Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Product Substitutes – what software top companies are replacing

siftery.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 54 posts

Re: Show HN: Product Substitutes – what software top companies are replacing

#41

Post by troydavis »

Siftery has repeatedly engaged in Twitter spam. Here’s one example account, @SifteryHello that exists solely to mention other companies and individuals: https://twitter.com/SifteryHello

Check out the tweet history to see what I mean. They sent thousands of tweets from this account (and very possibly others), solely to get visibility for Siftery from the customers/others who search for the company's Twitter handle.

They take the same approach to other mediums. Regarding mholt’s comment, here’s another one: https://twitter.com/guusdk/status/909773952561696769

I can’t imagine ever trusting a company or person/team who does this.

Update: Here's another medium that Siftery spams, albeit at a lower volume - HN itself: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=ggiaco. ggiaco, an employee, submitted ~100 low-value Siftery pages about companies (rather than, say, the companies themselves, or sites he actually liked).

Update 2: Here's a second Twitter account, @SifteryFeed, which does the same thing as @SifteryHello: https://twitter.com/sifteryfeed. Example tweet:

> "Are you using Apache Hive (@TheASF) and recommend them? You can do it here http://siftery.com/some-landing-page … "

Re: Show HN: Product Substitutes – what software top companies are replacing

#42

Post by troydavis »

mholt wrote: post #28

Siftery kind of annoyingly added my OSS project to it and started emailing me about it without me signing up for it... (months ago)

You’re far from the only person who has had this experience: https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=15549380

Re: Show HN: Product Substitutes – what software top companies are replacing

#44

Post by switchstance »

flipp3r wrote: post #43

Websites like this are completely useless once you know where to get real comparisons. Just go to Google and type in " vs " and let Google's autocomplete suggest the top competitors. No need for sites like these.

I have been going to Crunchbase, looking up a company, and scrolling down to see their "competitors." Though, they're often not listed.

But, I like your suggestion and will give it a try in the future.

Re: Show HN: Product Substitutes – what software top companies are replacing

#45

Post by sharemywin »

flipp3r wrote: post #43

Websites like this are completely useless once you know where to get real comparisons. Just go to Google and type in " vs " and let Google's autocomplete suggest the top competitors. No need for sites like these.

except how do you think google mines that data. if those sites go away so does google's free loading....

Re: Show HN: Product Substitutes – what software top companies are replacing

#46

Post by ggiaco »

troydavis wrote: post #41

Siftery has repeatedly engaged in Twitter spam. Here’s one example account, @SifteryHello that exists solely to mention other companies and individuals: https://twitter.com/SifteryHello Check out the tweet history to see what I mean. They sent thousands of tweets from this account (and very possibly others), solely to get visibility for Siftery from the customers/others who search for the company's Twitter handle. Th…

The posts to HN that you're mentioning are interviews with founders/creators of the products. They're actually similar in nature to interviews posted from other sources (e.g. Indie Hackers). Here's an example: https://siftery.com/stories/monitor-online-mentions-of-your-...

I know when we post new ones, so I can add them here first. It's not the only type of content I post, and the HN community can decide if they're worthy of attention or not.

Re: Show HN: Product Substitutes – what software top companies are replacing

#47

Post by troydavis »

ggiaco wrote: post #46
troydavis wrote: post #41

Siftery has repeatedly engaged in Twitter spam. Here’s one example account, @SifteryHello that exists solely to mention other companies and individuals: https://twitter.com/SifteryHello Check out the tweet history to see what I mean. They sent thousands of tweets from this account (and very possibly others), solely to get visibility for Siftery from the customers/others who search for the company's Twitter handle. Th…

The posts to HN that you're mentioning are interviews with founders/creators of the products. They're actually similar in nature to interviews posted from other sources (e.g. Indie Hackers). Here's an example: https://siftery.com/stories/monitor-online-mentions-of-your-... I know when we post new ones, so I can add them here first. It's not the only type of content I post, and the HN community can decide if they're w…

Okay. That addresses one update; how about the main focus of my comment, the thousands of low-value tweets that @ mention companies and people?

Re: Show HN: Product Substitutes – what software top companies are replacing

#48

Post by hobofan »

sharemywin wrote: post #45
flipp3r wrote: post #43

Websites like this are completely useless once you know where to get real comparisons. Just go to Google and type in " vs " and let Google's autocomplete suggest the top competitors. No need for sites like these.

except how do you think google mines that data. if those sites go away so does google's free loading....

Google mines that data by other people searching for that, not (only) by scraping it off sites. Yes, they also do that, but AFAIK search trends have a higher relevance than scraped suggestions.

As long as people want to know how their existing product stacks up against another product they have heard of before, " vs ", will be searched and appear in the autocomplete.

This approach breaks down tough for newer products, ot if you want to find the best product by quality, not just popularity.

Re: Show HN: Product Substitutes – what software top companies are replacing

#49

Post by ggiaco »

flipp3r wrote: post #43

Websites like this are completely useless once you know where to get real comparisons. Just go to Google and type in " vs " and let Google's autocomplete suggest the top competitors. No need for sites like these.

A Google search will generally turn up sites like Siftery, among others ('A vs B' is one of our very top organic search traffic drivers).

Hope you'll take a look at the substitutes data specifically though. We're showing companies that are actually switching from one product to another, and then rolling that up to showcase some trends and insights.

Re: Show HN: Product Substitutes – what software top companies are replacing

#50

Post by ggiaco »

troydavis wrote: post #47
ggiaco wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The posts to HN that you're mentioning are interviews with founders/creators of the products. They're actually similar in nature to interviews posted from other sources (e.g. Indie Hackers). Here's an example: https://siftery.com/stories/monitor-online-mentions-of-your-... I know when we post new ones, so I can add them here first. It's not the only type of content I post, and the HN community can decide if they're w…

Okay. That addresses one update; how about the main focus of my comment, the thousands of low-value tweets that @ mention companies and people?

Troy, We don't believe we're running afoul of TOS and have good reason to believe this. We want to add value by mentioning product handles once to generate awareness about their profile and their ability to curate their presence in front of a large buyer community.

Of course, Twitter is free to change its mind and decide we're treading on the wrong side of the line and then ban the account or ask us to stop; we would immediately comply.

FWIW - we were already thinking of cutting back since it doesn't convert that well anyway. Feel free to report the account though. I kind of wish you'd done that instead of letting the mob loose. It's probably for the best that you're not actually a journalist.

Post reply on HN