Ask HN: My side project. Is it useful?

Post by tomelders » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 3:19 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #49

tomelders wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's mainly it. Also, most 'airports' are near cities, but most 'places' in the world aren not cities, but are slap bang in the middle of two, three or even four cities. So which airports serve Stoke on Trent? or Schweinfurt? or Alcanar? Choosing airports for those locations is really something only a human can decide. I may well travel 150 miles from an airport to my destination if it's really important, but that'…

Same problem: Google search from CID (Iowa) to Columbus OH turned up - no flights! Really? Your search - same problem. Am I doing something wrong?

Post by tomelders » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 4:06 PM UTC

chrislomax wrote: post #47

tomelders wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was the original plan, but that wouldn't really generate much income. I did plan to add hotels, and hotel referrals pay very handsomely.

Well good luck with it. I'm in the process of scoping the market to find somewhere I can make some money. At the minute I'm looking at selling actual product but I like service software as it can be a lot "cooler" than selling products. You got some good functionality in there, I like being able to select multiple airports very easily and I like the UI. Sure, there are some aspects of it you could improve but in a lo…

Post by dgunn » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 4:19 PM UTC

tomelders wrote: post #3

illdave wrote: post #2

I think what you've got is pretty cool, but you've got some extremely stiff competition from the likes of Hipmunk, and (as of yesterday) Google: google.com/flights. I also worry that your unique selling point (the fact that it helps to display hard-to-find airports) is difficult to word in an appealing way - who wants to go to hard-to-find airports? I'm not saying it's impossible though, but I think you'd benefit fro…

Thanks for the input. I never thought of it as being a service that offers 'hard to find airports', but rather airports you've never heard of... which for most people, is practically all of them. But you're right, even when I was building it, I found it hard to explain it succinctly, which made me think it's trying to solve a problem that might not exist... yet it's a problem I run into all the time.

Post by w33ble » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 4:22 PM UTC

Nicknameless wrote: post #48

I'm generally pretty optimistic but I feel that I should push back against the crowd a little here. Plenty of people say "I'd use it", but who will say "I'll pay for it"? If you're not in it for the money, are you sure it's the most interesting, inspiring or needed tool/app you could be working on, given that it seems the competition may take care of this need anyway? I've learnt the hard way that you shouldn't let s…

Post by rudasn » Sat, Sep 17, 2011, 4:01 PM UTC

tomelders wrote: post #22

revorad wrote: post #21

Quick criticism. Please take it as points to improve: The UI is too complicated and confusing. I can't get my head around it. Can you simplify it? Zooming in and out of the map with the mouse wheel doesn't work. Too many error messages. Instead of saying "you didn't pick any destination", ask me to pick one from a list or predictive textbox. Don't show me destinations to which there are no routes. Spending five minut…

All good points, and taken fully on board.