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Ask HN: How do you find out if your idea is new?

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Ask HN: How do you find out if your idea is new?

#1

Post by yjm »

I sometimes have some very specific optimizations in mind and I find it difficult to google for them.

One example is the idea of an image gallery that will only keep thumbnails (or the smallest size possible of the image in order for it to look just as good on your phone screen ) for you to be able to show your friends your travels but not eat up huge amounts of disk space.

I usually learn by example and I'm sure other people do too so given this idea how would you go about searching the world wide web for a product which features it?

Re: Ask HN: How do you find out if your idea is new?

#2

Post by EnderMB »

You don't. In the grand scheme of things, it's probably a small minority of people that go public (i.e. publicly posting on the Internet) with their ideas for an app or business.

To answer your question in terms of code projects, I tend to turn to GitHub. More often than not, if I'm trying to build something and I've hit a problem a few selective searches through the code section will bring up something similar. It might be in a different language, but it's helpful nonetheless.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find out if your idea is new?

#3

Post by yjm »

EnderMB wrote: post #2

You don't. In the grand scheme of things, it's probably a small minority of people that go public (i.e. publicly posting on the Internet) with their ideas for an app or business. To answer your question in terms of code projects, I tend to turn to GitHub. More often than not, if I'm trying to build something and I've hit a problem a few selective searches through the code section will bring up something similar. It m…

What I really don't want to do is lose a month implementing something and then realize that there was already something fairly popular out there that solved it.

I would rather not get too attached to my own ideas and tunnel vision implement them and ignore the reality that if there's already a good app for that I shouldn't bother.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find out if your idea is new?

#6

Post by xerophyte12932 »

yjm wrote: post #5
cturhan wrote: post #4

Search on product hunt, here, designer news according to your field.

how exactly would you search for the specific feature I proposed? There's hundreds of image apps out there, I doubt there's one that specifically says it does that in the headline.

How would you want people to find YOUR app? You must have thought of some keywords or phrases that when googled, should bring up your app. Try using those and see what occupies the territory as of now.

Another approach is to discuss your idea with as many people as possible. Maybe you haven't heard of such an app but someone else has. This should be most fruitful if you do this with your target audience. Even if there is such an app out there but your target audience hasn't heard of it, then that's a good enough reason to try building it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find out if your idea is new?

#7

Post by yjm »

xerophyte12932 wrote: post #6
yjm wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how exactly would you search for the specific feature I proposed? There's hundreds of image apps out there, I doubt there's one that specifically says it does that in the headline.

How would you want people to find YOUR app? You must have thought of some keywords or phrases that when googled, should bring up your app. Try using those and see what occupies the territory as of now. Another approach is to discuss your idea with as many people as possible. Maybe you haven't heard of such an app but someone else has. This should be most fruitful if you do this with your target audience. Even if ther…

I haven't gone as far as thinking about how I would market / make money out of it... I would just want to have that feature. If it's not implemented yet then I'll do it and then maybe try to market it.

But you're right, that's a good way to think about it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find out if your idea is new?

#9

Post by shivang »

yjm wrote: post #3
EnderMB wrote: post #2

You don't. In the grand scheme of things, it's probably a small minority of people that go public (i.e. publicly posting on the Internet) with their ideas for an app or business. To answer your question in terms of code projects, I tend to turn to GitHub. More often than not, if I'm trying to build something and I've hit a problem a few selective searches through the code section will bring up something similar. It m…

What I really don't want to do is lose a month implementing something and then realize that there was already something fairly popular out there that solved it. I would rather not get too attached to my own ideas and tunnel vision implement them and ignore the reality that if there's already a good app for that I shouldn't bother.

You should have this in mind: Facebook was not the first social network, google was not the first search engine, amazon was not the first marketplace. So think of the market whether there is room for some more improvements and/or the market is huge enough to have more than one similar products. How can you solve the shortcomings of the similar product and be different.
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