Live data from Hacker News

Introducing Quip

quip.com

111–120 of 164 posts

Re: Introducing Quip

#111
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just checked it out and really like it. My primary use case would be a tool to replace or augment a wiki. What types of feedback are you most interested in receiving?

Any and all

Is there a reason the app is not available on the UK app store?

Also, I'd second the recommendation to allow normal signup and put off decisions about trusting the website with contacts. I wanted to sign up while not giving the app access, but was not allowed to go ahead and do that because any emails associated with gmail etc tried to harvest contacts, and the cancel button on the google permissions page doesn't work. Doesn't seem to be a way to register a gmail address without going through the permissions step.

If I want to expose my contacts, I'd rather the app allowed me to choose when and who to do that with, rather than trying to force the choice at signup. I'm happy to give you my email, but not those of all my contacts.

Re: Introducing Quip

#112
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you convince a happy google docs user to switch, what's the key selling point?

1. Works exceptionally on mobile. 2. Works offline. Whether spotty 3G connection or completely offline, our mobile apps work and sync whenever you come back online, even when multiple people are collaborating on the same document. The tech behind this is really cool. And everything is available offline automatically, not just stuff you "mark for offline" 3. Diffs, presence, notifications More details at https://quip.…

The offline feature is a winning point. I can't understand why Google et al act like if we were always connected. No, Mount Everest doesn't have WiFi...

Commercially, you must take defensive measures since Google acquired QuickOffice in 2012 and surely will attack this market space more aggresively.

Re: Introducing Quip

#113
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you convince a happy google docs user to switch, what's the key selling point?

1. Works exceptionally on mobile. 2. Works offline. Whether spotty 3G connection or completely offline, our mobile apps work and sync whenever you come back online, even when multiple people are collaborating on the same document. The tech behind this is really cool. And everything is available offline automatically, not just stuff you "mark for offline" 3. Diffs, presence, notifications More details at https://quip.…

I think you should clarify your message a little bit because Google Drive works well in mobile (and offline), too, especially since they started giving away Quick Office to augment their "normal" Drive app. Additionally, most of your features are available in Drive/Docs, but sometimes just executed differently (like diffs, presence and notifications). I can absolutely see a value in the Quip way of doing things, but not for a large enterprise with high volume and complex documents, not to mention the common use case of taking a native binary doc of some sort and uploading+converting to Drive format. The SMB use cases you use as examples are spot-on, but don't mesh with my needs as an administrator of a 20,000 person domain with 800,000 documents online. I also wouldn't pay $12/user/month for Quip when I could get all of the rest of Google Apps for only $50ish.

Another question I'd have is what your long term plan is. The last thing I need for my business (of any size) is to select a vendor for a productivity tool and have it disappear due to acquisition, pivot, or bankruptcy in a couple/few years. (Coincidentally, I just saw the HN post announcing this: https://catch.com/)

Speaking of diffs, here's a FR that would probably be easy for you to implement, and one that a lot of Google Enterprise customers have been complaining about for years. It's possible to view and revert to previous revisions of Google Docs no problem (although the UI isn't particularly nice), but it's not possible to freeze versions of a doc. The method most people seem to go about this currently is to save a copy of the frozen version to docx/pdf and place it in the same folder as the working copy, but this is incredibly annoying.

Regarding commenting and collaborating on docs, one of the really nice features Drive has that you might consider adopting is their method of handling comment threads, and the integration with email (they all @mentions, too, using the +username syntax, btw).

Re: Introducing Quip

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, I think this suffers from one of Facebooks greatest and worst issues: "WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO SHARE THIS, NOW!!!" > "Uhm... because; Fuck You, that's why" I would suggest a much more clever way to virility; Help me actually MAKE something I WANT to share... How about a tutorial on how to build an utterly awesome [document] thaat I just must share! An invite, a how-to, op-ed...something!! Here is an app that is l…

I would suggest a much more clever way to virility; Help me actually MAKE something I WANT to share... How about a tutorial on how to build an utterly awesome [document] thaat I just must share! An invite, a how-to, op-ed...something!! This is actually pretty clever. Bret and Team...not to be presumptuous to offer you guys advice, but I think this could be very useful. Picture this....the way make/consume documents h…

Think VistaPrint and their free business cards... free as long as you let them print their logo on the back. :)

Re: Introducing Quip

#115
post #50

Meh, MS Word is a horrible piece of software, but it does its job, how is this different? Collaboration? Good luck convincing the business world only with that, they have been emailing files for 20 years and they have been reading paper for over a century. Really, good luck. Then, format? Open, closed? Are we again proposing creating documents on proprietary formats after all the issues we saw with .doc and friends?

One of the problems I have with word is that the paper paradigms still dominate everything there. An word processor that is more rooted in the digital age have a fair shot if executed correctly.

But guess what, people actually do use printers.

On top of that, I am doing my case here for "business use". If you are targeting business, you have to look at Power Point, not MS Word. Most of the business rules, presentations, information, are in a .ppt. Guess why. People like graphs and images to convey information, they prefer 1 line of text and 1 image instead than a dense paragraph.

And the good thing is that there is something super tested that is already great at that... the browser! Also, html, css and friends are a good open, tested, vetted, format! Why do we keep reinventing the wheel? Why don't look at making great use of web technologies?

What you want is a good alternative to Power Point, with presentations that run into a browser and that can be easily saved as a .pdf. That's it. That's a great product.

Re: Introducing Quip

#116

It's always surreal to read Hacker News threads about the stuff you make. Harsh, but realistic. Anyway, I am Bret Taylor, co-founder of Quip. I am here if you have any questions, etc. (Also posted responses on the existing thread already). Just to clarify a couple of points I have read: 1. We do support desktops. We have a really nice web app. It is Chrome/Firefox only right now. 2. We have an Android app. It is a "p…

Am I going to be able to download editable documents for use in other word processors? Or am I limited to just PDF?

Re: Introducing Quip

#117
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you convince a happy google docs user to switch, what's the key selling point?

1. Works exceptionally on mobile. 2. Works offline. Whether spotty 3G connection or completely offline, our mobile apps work and sync whenever you come back online, even when multiple people are collaborating on the same document. The tech behind this is really cool. And everything is available offline automatically, not just stuff you "mark for offline" 3. Diffs, presence, notifications More details at https://quip.…

You didn't answer the question. You were asked what features would make a Google Doc user switch, and instead of naming those you went full PR and named the features (at least two out of three) Google Docs have.

This kind of dishonesty and bullshit will stain your image. Please don't treat us like morons.

Re: Introducing Quip

#118
post #82

Boy, Hacker News has gone in a strange direction. Killer new product from legendary engineers. Let's all get together and shit on it!

^^that's Marc Andreessen FYI, those of you downvoting him.

Re: Introducing Quip

#119

Great stuff. Never easy tackling such an entrenced market. I have a few suggestions though as someone that not only actively uses Google Docs but practically forces people I work with to do so too. 1. How do I make this appear in my existin Google Docs folder? I really do not want to have another place for my documents. 2. The pricing of Google Docs makes it really hard to beat. How does quip plan to fight that? 3. S…

>> 1. Be the best at something and come inthrough the flanks. E.g the best way to edit your DropBox documents (I actually thought Dropbox would have launched a document processor by now). Coming through the flanks will remove the weight of expextation and at the same time allow people to What's a DropBox document? I have Word documents in my Dropbox, PDFS, photos, spreadsheets. I don't have Dropbox documents.

Pretty sure he just means documents that you have stored on dropbox.

Re: Introducing Quip

#120
Played with the web version for a bit. Nice looking app, but doesn't really do anything I need that I can't do with Google Docs, which my company uses for a lot of collaborative writing. We still eventually publish the docs out to Word and PDF because that's how they get consumed, but for the collaborative writing part it's Google Docs all the way, so I see value in refining the collaborative writing market.

Having offline mobile is "nice" but not totally necessary for my use case, mostly because the number of people I know who car write decent sentences on their mobile devices are few.

Post reply on HN