Is there a reason everyone is losing their shit over a chrome extension?
Lot of uncivil and condescending feedback here.
Anyway I tried it on mobile, works quite well. The UI is better than google at a glance.
Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs
371–380 of 477 posts
Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs
#372I assume the site has been changed in response to the things people are saying here as the search box works and I was able to start trying queries immediately.
First thing I tried was a dev-related query I was getting annoyed with Google about yesterday: GeneratorExecutionContext. This is a type used in C# source generators and is documented in the Microsoft .NET docs.
With Google, none of the first page results contain the string "GeneratorExecutionContext" or even relate to C# source generators. With you.com the desired ms docs result is the first listed and all the others are relevant.
I can get similar results on Google by enclosing the search term in quotes, but this doesn't absolve Google. GeneratorExecutionContext isn't an plausible typo for Thread.ExecutionContext or scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext or any of the other things Google listed. It's a verbatim match to something that exists in MS docs.
I find this kind of over-interpretation-by-dedault behaviour exceptionally annoying. Sure, if you think some leftfield interpretations of my input might be of interest, go ahead and add them into the results, but don't just assume I'm incapable of saying what I mean.
I don't know how you.com is actually working here, but frankly even if it's just a verbatim text search that includes common sources of programming info I'm interested. It certainly won on this single sample search.
Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
It takes less than 5 seconds to upload personal data to a server from a compromised extension. Not saying you're doing this but it was the first threat scenario that came to mind and it's not even something particularly uncommon in the browser extension world.
I'm going to go ahead and say it then, this is suspicious as fuck.
It would have been slightly less suspicious if the response to "this is a security concern" would have been "oops yeah we see that now, let's disable that requirement until we gain some trust first".
I do not trust a company that brands itself as privacy-oriented when they insist on peddling a security vulnerability to their users "because Google is evil so trust us". Google may be selling my data but at least they have a lot to lose so they are likely to abide by legal guardrails.
Especially since there is no value-add to the extension. It's whole purpose is to make it harder for less tech-savvy users to stop using the service.
Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs
#374My thoughts:
Freaking cool domain you secured.
I think I prefer things going in the less cluttered direction to win my use over G.
Good luck!
Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs
#375I installed the plugin and it instantly mucked up my chrome profiles. It felt very disconcerting and I instantly removed it. I imagine most users might not have multiple chrome profiles and so wouldn't notice, but for me it was an instant stop. What are you doing with profiles? Why does it need to be installed as a plugin?
That's a Chrome setting. We dont change anything in your profile. I guess folks here have a lot of reasonable doubts about extensions. I get it. I hate them also because many follow you around to all the sites you visit, etc. Surprisingly nobody mentioned all day that the ONLY permission this app has is to change your navbar setting. Chrome says that so clearly when you install it :) The reason to install it is to ha…
> Without it you will try a search or two and depending on what you searched for disappear because it's just not convenient enough to have to load another page every time you want to search.
Nope, I’ll disappear immediately because it’s just not convenient enough to have to install an extension just to maybe try a search or two.
Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs
#376Hey all.
We heard you today.
The Chrome extension requirement is gone and we are fully open in all browsers now.
Thanks for your feedback. Keep it coming :)
Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs
#377This makes a really bad impression. Built for devs? It looks like the exact opposite to me. The layout has a focus on flashy design and no focus on content. Devs like content. They talk about "superior privacy" but when you open the network tab you see their serps send queries all over the place. Just on my first serp, I see queries to serpapi.com which is owned by "SerpApi, LLC", to bing.com which is owned by Micros…
Interesting you feel like with all this content, there's not enough. Usually we hear there's too much content. Can you elaborate? What's too flashy?
Yap, we have to use some APIs but the searches come from our servers... Which search engine doesn't call any APIs and has great privacy?
We dropped the extension requirement.
The extension has no read access.
No social trickery, I just posted?
Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs
#378I 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.
Hey, thanks for the feedback.
We dropped the requirement to install the extension. We're open on all browsers now.
Happy searching or trying :)
Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 "…
Ok, after trying incognito, I do like it, but I'm not ready to switch my default from DDG yet. Maybe on the non-incognito chrome results page you could include a note that your search can be tested from incognito along with the prompt to install the extension?
Hey, thanks for the feedback.
We dropped the requirement to install the extension. We're open on all browsers now.
Happy searching or trying :)
Re: Show HN: You.com, private search engine that summarizes the web – built for devs
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
On Chrome desktop I just see a blocker message: "To see results and get the convenience of you.com, you’ll need to add the you.com Chrome extension"
Wow, you're right. Searching works fine in Safari (desktop) but requires a plugin when you visit the same page in Chrome. I want to like this, but this move seems like just another scummy "growth hack".
Hey, thanks for the feedback.
We dropped the requirement to install the extension. We're open on all browsers now.
Happy searching or trying :)