Show HN: Bookmark iPhone apps (weekend+ project)

1. Overall, fantastic idea. I would actually use this if you had an option to sign up with email address only. I think a lot of people might be uncomfortable with putting their phone numbers online that fast without a secure connection.

2. Make an option to have profiles private. Networking and social plugins aside, people might want to discreetly bookmark apps they find for various reasons.

3. I think one of your biggest challenges at this stage is implementing this for mobile machines. There is an easy way around this, coding a browser which will have the interface plugged in already. But I don't see many iPhone users doing that just to bookmark something, it'd be downloaded and rarely used, and eventually, deleted. Your best bet is integrating that function into the app.

One solution is to expose the JavaScript bookmarklet snippet on the page. Then the user can bookmark a dummy page, like the one they're currently on, then edit the URL of the bookmark to the JavaScript.

Some popular bookmarklets are being collected on the page below with that purpose in mind.

http://static.chrisbray.com/bookmarklets/

Edit: Based on the bookmarklet's div in the video, I'm wondering if you're using Instapaper for your data store? If so, have you had any issues?

This is actually eerily similar to a site I launched a couple of months ago called Aptly: http://apt.ly/

I've described it to people as "Instapaper for Apps" but it seems like AppQuu may even fit that description better than Aptly. (I haven't finished the companion iPhone app yet, but feel free to try it. I'd love to hear what you think.)

I really like how simple and elegant AppQuu is. Being able to send the user an SMS is a great idea. It makes it feel a little magical. (Though, it's a little strange that I can't get to the list just by browsing to the site on my phone.)

I was definitely hesitant about putting in my phone number. That's actually why I went with email instead of phone numbers for login on Aptly. Talking with people made me realize it was a huge barrier of entry. I guess emails feel less valuable and are more commonly used for signing up with sites that you're not sure about.

How do you find or determine the app on the page? What happens if there are multiple apps linked on the page? Does it just add all of them? Also, what happens if someone enters a number that isn't theirs? Maybe you could send a confirmation SMS that requires the user to respond in order to verify their account.

Also, I'd love your feedback on Aptly since it's such a similar concept, but with a completely different execution. Well done!

P.s. Let me know if you have any questions. I've probably run across a few of the same ones myself. Cheers!

@ mirthlab - thanks a lot for your feedback.

we tried to make it as simple as possible, thanks :)

reg phone/email: we're learning the same thing. we opted to keep it phone only so it felt "magical" for the people that did sign up. we should probably allow email sign up.

reg app: for now we take the first app that is found on the page. we could just as easily put all the apps in your Quu if multiple ones were found... or ask the user which ones they want to add. i guess we'll see how often/where/why that comes up.

reg fake #: yup, on it.

reg Apt.ly: really cool! i love how you're showing the details of the app right there for the user to see. i guess there's a balance between quick/effective.

where are you based? we should def talk in more depth off HN.

thanks again for the feedback - satjot (satjot at appquu)

That "we" is painful to read. I had a similar service earlier this year, initial reaction was positive, but everyone signed up and never used it again.

Me included.

My take on it? it's easier to pull up the app store and search for whatever than it is to open safari, load the webpage, then click and wait for the app store to load anyway.

Long lists would work? I thought so too, but then people don't like the back and forth between safari and app store.

Saying that, SMS was a feature I didn't have.

Good luck all the same, and do make a 1 month later update if you have time!