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Launch HN: Phind 3 (YC S22) – Every answer is a mini-app

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Re: Launch HN: Phind 3 (YC S22) – Every answer is a mini-app

#21

Post by personjerry »

The problem is I don't think every answer needs a mini-app. I'd argue there are very few answers that do.

For example, it feels like Google's featured snippet (quick answer box) but expanded. But the thing is, many people don't like the feature snippet, and there's a reason it doesn't appear for many queries - it doesn't contribute meaningfully to those.

This functionality is doing exactly the opposite of the process of building good web apps: Rather than "unpacking functionality" and making it specific for an audience, it "packs" all functionality into a generalized use case, at the cost of becoming extremely mediocre for each use case, which makes it precisely worse than any other tool you'd use for that job.

As a specific example, I clicked your apartments in LES search (https://www.phind.com/search/find-me-options-for-a-72e019ce-...) and it shows us just 4 listings...? It shows some arbitrary subset of all things I could find on StreetEasy, and then provides a subset of the search functionality, losing things such as days on market, neighborhood, etc.

It's a cool demo, but "on-demand software" is exactly "Solution-In-Search-of-a-Problem".

The difficult part you need to ask is, like feature snippet, what are the questions worth solving with this, and is the pain point big enough that it's worth solving?

Re: Launch HN: Phind 3 (YC S22) – Every answer is a mini-app

#22

Post by WillAdams »

rushingcreek wrote: post #3
WillAdams wrote: post #2

Tried the prompt: >A geometry app with nodes which interact based on their coordinates which may be linked to describe lines or arcs with side panels for variables and programming constructs. which resulted in: https://www.phind.com/search/a-geometry-app-with-nodes-ed416... which didn't seem workable at all, and notable was lacking in a side panel.

Hi, I just clicked the link and it's showing up for me. Could you refresh?

While I initially noted it as not showing up, after a while, things did appear, but what I'm getting isn't what I would consider usable, and in particular, the requested areas for values and variables do _not_ appear at the side as requested and it's not workable for my needs/expectations.

Re: Launch HN: Phind 3 (YC S22) – Every answer is a mini-app

#23

Post by rushingcreek »

WillAdams wrote: post #22
rushingcreek wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I just clicked the link and it's showing up for me. Could you refresh?

While I initially noted it as not showing up, after a while, things did appear, but what I'm getting isn't what I would consider usable, and in particular, the requested areas for values and variables do _not_ appear at the side as requested and it's not workable for my needs/expectations.

I agree that this answer was a bit wacky. Phind Fast is the fast and free model. Selecting Phind Large, GPT-5.1, and Claude models would be better for a modeling task like this.

Re: Launch HN: Phind 3 (YC S22) – Every answer is a mini-app

#24

Post by rushingcreek »

personjerry wrote: post #21

The problem is I don't think every answer needs a mini-app. I'd argue there are very few answers that do. For example, it feels like Google's featured snippet (quick answer box) but expanded. But the thing is, many people don't like the feature snippet, and there's a reason it doesn't appear for many queries - it doesn't contribute meaningfully to those. This functionality is doing exactly the opposite of the process…

Thanks for the feedback, and I agree that it is very much early days for this product category. To be clear, our goal is to make the software specific for an audience: you. What's exciting, though, is that models are rapidly improving at building on-demand software and this will directly benefit Phind. There are still many edge cases, but I think it will get better quickly.

Re: Launch HN: Phind 3 (YC S22) – Every answer is a mini-app

#25

Post by omani »

hey michael, long term phind user here. phind became absolute sh*t. almost every answer is wrong. web search should be on by default to get accurate info. but even then is ends up hallucinating a lot.

if every response starts with "You're absolutely right -- ..." you know phind is hallucinating and you can immediately close the tab.

Re: Launch HN: Phind 3 (YC S22) – Every answer is a mini-app

#26

Post by rushingcreek »

omani wrote: post #25

hey michael, long term phind user here. phind became absolute sh*t. almost every answer is wrong. web search should be on by default to get accurate info. but even then is ends up hallucinating a lot. if every response starts with "You're absolutely right -- ..." you know phind is hallucinating and you can immediately close the tab.

hey, sorry to hear that. web search is on by default, but we had some teething issues with it in the last hour. it should be fully fixed now. can you send some links that failed?

Re: Launch HN: Phind 3 (YC S22) – Every answer is a mini-app

#27

Post by nextaccountic »

rushingcreek wrote: post #26
omani wrote: post #25

hey michael, long term phind user here. phind became absolute sh*t. almost every answer is wrong. web search should be on by default to get accurate info. but even then is ends up hallucinating a lot. if every response starts with "You're absolutely right -- ..." you know phind is hallucinating and you can immediately close the tab.

hey, sorry to hear that. web search is on by default, but we had some teething issues with it in the last hour. it should be fully fixed now. can you send some links that failed?

people often can't share their searches due to privacy concerns, maybe you should at least provide an email address so they can share it privately? rather than posting on HN (going forward, does you app have a feedback button in each search? if not it should)

anyway I think you need better QA processes

Re: Launch HN: Phind 3 (YC S22) – Every answer is a mini-app

#29

Post by htshnr »

vector_spaces wrote: post #17

OK, I've had a chance to play with it in earnest. First: my sense is that for most use cases, this will begin to feel gimmicky rather quickly and that you will do better by specializing rather than positioning yourself next to ChatGPT, which answers my questions without too much additional ceremony. If you have any diehard users, I suspect they will cluster around very particular use cases, say business users trying…

First time I'm seeing valid business advice on HN - unlike the infamous Dropbox comment haha :) But I strongly agree with the above advice on specializing for a vertical and hope the founders take it seriously!
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