Hello from Orkut • Hacker News Board

Re: Hello from Orkut

#151

Post by dahart » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 2:10 PM UTC

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #23

I'm echoing what others are saying: no web version means I won't bother at all. My phone has access to multiple great browsers. Building a good lightweight web app means I can access the content from anywhere without having to deal with annoyances of push notifications or (as much) creepy tracking. My favorite example of a mobile web app is currently Twitter Mobile [0]. I even like using it from my desktop. It's very…

> no web version means I won't bother at all.

They are building a web version, they're just doing mobile first. And that may be a pretty smart move.

"You will work with our product designers, mobile engineers, and backend engineers to create a distinct web version of our mobile offering." (http://www.hello.com/en/jobs/)

Orkut was global, and in a global context, mobile devices may be more heavily used than laptop / desktop web.

"Smartphone ownership rates have skyrocketed in many countries since 2013. This includes increases of over 25 percentage points among the total population in large emerging economies such as Turkey (+42 points), Malaysia (+34), Chile (+26) and Brazil (+26)."

http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/02/22/smartphone-ownership-and...

Even in the US, I see all the kids with mobile devices and controlled internet access. If you're shooting for the next generation of people, e.g., the young'uns, then mobile first is probably critical.

Re: Hello from Orkut

#152

Post by tedmiston » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 2:11 PM UTC

By the way, I don't think this is "new".

The page has been up since (at least) June 27, 2016 - https://web.archive.org/web/20160627134942/http://orkut.com

The first release of Hello listed in TAS is 1.0.8 on Nov 17, 2015.

Re: Hello from Orkut

#153

Post by beilabs » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 2:11 PM UTC

Hello hello...

Oh wait...you don't send SMS to my country even though I am Irish but without access to an Irish mobile number (Nepal).

Goodbye hello...

Re: Hello from Orkut

#154

Post by rburhum » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 2:16 PM UTC

toyg wrote: post #117

rburhum wrote: post #69

First, let me say something I would not have said a few years ago... a new social network to meet people interested in the other things I do... awesome! I get why there is not a web version at first. Unlike most people, I dont see that as a deal breaker. I downloaded the app and tried it out. The good: I like the idea of limiting yourself to five personas. It made me sit down and think what I wanted out of this. See,…

> Import the information from FB, G+ I expect that would be against TOS and would result in an immediate ban.

Wow, did not know that. Is there something in the TOS that prohibits importing Name, location, profile photo for that use case?

Re: Hello from Orkut

#155

Post by nilkn » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 2:16 PM UTC

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #23

I'm echoing what others are saying: no web version means I won't bother at all. My phone has access to multiple great browsers. Building a good lightweight web app means I can access the content from anywhere without having to deal with annoyances of push notifications or (as much) creepy tracking. My favorite example of a mobile web app is currently Twitter Mobile [0]. I even like using it from my desktop. It's very…

I still prefer native apps when they're well-designed. A well-designed, minimal native app almost always performs better than a well-designed, minimal mobile website in my experience. But a lot of major apps have become so bloated that their mobile website versions work better. Twitter is one example, but Facebook is another infamous one. I'm sure many folks on HN have went through the experience of realizing that it was the FB app that was draining their smartphone battery like crazy.

That said, the lack of a website is still a dealbreaker for me in this case. I don't want to have to access a social network through my phone. I do understanding going mobile-first on a new social network, but I'm not really interested in jumping aboard until I can use it from my laptop/desktop. But that may not mean much in terms of the app's success. I'm probably just not in the target audience.

Re: Hello from Orkut

#156

Post by peterwwillis » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 2:19 PM UTC

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #23

I'm echoing what others are saying: no web version means I won't bother at all. My phone has access to multiple great browsers. Building a good lightweight web app means I can access the content from anywhere without having to deal with annoyances of push notifications or (as much) creepy tracking. My favorite example of a mobile web app is currently Twitter Mobile [0]. I even like using it from my desktop. It's very…

> no web version means I won't bother at all

That's too bad. Lyft and Tinder users seem to be getting along without the web, though.

Re: Hello from Orkut

#157

Post by pisarzp » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 2:25 PM UTC

The UI is so full of bugs its unusable. Someone forgot to assign text to variables.

Re: Hello from Orkut

#158

Post by erlehmann_ » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 2:25 PM UTC

djsumdog wrote: post #146

jaxondu wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad move for not having a web version. I just don't feel like downloading apps nowadays. A few of my friends are also like that.

No web version which also means there's probably noting really new or revolutionary. No federation. Not open. I've been messing with some of the old federated projects that never seemed to go anywhere. GNU Social, Diaosapra, etc. I'd like to just get a few nerd friends on one, just to say I'm at least trying to get away from the current model. Hello just looks like another ello.

The real federated social platform is WordPress, which has millions of deployments and serves a quarter of the most popular websites: https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management...

I still remember the time around ten years ago when a lot of people had independent blogs mostly free of clickbait and advertising. Nowadays, many post on social media only.

Re: Hello from Orkut

#159

Post by squeaky-clean » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 2:32 PM UTC

Well, I tried signing up, and can't get through the registration. Apparently my email is not a valid email. I tried exiting and restarting, and it noticed and asked if I wanted to start over or continue where I left off. So I tapped continue and it sent me back to the first screen and erased the info I entered....

edit: Managed to try again, and now my email is valid. It's crashed several times in the registration process so far....

double edit: I can only choose 5 personas?! What if I have more than 5 total interests like I'm sure everyone does? (For anyone who hasn't registered, there's a least 100 choices)

Final edit: It crashed at least 5 times before I could get to any sort of feed. Every "persona" is just filled with pictures of memes sometimes related to the topic. All the other tabs are empty. And there doesn't seem to be any way to delete your account. Just awful....

Re: Hello from Orkut

#160

Post by Kadin » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 2:34 PM UTC

whatever_dude wrote: post #141

jaxondu wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad move for not having a web version. I just don't feel like downloading apps nowadays. A few of my friends are also like that.

You're probably not the target audience. I'd bet ~98% of the people on HN aren't. The app is aiming at the Instagram, Snapchat crowd. Instagram didn't have a web front until recently, Snapchat still doesn't.

I have no idea who they think they're targeting but there's still a huge amount of friction involved in getting users to install an app. I don't think that a younger audience is immune to that.