Comparison
Peek vs Foretaste, hover preview or a full read
Peek shows a preview when you hover a link, using the browser’s own rendering together with Google’s and Microsoft’s document viewers. Foretaste opens the file in its own tab, reads it there, and shows how much of it was read.
Everything said about Peek here is in its own words, from its own listing or policy, read on 12 October 2026. Sources
01
Side by side
| What | Peek | Foretaste |
|---|---|---|
| How Office files are drawn | It uses the browser's built-in rendering features, in combination with the Google Docs Viewer, Microsoft Office Web Viewer, and other third-party embedded viewers S1 The privacy policy says: Peek tries to limit this behavior as much as possible by using your browser's own preview and embed functionality. | Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OpenDocument files are drawn inside Foretaste's tab. A Google viewer link exists only after Foretaste itself has failed, behind a warning and a confirmation. |
| Which outside policies apply | for previews of MS Office files, Gooogle Docs links, etc. S2 Quoted as written, spelling included. The same policy names Microsoft's policy for the Office Online Viewer, used for some MS Office file previews, OpenDocument previews, etc. It also says embedded content is subject to the terms of service and privacy policies of the content's source. | No other service's policy applies to reading a file in Foretaste, unless the reader chooses the Google viewer link. |
| Data the extension collects | The extension itself does not transmit any other information about you or your device. S2 The policy says settings may sync through the browser's own account. | No analytics in the extension, and the build fails on any network beacon. |
| What it previews | PDFs, text and RTF documents, video and audio, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OpenDocument files, images, and links to services including YouTube, Google Docs, Spotify and Reddit S1 Summarised from the listing's supported list, which is longer than a quote allows. | Opens PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, text, code, images, audio, video, archives, subtitles, fonts, databases, datasets, calendars and contacts: 212 file extensions in all. |
| Archives | Preview documents, videos, music, and more S1 The listing's supported list names no archive format. | Lists ZIP, 7z, RAR, TAR and others, and opens the files inside; a remote ZIP is listed over byte ranges. |
02
Foretaste, reading a Word document
The real viewer, running on this page. Nothing is installed and nothing is uploaded: scroll it, press things.
The real Foretaste viewer reading sample.docx on a measured Letter page, running on this page.
Word document1.2 KBWords 30
- Tables
- 1
- Page
- Letter
- Type
- application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
The whole file was read - 1.2 KB.
How this was read
- Asked how big it is—
- Asked for the whole file1.2 KB
Processed locally · Foretaste reads files on your device and does not upload them.
External viewer · Google fetches the file themselves.
What the site said about this file
- Name
- sample.docx
- Kind
- Word document
- Reported type
- application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
- Size
- 1.2 KB
- Partial reads
- Supported. Foretaste can read part of the file without fetching all of it.
- Address
- http://localhost:8797/sample.docx
Reads the whole file to compare against a published checksum. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The questions people ask
Is Foretaste an alternative to the Peek extension?
For opening a file link without downloading it, yes, with one difference in gesture: Peek previews on hover, and Foretaste opens the file when you press its button or right-click, after showing a card that fetches nothing.
Does Peek send documents to Google or Microsoft?
Its listing says it uses “the Google Docs Viewer, Microsoft Office Web Viewer, and other third-party embedded viewers” in combination with the browser’s own rendering, and its privacy policy says it tries to limit that by using the browser’s own preview where it can. Foretaste draws Office files inside its own tab.
Does Foretaste open archives?
Yes. ZIP, 7z, RAR, TAR and other archives are listed in the same tab, and any file inside one can be opened; a ZIP on the web is listed from its index, about 67 KB of a 40 MB archive.
Sources
Where each claim comes from
Read on 12 October 2026, and checked again by 12 April 2027. If a source has changed by then, this page changes with it.