Sidelong

Sidelong is an academic research tool. Sidelong combines a searchable library of saved articles, books, videos and podcasts with a writing editor that resurfaces relevant sources as you draft. Its assistant answers from your own saved material with citations, can produce cited research reports, and leaves the actual prose to you.

Sidelong is a writing platform built around a simple observation: most people forget what they read, so the ideas that should feed their writing never come back when they need them. The product pairs a personal library of saved sources with a distraction-free editor, then connects the two. Articles, books, videos, podcasts and posts go into the library, each one summarized with key insights extracted, and everything stays searchable. When a draft is underway, the editor surfaces saved material that speaks to what is being written, and any source can be cited in a single click. Beyond retrieval, Sidelong carries an assistant that answers from the saved library rather than the open web. It can brainstorm angles, find evidence for an argument, give feedback on a draft, or go further and compile a fully cited research report on a requested topic. The framing is deliberate: the assistant supplies material and citations, and the writer supplies the words. A grammar and flow checker sits alongside the drafting surface for line-level cleanup. The tool suits writers who already read widely and want that reading to pay off: newsletter authors, essayists, analysts, students and researchers who work from accumulated notes. Its closest neighbours are read-later apps and AI writing assistants, but it sits between them. Read-later tools stop at collection; generic writing assistants generate text without knowing what you have read. Sidelong's argument is that saved material should reappear at the moment of composition. Getting material in relies on a Chrome extension for saving from any page, plus an import for Kindle highlights that carries book covers along. The site advertises a free starting point and an interactive demo, and there is a standalone free editor to try before committing. Pricing tiers, seat limits and export options are not spelled out on the homepage, so those details are worth checking on the pricing page before adopting it for a team.