/ or https://www.opengraph.xyz/ or https://socialmediasharepreview.com/ ? Feedback... You're failing on URLs that don't have…
dbg31415 on HNMissing linkedin and also missing mastodon. Neat tool! If the page is missing something it would be helpful with some text on how to improve such as what should be done.
shinryuu on HN
Run it locally
From 1 comment
Thanks, I like the design of your site better than the other alternatives I found and it came exactly when I needed it. As other have mentioned, a way to run it locally would be…
audiala on HN
Questions
How is it different from existing tools like socialsharepreview.com or opengraph.xyz
From 3 comments
I usually use https://socialsharepreview.com/ but there are many, so I'm curios on how is this different/better and/or why did you decide to make it instead of using existing…
franciscop on HNDifferent to https://www.opengraph.xyz ?
dmje on HNWhy this tool over https://socialsharepreview.com/ or https://www.opengraph.xyz/ or https://socialmediasharepreview.com/ ? Feedback... You're failing on URLs that don't have…
dbg31415 on HN
Does it use platform APIs or re-implement the markup
From 1 comment
How do I know this is accurate? Does it actual use tools/APIs provided by the social media sites to generate the preview or does it just re-implement the same HTML based on…
pimlottc on HN
Alternatives named
socialsharepreview.com
From 2 comments
I usually use https://socialsharepreview.com/ but there are many, so I'm curios on how is this different/better and/or why did you decide to make it instead of using existing…
franciscop on HNWhy this tool over https://socialsharepreview.com/ or https://www.opengraph.xyz/ or https://socialmediasharepreview.com/ ? Feedback... You're failing on URLs that don't have…
dbg31415 on HN
opengraph.xyz
From 2 comments
Different to https://www.opengraph.xyz ?
dmje on HNIt's interesting that you are adding the cruft around each preview (e.g.: the facebook comment form, etc.). That's what differentiate from https://opengraph.dev/ that I use…
johnchristopher on HN
socialmediasharepreview.com
From 1 comment
> Why this tool over https://socialsharepreview.com/ or https://www.opengraph.xyz/ or https://socialmediasharepreview.com/ ? Yeah, I don't get it when other free previewing tools…
colesantiago on HN
Polypane social media previews
From 1 comment
That's pretty cool! Get ready to keep these up to date monthly or become obsolete quickly. One of the downsides of tools like this is that your URL needs to be available online…
kilian on HN
Banner Bear twitter card preview tool
From 1 comment
I’ve been using the Banner Bear one for years. Works for me! https://www.bannerbear.com/tools/twitter-card-preview-tool/
lylo on HN