Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund • Hacker News Board

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#91

Post by rhayward » Sat, Jul 19, 2008, 10:21 PM UTC

I would take issue with point 16 (on Google and design).

I don't work for Google, but I do have a lot of respect for the company. I've never perceieved any 'design' problem.

In terms of their interfaces, I think they've probably spent a huge amount of time on design, and got it exactly right. Simple, sparse and functional.

From everything I've heard, the 'design' of their software and system architecture is also top notch.

I can't see exactly where you're going with the whole design dependency thing. Search and design seem like very different things that shouldn't 'depend' on each other.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#92

Post by dill_day » Sat, Jul 19, 2008, 10:45 PM UTC

swombat wrote: post #44

mechanical_fish wrote: post #6

Help. Help. I feel like that guy in the Sandman comics who gets cursed to have nothing but original ideas, as rapidly as possible, day and night, forever. Seriously, this list is exhausting to read. It's like the topic sentence for an entire century. I'm going to have to take it a little piece at a time.

There's no such thing as an original idea. Every idea worth having has been had thousands of times already. There is such a thing as being the first to give a real physical (or commercial) form to an idea, though.

Not that one is the first to see something new, but that one sees as new what is old, long, familiar, seen and overlooked by everybody, is what distinguishes truly original minds. The first discoverer is ordinarily that wholly common creature, devoid of spirit and addicted to fantasy - accident. (Nietzsche)

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#93

Post by Fuca » Sat, Jul 19, 2008, 10:50 PM UTC

I think I just came up with a solution for the dating site, and will give it a try.

What I have not solved is I live in Mexico, and this will require an office or staff in major cities.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#94

Post by Leon » Sat, Jul 19, 2008, 11:03 PM UTC

vaksel wrote: post #56

TweedHeads wrote: post #45

How about fixing the domain fuckfest we have today? Most of these ideas will end up with stupid names like lulzdatr.com or bizzwarezz.com

Thats because .com is the king of the internet. The users know dot coms, the term is a mainstream one. And frankly the whole company name doesn't really matter, what does yahoo have to do with search? What does eBay have to do with auctions? Just get some creativity and come up with a word that sounds like a real word and you'll be fine.

Saying .com is the king of the internet sounds like a response from marketing/management. I suspect it isn't all that important and that this will probably be dropped in favor of a practical solution in the future.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#95

Post by theJoker » Sat, Jul 19, 2008, 11:04 PM UTC

I´m no expert, but check out http://webconverger.com/ in regards to your second idea. That software would work nicely - perhaps nicely enough to help with idea #18.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#96

Post by Tichy » Sat, Jul 19, 2008, 11:12 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #65

Giorgi wrote: post #62

Search engine that concentrates on design? What that supposed to mean?

I don't know. I was just saying that if you want to beat Google, that's their weak spot. Or at least a big one. Most people who read that one will think "huh?" But if someone reads it and thinks "Damn, how did he hear about what we're working on?" that's someone we'd really love to hear from.

I have thought before about judging the actual design of a web site (the way it renders, layout, fonts,...), I don't think it is impossible to do (with a learning system that learns from human users input), and might at least provide another factor for the final search result ranking.

Edit: is there already software for spotting fake art? That might be a starting point, as well as another market for that kind of image processing.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#97

Post by moss » Sat, Jul 19, 2008, 11:15 PM UTC

altano wrote: post #70

Regarding #22, "A web-based Excel/database hybrid," have you ever seen dabbledb.com? It's pretty much fits your description completely and I've really liked it the few times I've had a need for it.

Having used Dabble regularly for work, I'll note that there's still a lot of room for competitors there. It's had some serious performance problems in the past few months, to the point that I've seen people go out of their way to avoid opening it even when it's got data they want. I think there's also room for usability improvements, but I don't know if I have the ideas to back that up.

All that said, it's still a fantastic tool, and Seaside is an amazing framework.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#98

Post by Tichy » Sat, Jul 19, 2008, 11:16 PM UTC

pixcavator wrote: post #58

Regarding #27, is there anyone who is working on image processing for digital cameras?

Maybe the producers of digital cameras? Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Pentax, Samsung,...

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#99

Post by Tichy » Sat, Jul 19, 2008, 11:17 PM UTC

rhayward wrote: post #91

I would take issue with point 16 (on Google and design). I don't work for Google, but I do have a lot of respect for the company. I've never perceieved any 'design' problem. In terms of their interfaces, I think they've probably spent a huge amount of time on design, and got it exactly right. Simple, sparse and functional. From everything I've heard, the 'design' of their software and system architecture is also top…

I think it is not about the design of the search engine, but about judging the design of the pages that are being indexed. Could kill a lot of nasty, spammy pages on the spot.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#100

Post by drowe67 » Sat, Jul 19, 2008, 11:19 PM UTC

Re 27 (hardware/software hybrids) there is a good example: The Free Telephony Project: http://rowetel.com/ucasterisk

A community has been working on Open Hardware designs for IP telephony - embedded Asterisk boxes. The technology is now in mass production, and several commercial products are being spun out of the original, community based work.