Inspiration
Online shopping makes it easy to buy new electronics, but this convenience comes at a cost: higher prices for consumers and growing electronic waste for the planet. Many people want to save money and make sustainable choices, but refurbished alternatives are often hidden, hard to find, or inconvenient to compare.
We were inspired by the idea of making sustainable shopping effortless. Instead of asking users to search multiple sites for refurbished products, we wanted to bring the best refurbished deals directly into their normal browsing experience. Our goal was simple: help people save money while reducing e-waste - without changing how they shop.
What it does
Refind is a browser extension that automatically scans product pages for electronics and instantly recommends high-quality refurbished alternatives. While users browse online, Refind:
- Detects electronic products on the current webpage
- Identifies relevant refurbished alternatives
- Displays cheaper, sustainable options directly inside the browser
- Helps users compare prices and make smarter purchasing decisions
With one click, users can discover trusted refurbished devices that cost less and reduce environmental impact, making sustainable shopping fast, easy, and accessible.
How we built it
We built Refind as a browser extension using modern web technologies:
- Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
- Extension APIs: Chrome Extension APIs for page scanning, content scripts, and popup interfaces
- Logic Layer: JavaScript-based product detection, parsing, filtering, and matching logic
- Future AI Integration: Planned Gemini API integration for intelligent product matching and recommendation ranking
Our system works by analyzing the structure of product pages, extracting key product information (such as name, category, and price), and mapping them to refurbished listings. The extension then displays curated recommendations directly inside a clean popup interface.
This architecture allows Refind to operate in real time, providing instant feedback while users shop.
Challenges we ran into
- Reliable product detection: Different websites structure their product pages differently, making it challenging to extract consistent product information.
- Data accuracy: Matching new products to relevant refurbished listings while ensuring quality and reliability required careful filtering logic.
- UI/UX constraints: Designing a clean and intuitive interface within the small space of a browser popup was challenging.
- Time limitations: Building a complete working pipeline - from page scanning to recommendations - within a short hackathon timeframe required rapid iteration and careful prioritization.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- Building a fully functional browser extension prototype
- Successfully implementing real-time product scanning
- Creating a clean, user-friendly interface
- Designing a scalable architecture ready for AI-powered recommendations
- Delivering a meaningful sustainability-focused solution within a limited timeframe
Most importantly, we built something that has real-world impact - helping users save money while reducing electronic waste.
What we learned
Throughout this project, we strengthened our skills in:
- Browser extension development
- DOM parsing and web scraping techniques
- Frontend UI/UX design in constrained environments
- Rapid prototyping and teamwork under tight deadlines
We also learned the importance of designing for real users, balancing technical complexity with simplicity, speed, and usability.
What's next for Refind
Our next steps focus on scaling, intelligence, and impact:
- Integrating AI-powered product matching using Gemini for smarter recommendations
- Expanding retailer and refurbished marketplace coverage
- Adding price tracking, quality scoring, and trust indicators
- Implementing personalized sustainability insights, such as estimated carbon savings
Our long-term vision is to make Refind the default way people shop sustainably for electronics, helping reduce global e-waste and promote smarter consumption.
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