Ask HN: Let's Revive PG's /ideas.html discussion • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Let's Revive PG's /ideas.html discussion

#11

Post by rwl » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 5:29 PM UTC

1) Job and apartment search -- or "matching." I know there are all kinds of places where you can look for a job or an apartment online. But the process sucks. There is a ton of information out there, most of which is irrelevant, and the tools for sifting through it are terrible (I'm looking at you, Craigslist). Even when you find a job or an apartment you want to contact someone about, it's a total crapshoot as to whether the person at the other end will get back to you, most likely because they too are being inundated with irrelevant information -- inquirers or applicants they're probably not interested in.

I can envision something that works more like a dating site solving these problems. Both parties put in descriptions of themselves and criteria for what they're looking for in a potential employer/landlord or employee/tenant. Then the site matches people based on these criteria and sends both parties a list of good potential matches. Et voila -- a much smaller, more relevant set of data for both parties.

I know there are sites that already do something like this in one domain or the other, but I haven't seen any that really do a good job. I also think there's huge potential for putting the two problems together, since people are often looking for both a new job and a new apartment at once, and they use similar criteria (e.g., location, proximity to XYZ, seeking someone who has or wants XYZ...) that are currently difficult to search by.

Edit: I see that "dating site" and "Craigslist competitor" are both on the original ideas.html. I see my idea as an instance of these.

Re: Ask HN: Let's Revive PG's /ideas.html discussion

#12

Post by Srn22 » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 5:31 PM UTC

I for one love niche businesses and think this post touches on a lot a small business areas/ideas that are oft-ignored in favor of flashier ideas.

When I look around my area I see lots of money being spent in a variety of areas that have not been innovated online at all.

1) Landscaper architects/garnders/etc. - Still a very old way of doing things. This easily could be brought online

2) People love their dogs and as a result, dog walkers, groomers, etc. have very thriving businesses

3) Coffee/morning commute - Some sort of app that ties both of these together. A great offline component.

4) Coupons - Groupon has proven that people want deals and that if you're able to remove the stigma around it, they'll buy it with tenacity. This could definitely be expanded upon.

Re: Ask HN: Let's Revive PG's /ideas.html discussion

#13

Post by Srn22 » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 5:35 PM UTC

rwl wrote: post #11

1) Job and apartment search -- or "matching." I know there are all kinds of places where you can look for a job or an apartment online. But the process sucks . There is a ton of information out there, most of which is irrelevant, and the tools for sifting through it are terrible (I'm looking at you, Craigslist). Even when you find a job or an apartment you want to contact someone about, it's a total crapshoot as to w…

Yeah, these apartment hunting services (the ones in which they drive you around for free and get paid the first month's rent by the unit's owner) do extremely well and seem to be far more popular than Craigslist. Also, they are the ones on Craigslist over-saturating the listings in the hopes that they can show you an apartment and if you don't like it, they can easily take you to see more.

There is so much overlap because the apartment finders (working on commission) are all posting the same listings they grab off the MLS. This seems ripe for innovation as the redundancy and non-existent barriers of entry make for a very ineffective system.

Re: Ask HN: Let's Revive PG's /ideas.html discussion

#14

Post by tjmaxal » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 5:39 PM UTC

3) the business side of Healthcare. There are tons of sites for consumer information but very few about the Healthcare industry from the business perspective.

Re: Ask HN: Let's Revive PG's /ideas.html discussion

#15

Post by gmichnikov » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 5:47 PM UTC

3) Education 2) Groupon for live video education. Teacher offers to teach x at a certain time at a certain price per student, with a minimum number of students required. Interesting speakers could offer guest lectures to teachers at the classroom level.

Re: Ask HN: Let's Revive PG's /ideas.html discussion

#16

Post by fjabre » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 6:03 PM UTC

Can't imagine the potential liability but crowd sourcing patient symtptoms for a diagnosis would be interesting.

Re: Ask HN: Let's Revive PG's /ideas.html discussion

#17

Post by brianto2010 » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 6:27 PM UTC

Internship programs for high school students. I see many for college students, probably because they need it more, but few are targeted towards high school students. Rather than work at a lower-level job, they could enrich themselves in a co-op, both furthering their knowledge and developing industry connections (and possibly make money on the side).

Re: Ask HN: Let's Revive PG's /ideas.html discussion

#18

Post by mace » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 6:53 PM UTC

brianto2010 wrote: post #17

Internship programs for high school students. I see many for college students, probably because they need it more, but few are targeted towards high school students. Rather than work at a lower-level job, they could enrich themselves in a co-op, both furthering their knowledge and developing industry connections (and possibly make money on the side).

This is an interesting idea. The vast majority of kids in High School are employed/exploited by fast food restaurants. Hundreds of years kids of High School age were under some type apprenticeship. It would very interesting to bring back something like this today.

Re: Ask HN: Let's Revive PG's /ideas.html discussion

#19

Post by Judson » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 7:01 PM UTC

jpalmer wrote: post #5

nudge wrote: post #3

1/3) Auto repair / servicing. The internet has helped consumers in all kinds of markets - retail and travel, perhaps most obviously - compare equivalent goods to ensure they are getting a fair price and good service. I would love for this to be applied to car repair and servicing. I confess that I know next to nothing about cars - I just want my car to run, and when it need repairs or services, I want to know that I'…

http://repairpal.com Techcrunch about them: http://techcrunch.com/2008/06/12/repairpal-its-like-google-h...

I was thinking something more like iFixit, but for cars. Maybe user-generated repair tutorials. Might help mechanics "legitimize" their own business if they are active in a community like that.

Re: Ask HN: Let's Revive PG's /ideas.html discussion

#20

Post by JeffL » Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 7:25 PM UTC

I really want a combination of Google docs + wiki for my online collaboration. Basically the ease of use and simultaneous editing of Google docs, plus a structured resource of a wiki where we can link to the other docs, not have to set the permissions of each page, etc.