Ask YC: Any Feedback on new web app ratings site appreciated
1–10 of 43 posts
Re: Ask YC: Any Feedback on new web app ratings site appreciated
#2It looks good. I do have one minor suggestion. Part of what you're about is helping people find apps. From About Page: "What if, ... you could find the best webapp for your needs, at any given time, and instantly compare it to all of its competitors?" I really like that idea, and it would be useful to me. Currently, no one has got them all in one place and compared them. In fact, just a short time ago I did a post on YC asking about tools because I know I had read about them but forgotten where. So you definitely have me there.
I thinking building on this would really up the usefulness of your site immensely, because people want to know what's out there when they're looking for tools. Rating is secondary to someone looking for tools. Instead, they need to know what tools exist. Building out the categories more is a suggestion, as would be providing your own content (editorial) on how well apps in the same category work compared to each other. For example, if you're looking for a commenting system for your blog, what are the pros and cons of the major offerings. I understand this might run into a problem of what is a web app and what isn't, but people love to have someone else do the work of finding them a solution. That involves more than a one line description and a rating.
Rating is good to eliminate the lowest bottom feeders, but it doesn't help you choose between two five-star programs. Original editorial content helps people by providing more information, as will user comments of course once you get a mass of users.
Re: Ask YC: Any Feedback on new web app ratings site appreciated
#3Let me add an app while I wait for the confirmation email. Don't display it until my account is confirmed.
Re: Ask YC: Any Feedback on new web app ratings site appreciated
#4It looks good. I do have one minor suggestion. Part of what you're about is helping people find apps. From About Page: "What if, ... you could find the best webapp for your needs, at any given time, and instantly compare it to all of its competitors?" I really like that idea, and it would be useful to me. Currently, no one has got them all in one place and compared them. In fact, just a short time ago I did a post on…
Hey, Thanks tstegart. I whole-heartedly agree. The categories, aside from high quality reviews are the most important part. When you want to find the best app for a particular use, you don't really care about how good it is for some other use.
To me, it's kind of like Yelp - sometimes I want to just know what has the best food, and don't care about the service. Sometimes I want to know both.
What I'm still trying to figure out is how to implement this from a user perspective - it's difficult enough to get a user to provide a review, let alone multiple reviews for different purposes.
Perhaps the genii of YC have some good ideas...
Re: Ask YC: Any Feedback on new web app ratings site appreciated
#5Let me add an app while I wait for the confirmation email. Don't display it until my account is confirmed.
I like that one. We do have "suggestions" to existing apps, which anonymous users can make (which basically creates a diff, which has to be applied by an admin, or the owner of the app).
But we definitely need something similar for adding apps. Thanks!
Re: Ask YC: Any Feedback on new web app ratings site appreciated
#6It looks good. I do have one minor suggestion. Part of what you're about is helping people find apps. From About Page: "What if, ... you could find the best webapp for your needs, at any given time, and instantly compare it to all of its competitors?" I really like that idea, and it would be useful to me. Currently, no one has got them all in one place and compared them. In fact, just a short time ago I did a post on…
Hey, Thanks tstegart. I whole-heartedly agree. The categories, aside from high quality reviews are the most important part. When you want to find the best app for a particular use, you don't really care about how good it is for some other use. To me, it's kind of like Yelp - sometimes I want to just know what has the best food, and don't care about the service. Sometimes I want to know both. What I'm still trying to…
To be honest, having the call-to-action to write a review separated from the main text doesn't help. Right now, you've put your ads in between where you learn about the app and where you find the review button. It almost completely ruins the work your interface (which is great by the way) is doing to get people to click on the review button. I'm not sure having the ads there is worth the ruination of your review button click-rate.
People like seeing information where its supposed to be, and ads where they are supposed to be. Part of what makes Web 2.0 websites so great is that the ads aren't in-your-face annoying. Here, your ads are messing up the user experience in an attempt to get in front of the user.
Re: Ask YC: Any Feedback on new web app ratings site appreciated
#7Let me add an app while I wait for the confirmation email. Don't display it until my account is confirmed.
I second this. Is there a reason for needing to login when adding an app or review? I only say this because I saw an article today on getting rid of logins. What about just requiring a captcha?
Re: Ask YC: Any Feedback on new web app ratings site appreciated
#8Might consider star ratings without forcing a login. I think the site is useful, but not useful enough to want to create a user account. A great technique is marketing is to get people to make very small commitments (star ratings) which will lead to bigger ones (getting an account).
Re: Ask YC: Any Feedback on new web app ratings site appreciated
#9Let me add an app while I wait for the confirmation email. Don't display it until my account is confirmed.
Going on 30 minutes now with no confirmation email. Checked spam, not there either.
Re: Ask YC: Any Feedback on new web app ratings site appreciated
#10Might consider star ratings without forcing a login. I think the site is useful, but not useful enough to want to create a user account. A great technique is marketing is to get people to make very small commitments (star ratings) which will lead to bigger ones (getting an account).
This man sounds like he's been reading "Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini