Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs

Post by skinkestek » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 1:43 PM UTC

tobr wrote: post #369

skinkestek wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Happens for me too, Firefox on iOS. Edit: it badgers me to install it in Chrome even in mobile Safari. Edit 2: seems there is a search box on top of the page. It works but I didn't notice it initially because - the page was so intensely focused on getting me to install a Chrome extension (both in Firefox on iOS and Safari on iOS) - and the placeholder text ("you.com")looked like a decoration initially (try something…

Looks like the issue is that the submitted link is a search for “you.com”, which appears to be a special search result that includes prominent promotion of the Chrome extension, regardless of which browser you’re using. It would probably have been a better idea to submit a link to the landing page or a normal search result.

Post by aembleton » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

JimDabell wrote: post #279

richardsocher wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great question: We are first ranking apps and then within apps we have some of our own ranking but e.g. web results come from Bing. We have found that when non-web-result-apps trigger in the top 2, we are often as good or better than Google. Web results by themselves are a mixed bag, which is why we built out lots of custom apps for developers, e.g. StackOverflow (with code snippets), W3Schools, MDN, Copilot-like Cod…

Whenever the subject of personalising search results comes up in technical communities, the most common thing I hear are people saying they wish they could remove W3Schools from their search results automatically. Specifically that particular site. It’s got a terrible reputation. People have even built browser extensions to do it: https://www.google.com/search?q=remove+w3schools+from+search... In that context, it see…

Post by foobiekr » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 2:47 PM UTC

richardsocher wrote: post #268

ohyeshedid wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully: because nobody knows who the fuck you are, and your reasoning doesn't make sense. You want to offer a privacy focused search service, but the users need to install an extension because otherwise instead of just having a regular web frontend for the masses to try. Then it's too hard for lusers to switch; you created this problem for yourself. The more you respond, the more it looks like this is some poor…

I get it. There are tons of sketchy extensions. We'll open source our extension so you can see the entire 33kB that's needed to make one settings change. Also, you can try it out in incognito mode or change those settings manually and hence give it a try :) But most people need the simplicity and convenience of a few clicks in order to give it a proper try.

Post by davidatbu » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 3:17 PM UTC

dmitriid wrote: post #101

richardsocher wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right to be skeptical of extensions. There are a lot of sketchy ones out there but... Nope. We aren't doing that and not planning to. All the extension does is change one setting. If you set your search engine default to http://you.com manually in Chrome with " https://you.com/search?q=%s " you will not need the extension... but for most people convenience wins and well... It's tough to go up against a monopo…

> We aren't doing that and not planning to. Yes. Yes you are. You've spent unspecified amounts of money (likely millions if not tens of millions) on acquiring the you.com domain. Investors will be very interested to get that money back.

Post by dwohnitmok » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

richardsocher wrote: post #384

dwohnitmok wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you open it up in Chrome, then first off the main search bar in the middle of the screen turns into a button to install the extension. There remains a search bar in the upper left hand corner of the screen, but if you actually search, no search results are given. Instead the result page is replaced by a link to install the Chrome extension. So effectively, as far as I can tell, on a normal Chrome browsing session…

And now it also doesn't happen in Chrome anymore. We dropped the requirement there too.