Consider licensing your search tech to companies not blessed by Adobe? (I.e., other than Google / Yahoo!) I know my company would be interested.
This is something my company may eventually be interested in as well. Indexing Flash is a huge deal.
We've been working really hard on our startup and now this
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Re: We've been working really hard on our startup and now this
#32The vast majority of niche file types are currently not indexed by Google. Even though these file types make up only a fraction of a percent of what people are looking for, if you were able to create a search engine that covered a wide variety of these then there might be some opportunity. For example, if your search engine can index .sfg files (for Go players), .mm files (mind maps), etc.
Re: We've been working really hard on our startup and now this
#33And we are in process of a re-design. I have to wonder if I should keep working on it...
You might at least want to get an original logo. I like bluebison.net as much as the next guy, but you should probably have something original if you're going to have a bunch of traffic.
Re: We've been working really hard on our startup and now this
#34There have been many occasions when the large players like MS or Google announced something and nothing usable came of it: e.g. OpenSocial is mostly vaporware.
Also, Google AND Yahoo, i.e. two huge corporations working together raises flags for me. When's the last time that worked out? There'll be a lot of managarial communication, overhead, bureaucracy, stupidity, etc. Assuming they really are doing this together: having worked at large corporations and knowing how inefficient even internal management is, I actually wouldn't worry too much about this.
Re: We've been working really hard on our startup and now this
#35Hi there. I'm the other founder of the site (Troy made the original post on this thread) and I sent a "Hey, we're doing that too" email to the VP of Yahoo search and the VP of Google search this morning regarding SWF search. Still haven't heard anything back from them as of this post though. Also, we were denied VC funding earlier this year for this same project. Does anyone think that now is a good time to re-submit…
Can you make the case that your solution is better than what Adobe and Yahoo or Google engineers have put together? (If not, I'm not sure why you're mailing companies already strategically linked with Adobe's solution.) I wouldn't count on Adobe limiting access to this special player to just Google and Yahoo. Adobe wants Flash/Flex accessible by all crawlers, so it's just a matter of time.
I won't know what they put together - as far as I know, there's nothing concrete on the Google or Yahoo end, but you know PR - just being in talks with Adobe gives the PR department to promise a product. It's also very possible that we could easily get squashed in a very short time. Mainly, I just wanted to open the communication channels with G and Y to see if they bite or even acknowledge us.
Re: We've been working really hard on our startup and now this
#36Why not contact Google and Yahoo and see if they are interested in acquiring you? It couldn't hurt. Also this is perhaps the downside of waiting too long to launch. Can you rescope this thing and release it sooner? Could you release a flimsy version 1 right now and then improve it and flesh it out over the next few months? Don't worry about solving technological problems that you don't have yet. Solve them when you h…
> Why not contact Google and Yahoo and see if they
> are interested in acquiring you? It couldn't hurt.
You should never do this. When buying or selling something illiquid, the side who brings up the idea of a deal starts off at a disadvantage. So if you make the overture you will get hosed. Except you won't even get that in this case, as an offer like that coming in over the transom to a big company is never going to reach anyone who matters.
But your other advice is good.
Re: We've been working really hard on our startup and now this
#37I must admit I wouldn't be using your search when Google has flash search support.
But as you can see below, licensing your technology to other companies would be a big step. If only you had it launched 6 months ago you would be in a better situation by now, but I see now evidence to say your a dead startup if your claims stand up! ;)
Re: We've been working really hard on our startup and now this
#38It says you'd be open to other names, so here's my suggestion: flashiefind. It describes what you're doing, has a sort of alliteration and ring to it, and feels natural. And the domain name is open. Eh?
Re: We've been working really hard on our startup and now this
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Validated by players that are very likely to crush any start-up into oblivion. I wouldn't be too excited ;).
I had this happen to me with my last startup right around the time we were dealing with some angel investors. Every single of one of them called me to say "Well, Microsoft is going to be doing this now, we don't want to throw our money away." It's one thing to have market validation by companies you could theoretically catch up to; it's an entirely different beast to try to compete with Google or Microsoft.
I thought that the entire startup culture was based on the idea that a startup could outpace a behemoth like Google or Microsoft.
Re: We've been working really hard on our startup and now this
#40Well, how about making categories: Flash games, Flash tools, stuff like that.
Just change your focus a bit, but keep your technology.