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Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs

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Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs

#281

Post by maxk42 »

richardsocher wrote: post #42
nepalvibes wrote: post #7

I heard about "you" from one of my friends and wanted to give it a try and it forced me to install chrome plugin. This is a lot of friction for me to try a new search engine. Not sure why you'd force your user to install something just to give it a try.

Yea... Requiring the default was a tough choice. You actually can try it out in incognito mode and any other non-Chromium browser. But we found that without the convenience of a navbar search, most people won't give it a proper try either way. I hope we can drop this requirement even in Chrome when we become one of the default options. If you set your search engine default to http://you.com manually in Chrome with "…

Your customers are telling you they want and you're making excuses for why you won't give it to them. I don't foresee this going well.

Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs

#282

Post by smoldesu »

richardsocher wrote: post #245
smoldesu wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's indeed unfortunate, I hope you reconsider.

yea. we'll revisit it from time to time. most people who REALLY dont want to install our extension probably won't do it after 2 searches either? and sadly, the 2tr$ monopoly that is Google made this the only way for us to provide the convenience of a navbar search right now? hopefully we can be a default option at some point or we'll have to build our own browser :)

I don't know if I want to use your search engine, it is literally impossible for me to set it as my homepage and use it casually. I really wish I could give it a proper chance, but your tacit denial of what is obviously bad design has come back to bite you in the butt. You're making the exact same mistakes the Brave browser did, if you don't back down on a feature that the majority of users are telling you to change, you'll have a hard time proselytizing in the future.

Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs

#283

Post by corobo »

richardsocher wrote: post #213
DennisP wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having the extension and letting people try it on the web seems like a more reasonable choice. People need to try it out. That said...there is a search textbox at the top of the page and it worked for me in Firefox and Chrome. Did people just miss it? If so, it should probably be in the middle with the big blue button.

it takes 5 seconds to install and uninstall an extension. we will open source it also so people can see how simple and benign it is. It feels like 5s to help move the internet away from a privacy invading monopoly isn't too bad? If you like privacy and agency of your information diet, or saving lots of time while coding, or Reddit results always accessible to browse for most queries, etc. Then the 5s install will be…

You've got this super expensive domain for a new project, it's normal for tech people to be wary.

Please could you quit thinking we're idiots with that 33kb bit you're doing? We get it, it's fine and safe and beautiful. Right now. We live in 4 dimensions though bud. We don't just care what it does now, we care what it'll be doing next year too!

From my point of view this extension doesn't need to be installed. Therefore I assume it will almost certainly update and fuck me over one day, you will need to monetise eventually and this feels like it's being defended super heavily for no reason

What's the plan here? It's only 5s now sure, how much time is it going to cost when the plot reveals itself?

Your onboarding is too intense mate. HN has fallen out of your funnel because of this extension. It's too weird of a scenario to the point I actually trust you less having read your responses! Where there's smoke there's fire and this extension is giving off all sorts of funky smells

Also someone needs to mention it - I don't want to change my search engine right now. Just be a search engine, quit being so needy! It took like 5 years for me to switch from Google to DDG lmao, you don't get first dibs on my search data like this. Ease into it

E: also I'm using Firefox anyway haha

Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs

#284

Post by bigwavedave »

Just to be sure we're on the same page here:

* You're pitching this search engine specifically "for devs".

* You're pitching it on HN, a community which (correct me if I'm wrong, @dang) is largely composed of your target audience.

* When given feedback, you're responding very defensively in almost 100% of your comments with something akin to "an extension takes 5s to install and uninstall, just do it, no one cares, we don't want to prevent ordinary folk whom we consider morons from using our search engine so everybody has to use our middleware to even give it a try". Buddy, in case you can't see why that's inane, let me help you: you're marketing this as a search engine for devs and devs are telling you why they won't use it. If you can't even get your target audience to give it a try, why on earth do you think the average person (who sadly doesn't give a fig about "the big bad monopoly boogeymen") will spare a glance for your product _if they even hear about it in the first place_? You're defending a user-hostile practice with shallow nonsense logic.

It's been my experience that founders who are seeking to "disrupt a monopoly" by ignoring feedback from their target audience don't end up disrupting anything (unless you count disrupting their employees' lives when the VC money runs out and everyone gets laid off), they just end up alienating anyone who'd ordinarily care enough to give the product a try. Best of luck, though.

Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs

#285

Post by vin047 »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #60

I'd like to know more about the "built for devs" concept you are presenting to us. What does that mean to you? For me personally, I rarely perform site:github.com or site:stackoverflow.com searches in my browser's default search engine. I typically just enter a few keywords and try to make sense of what I find. When I personally think of a search engine built for devs, I think of one that parses queries differently f…

> I rarely perform site:github.com or site:stackoverflow.com searches in my browser's default search engine

Built-in site:reddit.com searches would be handy.

Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs

#286

Post by presentation »

richardsocher wrote: post #265
alangibson wrote: post #146

I searched for 'Pouchdb full text search', saw the horizontal scrolling cards then immediately switched back to Startpage.com. I can't see how sorting through info with horizontal scroll could ever be an improvement. It's bad enough on desktop, but most searches happen in mobile where it's even more annoying.

Don't ever try Instagram. You'll hate it :)

A search engine isn't Instagram... When I tried searching, it was just totally overwhelming to me, since you get a full screen wall of text, not one easy to digest image at a time as with Instagram.

The design looks amateurish/inconsistent, the information was overwhelming, and I felt compelled to leave. You really ought to think more before dismissing your clientele.

Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs

#288

Post by bryans »

richardsocher wrote: post #213
DennisP wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having the extension and letting people try it on the web seems like a more reasonable choice. People need to try it out. That said...there is a search textbox at the top of the page and it worked for me in Firefox and Chrome. Did people just miss it? If so, it should probably be in the middle with the big blue button.

it takes 5 seconds to install and uninstall an extension. we will open source it also so people can see how simple and benign it is. It feels like 5s to help move the internet away from a privacy invading monopoly isn't too bad? If you like privacy and agency of your information diet, or saving lots of time while coding, or Reddit results always accessible to browse for most queries, etc. Then the 5s install will be…

That is incredibly dismissive of legitimate feedback, and you should honestly be ashamed of your response. I personally find your attitude in these comments to be absolutely reprehensible, and will never use this site -- or anything you're involved with.

You're apparently not even aware that every browser has the ability to add a keyword to the search engines, so that users could type "you: search phrase" and it goes to your site. Being oblivious to this is a huge red flag, and betrays that you really haven't thought this through.

Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs

#289

Post by corobo »

richardsocher wrote: post #173
primitivesuave wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly second this. I immediately gave up on trying it out once I realized I had to download something. Your KPIs should be around how sticky your search features are, it seems like it is currently based on download counts.

Hey. Yea. We struggle with the extension -> navbar search requirement also. We have found that if you're not the default engine that is easily accessible from the Navbar, you will not be able to break the Google monopoly. We also found that many people will just do a quick search for "asd" or "weather" and then leave because those searches aren't really differentiated (and just can't really be). Our extension is 33kB…

> We also found that many people will just do a quick search for "asd" or "weather" and then leave

How do you know this? Privacy and that

Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs

#290

Post by bryans »

bigwavedave wrote: post #284

Just to be sure we're on the same page here: * You're pitching this search engine specifically "for devs". * You're pitching it on HN, a community which (correct me if I'm wrong, @dang) is largely composed of your target audience. * When given feedback, you're responding very defensively in almost 100% of your comments with something akin to "an extension takes 5s to install and uninstall, just do it, no one cares, w…

Spot on! The OP appears to be so obsessed with taking down a monopoly that he forgot to make a good product, or a good onboarding experience, or to just be a respectable human when interacting with others. He came here to convince the startup and dev community that he's our savior against Google, and then repeatedly told us we're just too stupid to understand what he's trying to accomplish. I find it disgusting.
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