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Startup idea list

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Startup idea list

#51

Post by adsyoung »

mdemare wrote: post #49
adsyoung wrote: post #40

Macro news. I get the news in my RSS feeds and its damn near useless. These events tell me almost nothing about the world. The signal to noise ratio is not good. I don't want to know that another 6 people in iraq have been killed in some incident, I want to know whether the situation there is getting better or worse, is it happening in a new area than before, does it involve a new group of people...big picture stuff.…

For big picture news I find nothing beats The Economist. No more kidnapped babies or small plane crashes! I've stopped reading (online) newspapers, and I don't miss them at all. For subscribing to different issues - interesting! I'd like that too. In theory, you could subscribe to the RSS of the history page of wikinews/wikipedia. You'd get all the updates, but I'm not sure how useful or reader-friendly that is in pr…

Yeah, I'm mainly ranting at my feeds.

To some degree I'm wishing for a new style of journalism. Or at the least journalists actually learning to write headlines that make any sense and are useful.

The startup ideas there are:

- Subscribing to specific issues that you want to keep track of over time is something I want to see way more of.

- Sites that use data visualisations to increase understanding and perspective of...anything really, is something I've been thinking about. Think the world would be a better place if people had perspective and we have access to a lot of data now to play with.

Re: Startup idea list

#52

Post by far33d »

adsyoung wrote: post #51
mdemare wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For big picture news I find nothing beats The Economist. No more kidnapped babies or small plane crashes! I've stopped reading (online) newspapers, and I don't miss them at all. For subscribing to different issues - interesting! I'd like that too. In theory, you could subscribe to the RSS of the history page of wikinews/wikipedia. You'd get all the updates, but I'm not sure how useful or reader-friendly that is in pr…

Yeah, I'm mainly ranting at my feeds. To some degree I'm wishing for a new style of journalism. Or at the least journalists actually learning to write headlines that make any sense and are useful. The startup ideas there are: - Subscribing to specific issues that you want to keep track of over time is something I want to see way more of. - Sites that use data visualisations to increase understanding and perspective o…

A gripe... Journalists don't write headlines. Editors do.

Re: Startup idea list

#53

Post by chaostheory »

mdemare wrote: post #50
chaostheory wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

already has multiple implementations: http://www.in-duce.net/archives/locationbased_mobile_phone_g... there's one not listed, that's a variant of pokemon; pretty fun I forget the name (when I saw it, it was only available in japan - though the company is French)

Well, I know people are experimenting. But who will come up with the first big hit? I'd buy a compatible phone just to play.

there are already location based hit games... just not in the US.

This will probably stay the same for at least a few more years. This is due to a dif in culture. In most places in the US (aside from NY), most people have room and time to relax at home ( = using wii, 360, or PC for games). Until iphone and treo (and even now) most people don't really use their mobile phones for much... the reasons go on and on...

Re: Startup idea list

#54

Post by iamwil »

rms wrote: post #37
mdemare wrote: post #33

A social fashion site. Categorize your entire wardrobe with photos, favorite brand, sizes, date of purchase, photos of you wearing combinations, links to friends, that kind of stuff. If girls would program, such a site would have been invented around 1997 - instead we got slashdot.

I think there is a YC funded company doing this already, I'm sure someone here will remember the name. My fashion idea involves you being presented with a bunch of different outfits and picking which ones you like to train a recommendation engine. Then, the site recommends complete in-season outfits (with affiliate links)

Dammit, hook that crap up to my closet, so it prepares an outfit for me to wear every morning, instead of having to fumble around for that crap when I just woke up. If I don't like it, I can say, "another suggestion!"

And allow it to order one new outfit every 4-6 months based on which outfits I've been wearing, so I don't have to go to the mall to buy clothes.

Re: Startup idea list

#55

Post by iamwil »

chaostheory wrote: post #47
mdemare wrote: post #28

Location based gaming: playing games while moving around in your town with an iphone-like device (and having your location matter in-game.) You could port any kind of game to this concept: counterstrike, racing, even monopoly. Or pac-man, chasing your friends around the block. Or Sokoban, pushing giant boulders through Fifth Avenue. I had this idea six years ago. I'm appalled that it still hasn't happened. Of course,…

already has multiple implementations: http://www.in-duce.net/archives/locationbased_mobile_phone_g... there's one not listed, that's a variant of pokemon; pretty fun I forget the name (when I saw it, it was only available in japan - though the company is French)

The one you're talking about is MogiMogi, and it's on the list.

Re: Startup idea list

#57

Post by falsestprophet »

mdemare wrote: post #43

Oh, one more! A web consultancy that advises start-ups about i18n, translation, local laws, cultural differences, etc, so they wouldn't think: "Foreign countries are scary, let's conquer the domestic market first." Then we, the Dutch, could actually have used great sites like Amazon, Facebook, Ebay, and Craigslist instead of the terrible knock-offs that won here, solely because they were available earlier. Seriously,…

what are the dutch knockoffs? (so we can have a look)

Re: Startup idea list

#58

Post by ericb »

alaskamiller wrote: post #39
rms wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a YC funded company doing this already, I'm sure someone here will remember the name. My fashion idea involves you being presented with a bunch of different outfits and picking which ones you like to train a recommendation engine. Then, the site recommends complete in-season outfits (with affiliate links)

shoutfit

Shoutfit, based on its site being down, seems to have possibly failed to heed PG's "don't die" message." I like the name shoutfit, though... Catchy.

Re: Startup idea list

#60

Post by mikesabat »

staunch wrote: post #17

Here's one I wish someone would take from me and spend lots of time perfecting. I've been trying to get around to it, but have other stuff to do. It's on my "fun weekend hacks" list. I have a commute that's about 30 minutes each way and 1 hour lunch every day. That's two hours I want to fill by reading printouts of interesting text and listening to interesting audio on my iPod. For me PG essays would be the ultimate…

Man,

This is exactly what I am building - a website to create On-Demand Magazines from Internet content, like PG essays.

The splash page will be up in a day or 2 and I'll be collecting email addresses and feedback for the beta test.

The name of the site is ShelfMade.net. As soon as I have ANYTHING up I will get the link to YC. BTW if you can do this in a weekend, please get in touch.

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