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

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

#421

Post by mwambua »

Thanks for removing the extension requirement! Here's some feedback now that I can use the site:

- The summaries can be pretty nice when the thing I'm looking for is hidden in a body of text... but not so much when I'm just trying to find a product, or a specific website.

- I like the favicons... maybe also make the url a little more prominent? (I tend to scan for reputable looking urls when I'm sifting through search results)

- Products from Amazon etc would be great with images.

- Maybe I just need to get used to it, but I feel like I've already been conditioned to scroll vertically through results. Scrolling horizontally also requires more effort... so you'll have to work really hard to keep the most relevant results on the left, because no one is going to keep looking to the right.

- you autocompletes to youtube.com ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

All, in all... it's a neat product and brings nice and new things to the table. I hope that you can try and focus on improving the quality of the search experience rather than taking marketshare and overturning a monopoly.

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

#422

Post by richardsocher »

srhngpr wrote: post #28

If your search engine requires an extension to work and display the results, it's a total non-starter. Cannot suggest this to any non-HN crowd. Good luck.

Thanks for your feedback :) We changed it and the extension is not required anymore.

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

#424

Post by richardsocher »

srhngpr wrote: post #87
richardsocher wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea... Requiring the default was a tough choice. You actually can try it out in incognito mode and any other browser. But we found that without the convenience of a navbar search, most people won't give it a proper try either way. I hope we can drop this requirement even in Chrome when we become one of the default options. If you set your search engine default to http://you.com manually in Chrome with " https://you.c…

I get that and appreciate that this was a tough choice, but the alternative you're proposing (1) requires several more clicks, (2) expects the end user to trust an extension that is unknown to them at the onset, and (3) does not provide an intuitive way for the average user to know they can use incognito to try it out. You have an extremely memorable URL and in my view, the quality and accuracy of the results should…

Thanks. Yea. We hear you and dropped the requirement. Keep you feedback coming.

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

#425

Post by richardsocher »

mwambua wrote: post #421

Thanks for removing the extension requirement! Here's some feedback now that I can use the site: - The summaries can be pretty nice when the thing I'm looking for is hidden in a body of text... but not so much when I'm just trying to find a product, or a specific website. - I like the favicons... maybe also make the url a little more prominent? (I tend to scan for reputable looking urls when I'm sifting through searc…

Thanks so much for your feedback. Those are some great suggestions that we will take to heart and work on.

Yes, content quality is the main goal.

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

#426

Post by swethmandava »

adventured wrote: post #253

I typed in George Washington at You.com A few quick points of feedback on a desktop browser. - The first big data blob at the top being Wikipedia is blatant cheating. It isn't complimentary of your product that you rely on that approach. Devs already know they can find a lot of information about George Washington on Wikipedia, which means you have to figure out a substantial way to add value beyond that. - The Web Re…

Thank you so much for your feedback, we'll make a note and improve the experience (especially regarding the shortcuts section) in the coming weeks. :)

I want to add though that personally, I like seeing wikipedia/reddit results when relevant. same goes with all the other sources we have. I think the novelty is in ranking all the sources we have, and we hope to continue getting better at it.

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

#427

Post by INGSOCIALITE »

Google became a household name without any extensions and even without navbar searching. They offered a superior search engine with good results, and everyone visited google.com to search. That is how “google it” became a household term and they achieved their 2 trillion dollar magnitude.

Duckduckgo worked the same way. Everyone visited DuckDuckGo.com to search, enjoyed good search results with their privacy factor. There were no extensions or scripts to start, it was landing page driven.

You are trying to circumvent the “hard work” aspect of creating a competitive search engine. You need to offer good search results from your landing page. Your domain is simple to type and shouldn’t be hard to remember for anyone on earth.

Stop trying to skip the important steps of having a search engine and trying to fly directly to the top.

Also, your api calls are ludicrous. Duckduckgo touts privacy and works without JavaScript enabled. Again, you need to stop trying to be google right out of the gate. Just offer a good product and allow people to use it as they will.

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

#428

Post by swethmandava »

karmakaze wrote: post #271

Until I can give it an 'improper' try from a web page (rather than installing an extension), no. Funny to say "it's built for devs" then go on to say that an extension is required because normal users...

We heard you - we no longer require an extension! Hope you give it a try, would love your feedback! :)

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

#429

Post by richardsocher »

freediver wrote: post #320

I know you had a bad day today Richard Socher. I am sorry for that. Reading through these comments must have hurt, and in some strange "The Egg" [1] way hurt me too. I felt as everyone that left a bad comment, and I felt as you, receiving all this. And all that after finally releasing the beta of your product, having worked very hard for that. I am impressed by your stoic attitude and not caving in under all this pre…

Thanks a bunch.

We had so much positivity on all other platforms but things here did get very toxic and personal - which was a first for me :(

We still listen to our users and dropped the extension requirement.

Folks assume a lot of bad intent from us even though Chrome clearly states that the extension only has write access to one field and no other permissions.

We'll improve and learn from this. We're a super small team and are just launching our v1 beta. Better, better, never done :)

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

#430

Post by freediver »

corobo wrote: post #393
freediver wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but when they first launched they needed 5,000 users to grow 10%, now they need 5M(?) to grow the same? So investing in other means is probably necessary.

You're making the same point I'm making but the other way round

I suppose I am, yes.
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