http://www.thinkcomputer.com/software/exponent Sure beats QuickBooks.
Why did this fail? Also, "Inventors of The Facebook"?
Mostly because people don't know about it I think. And yes, that would be true.
Ask YC: Have you built a good website that nobody visits?
21–30 of 127 posts
Re: Ask YC: Have you built a good website that nobody visits?
#22http://cadmium.avecora.com/ Failed social network advertising system that targets advertisements to Facebook Application users, by profile keywords (interests, activities), age, gender, specific networks, etc. Also targets ads throughout the web in participating partner websites. Apparently no interest, and then Facebook launched Social Ads, with similar targeting features a month or so later. Was hoping to integrate…
Random curiosity: did you change your name from Steve to Mark? If it isn't personal, mind sharing why?
Isn't it obvious? It's one character shorter. Just like one of Arc's guiding principles: "How code looks matters: short names, no swearing". Of course, since ones name is so frequently typed, one might prefer something even shorter. Like, "Joe", as a purely hypothetical example. I'm not sure one can go any shorter than three characters for a common male US name.
More seriously, I'm guessing Mark/Steven is of Asian descent (Bao make this seem more likely). They don't necessarily take their American name very seriously, since it's not their "real" name. I've known several Asian folks who've gone through a couple of Americanized names over the span of a few years. Their Japanese or Chinese or Vietnamese or Thai name stays the same throughout.
Re: Ask YC: Have you built a good website that nobody visits?
#23Re: Ask YC: Have you built a good website that nobody visits?
#24http://www.thinkcomputer.com/software/exponent Sure beats QuickBooks.
I tried it maybe 2 years ago. I signed in a month later and noticed there was a vendor button (or something like it) where it listed my name and address in public location for everybody to see, along with that of all other users. I think it was a list of "vendors" (ie, to buy from other thinkcomp users.) The page was white. There was no way to disable it. I ended up e-mailing somebody to remove my name from the list.
I'm not sure that it beats QuickBooks, even though I haven't tried either product recently. And I wouldn't worry about Facebook.
Re: Ask YC: Have you built a good website that nobody visits?
#25http://cadmium.avecora.com/ Failed social network advertising system that targets advertisements to Facebook Application users, by profile keywords (interests, activities), age, gender, specific networks, etc. Also targets ads throughout the web in participating partner websites. Apparently no interest, and then Facebook launched Social Ads, with similar targeting features a month or so later. Was hoping to integrate…
Random curiosity: did you change your name from Steve to Mark? If it isn't personal, mind sharing why?
Yes, I did. It was previously something Chinese, which I changed to Steven a year or so before, and decided that it wasn't what I liked, so Mark is what I changed it to.
It is, however, my legally recognized name.
Re: Ask YC: Have you built a good website that nobody visits?
#26http://free.LocalDataPlace.com - which we built for local recycling (ala freecycle). We haven't been willing to spam existing freecycle groups but we need good local traction to catch on.
You should look for groups focused on recycling and sustainability and promote your site to them as a way to do that. Obviously don't be spammy, but if you get involved in the overall discussion then people will be interested in what you have to say about your site. Look around Google Groups for related communities.
If it's having trouble getting nationwide traction, just focus on a specific region initially (such as where you live) -- do some networking and get the site name out there.
Re: Ask YC: Have you built a good website that nobody visits?
#27http://cadmium.avecora.com/ Failed social network advertising system that targets advertisements to Facebook Application users, by profile keywords (interests, activities), age, gender, specific networks, etc. Also targets ads throughout the web in participating partner websites. Apparently no interest, and then Facebook launched Social Ads, with similar targeting features a month or so later. Was hoping to integrate…
Very impressive. I was going to say, "for a 15 year old", but that demeans the work--it's impressive, regardless of age, to build something like that in a short time frame with a small team.
And very astute from a business perspective. Every time there is an ad network acquisition my first thought is, "Wow, that must be the last one of those", because there have been so many, and all of the really well-known names have already been acquired. But the reality is that advertising on the web is becoming more important every day, and more valuable every day. It will continue to grow at the same pace as the Internet itself, and so any innovative advertising play is probably a smart one. Mobile advertising is also a world that is currently untapped.
And, interestingly, at least to me, advertising is a market where no matter how many established players there are, there's always room for someone to be "high touch" in a particular industry and be able to build a nice sized business. My brother-in-law works in old media advertising (which has been a well-settled market for over fifty years), and yet he's built an independent agency over the past twelve years or so that employs a number of people and makes plenty of money (where "plenty"==$millions). He does it by building relationships, and doing good work.
Re: Ask YC: Have you built a good website that nobody visits?
#28http://www.imageboard.net/top/
A forum designed without the use of text using just images to communicate with a built in editor and voting tools. Roommate and I made it as a toy for a programming competition, so we weren't expecting grand things. It got grabbed by the 4chan crowd so... uh... yeah. I linked to the best ones for a reason ;)
Re: Ask YC: Have you built a good website that nobody visits?
#29http://cadmium.avecora.com/ Failed social network advertising system that targets advertisements to Facebook Application users, by profile keywords (interests, activities), age, gender, specific networks, etc. Also targets ads throughout the web in participating partner websites. Apparently no interest, and then Facebook launched Social Ads, with similar targeting features a month or so later. Was hoping to integrate…
Great sense of web design on all your sites, and being 15 is pretty impressive too :-)
I second this. Very clean but also dramatic. Good work on the logo, too.
The "learn more" section under "advertiser" states that "Cadmium provides a deep data collection system". Did you design something of an analytics dashboard as well? If it looks half as nice as the rest of the site, I'd be impressed.
Re: Ask YC: Have you built a good website that nobody visits?
#30http://www.mygrub.net
Like Yelp, but more for blogging about restaurants, instead of writing reviews. I noticed that people were using the 'review' space in Yelp to write about their own personal experiences which were irrelevant to the review. So, I thought there could be a market for this.
This was one of the very first websites I created and left it more or less half finished.