Here's the Best Way to Summarize Websites, YouTube Videos, and PDFs

Recent research reveals that the average person’s attention span on digital devices has plummeted from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to just 47 seconds today — a shocking 66% decrease in just two decades.

With platforms like TikTok offering endless short-form entertainment and tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT simplifying research, this decline isn’t too surprising. We are bombarded with more content than ever before, and our brains are simply struggling to keep up.

For those of us who often read lengthy research papers, tech blogs, or watch hours-long YouTube videos, it becomes overwhelming to sift through everything. This is where AI tools that extract only the most relevant information can come in handy, especially when you’re pressed for time.

In this article, I am going to share an AI-powered tool that I discovered recently that provides quick summaries from various sources and also gives you automated news digests in specific topics — it’s called ReadPartner.

What is ReadPartner?

ReadPartner is an AI-powered tool designed to help users save time by providing quick summaries of various types of content, be it articles, websites, videos, or documents. It acts as a personal assistant that condenses lengthy information into easy-to-read summaries — sounds neat and useful, right?

The tool is accessible via an online portal or a Chrome browser extension, making it super convenient to get summaries with just one click.

But that’s not all. ReadPartner also creates personalized newsletters that deliver curated news on topics like politics, technology, and sports directly to your email or messaging apps.

For those who struggle to stay updated in the fast-paced world of technology (like me) or simply don’t have the time to scour the internet for news, this feature alone could be worth the investment.

Summary Features of ReadPartner

ReadPartner offers four primary types of summaries:

1. Website: Just paste any website link, and the AI will summarize the content for you.
2. Text: If you have a long article or text document, ReadPartner can provide a concise summary with a single click.
3. Document: You can upload documents, including PDFs, to the ReadPartner portal and receive comprehensive summaries without going through the entire file yourself.
4. YouTube: Don’t want to sit through a 20-minute video? Just insert the video link, and the AI will summarize the essential points for you.

While the website and text summaries are pretty self-explanatory, what intrigued me most was how well it summarizes long PDFs. I decided to put this to the test by uploading an 11-page research paper on Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) in Azure AI Search.

Awesome! The speed is fast (took less than 10 seconds to complete) and it managed to pull out the most crucial points from the 11-page paper. I wish there’s an “inline citations” feature, similar to Google’s NotebookLM AI tool, which allows the user to see exactly where the information was extracted from, enhancing credibility and ease of reference.

Now let’s try the YouTube summarizer feature. For this, I chose a Chris Stuckmann review of the movie Alien: Romulus.

The summary was on point — it highlighted all the key points of the review without me having to watch the entire 9-minute video.

But did you know that there’s a more convenient way to get the summary of YouTube videos? Well, ReadPartner’s chrome extension makes all our lives easier. Simply play any YouTube video and click the extension.

A small pop-up window appears in the corner of your screen, giving you a summary of the video you’re watching. I found this incredibly convenient, especially when I just wanted a quick overview without getting sucked into watching the entire video.

For example, here’s what I got from the Chris Stuckmann review:

- Alien Romulus follows young space colonists seeking better life conditions who encounter hostile creatures while scavenging a derelict space station.
- The film includes a character, Rook, resembling Ash from the original Alien, but is a different model influenced by Mother.
- Andy, a complex Android character, malfunctions and changes his prime directive to recover a xenomorph, making him an intriguing part of the story.
- The movie acknowledges Prometheus and Covenant, incorporating elements like the black goo and engineers, and features a human-xenomorph hybrid creature.
- The film emphasizes practical effects, creating a more immersive experience, and features relatable, blue-collar characters similar to those in the original Alien films.

This summary was incredibly helpful. However, if there’s one thing I would change, it’s the addition of a one-paragraph AI-generated summary of all the given points. For example, I only wanted to know Chris’ overall review of the movie. Was it good? or was it terrible?

News Digest Feature

Another interesting feature of ReadPartner is called News Digest. This AI-curated news service delivers newsletters on your chosen topics right to your inbox. You can customize the frequency, language, topics, and even the source location of your news.

In my case, I am always on the lookout for the latest news in AI and technology so I receive news like this:

- A startup using blockchain to prevent AI copyright theft has been valued at over $2 billion after new funding.
- China criticizes EU tariffs on electric vehicles as unfair and plans to defend its industry.
- OpenAI announces a content deal with Condé Nast, including content from The New Yorker and Vogue.
- Amazon-backed Anthropic faces a class-action lawsuit over copyright infringement.
- Waymo has doubled its weekly paid robotaxi trips to 100,000 since May.
- UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is missing after his superyacht sank off Sicily.
- The European Union has reduced planned tariffs on China-made Tesla EVs and other Chinese firms.
- Google IPO banker reflects on the company’s journey from a startup to a $2 trillion entity.

While this is certainly useful, I found myself wishing for more specificity. For example, “technology” is a broad category, and sometimes I only want news related to AI or blockchain. A bit more granularity in the topic selection would make this feature even more valuable.

Chrome Extension

One of the best aspects of ReadPartner is its Chrome extension, which you can install easily from the Chrome Web Store.

Once installed, you can quickly see a summary of any article by simply clicking on the chrome extension. Check out the example below where I used ReadPartner to summarize an article about OpenAI Advanced Voice Mode feature.

Summary: OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode is being rolled out to select ChatGPT Plus users, enhancing natural conversations with emotional and non-verbal cues. Currently in alpha, it’s accessible to 10,000 users, with broader access expected in fall. Users can interact via a voice icon and manage audio settings. The mode includes features like live translation and voice acting, while safety measures prevent impersonation. Audio may be used for model training unless opted out.

If you prefer summaries in bullet form, open up the settings page and change the response type to “Bullet Points.”

Here’s an example of a bullet form summary using the same article above.

Play around these settings as you can adjust other parameters like the length, response behavior, and selection summary.

How Much Does It Cost?

ReadPartner offers a range of pricing plans to suit different user needs.

• Free plan: Provides limited access to essential features. Users can enjoy basic summaries and digests, limited summary requests, and access to the browser extension and online portal without any payment.
• Standard plan: Available for $9.99 per month (with a special offer of $9.99 instead of $12.99 billed monthly). This popular plan includes everything in the Free plan, plus unlimited summary requests, advanced summary settings, and customized weekly and monthly News Digests. Users also benefit from usage analytics to track their engagement.
• Pro plan: Offered at $23.99 per month (currently discounted from $29.99). This plan includes all features from the Standard plan, along with access to all AI summary models, priority support, and daily News Digests.

For more details on each subscription tier, check out the image below.

Currently, ReadPartner is running a limited time release offer with over 20% off monthly plans and 40% off yearly plans. This is a great opportunity for users to explore the full potential of ReadPartner at a reduced price.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I am very happy with the experience I’ve had using ReadPartner. It’s fast, easy to use, and delivers high-quality AI summaries and news digests.

While some might argue that free tools like ChatGPT or Claude offer similar services, the convenience of summarizing articles and websites with just one click on a browser extension is worth paying for. For example, if you want a summary of a Reddit thread or an article on Financial Times, you can easily do so by bringing up the chrome extension instead of copying the whole text to other AI chat applications.

Personally, I still prefer putting effort into scrolling through X, Medium, or Reddit for the latest news. But having them delivered to my inbox has been a helpful addition to staying informed, especially in the fast-paced world of generative AI.

If you’re someone who often reads a lot of text or watches long videos for research, I highly recommend giving ReadPartner a try.

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