Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams • Hacker News Board

Re: Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams

#61

Post by seantomburke » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 10:44 PM UTC

earlybike wrote: post #53

Few questions: 1. [solved] How does it work? I couldn't get it from the website: 'go/' is not a real DNS-resolved domain but some host alias?! 2. [solved] If 1 is true, how do you want to target smaller to medium sized companies which just have G-Suite, Slack but no real intranet/private net where you could create this host alias easily for the entire staff? Guess I got it wrong, so I am happy about a technical expla…

We have a mobile application on the product roadmap, so stay tuned!

For our business model, we’re focusing on making GoLinks integrate with all the great applications that you use everyday. We’re currently available in the Slack marketplace, and Okta, but soon to be in Attlasian’s marketplace, with more integrations in the way. The more integrations we can incorporate, the stronger the business.

Re: Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams

#62

Post by seantomburke » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 10:45 PM UTC

patrickxie wrote: post #41

Setting up the account to try this for our small team, we're running everything on different spreadsheets, pulling different sheets has been "hey X, can you get me the sheet url for Y again". Thanks for the startup friendly pricing model, keep up the great work!

Awesome! Definitely a problem a lot of companies have. Great to know we can help out.

Re: Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams

#63

Post by kyeong » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 11:03 PM UTC

usaphp wrote: post #36

kyeong wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The extension will read the text on screen to determine if there are any golinks so that it can change it to a click-through link. We know this may sound scary but rest assure that we do not have any ability to see or save any content. Your privacy is our top concern.

Correct me if I am wrong but if I visit my tax account page or something where the ssn is displayed - you can see it too?

Absolutely nothing on that page is sent to us. The only thing sent to our servers from the extension is when you create a golink using the extension. Your content is completely private to you.

Re: Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams

#64

Post by kyeong » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 11:06 PM UTC

pageandrew wrote: post #49

usaphp wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I am wrong but if I visit my tax account page or something where the ssn is displayed - you can see it too?

If you load a page with your SSN, the full page will probably be parsed by the extension in search of a "GoLink". Honestly, that's pretty unavoidable. The parser most likely needs to read every byte on the page to see if its part of a GoLink, and that includes the segment of bytes that includes your SSN. Any ad-blocker or otherwise page-modifying Chrome Extension requires the same permissions and likely does the same…

Thanks for pitching it! We do not send any content from the destination pages back to our servers.

Based on what we're hearing from the comments, we're planning to roll out a more detailed privacy page to build more confidence with our users.

Re: Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams

#65

Post by seantomburke » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 11:14 PM UTC

mooman219 wrote: post #47

Anecdote, you've done some Facebook ad targeting to Google employees. Clever. One of the ads in the Seattle area has a meet and greet of Google employees in the comment section haha.

We're still experimenting with our ad strategy, but one of our target markets are previous employees of companies who have used to have a go link system. It just happen to spread to current employees that use a go link system, probably through word of mouth.

Re: Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams

#66

Post by seantomburke » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 11:17 PM UTC

badfrog wrote: post #48

jazamora wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The browser extension is how you we're able to get "go/" links working in your browser without having any kind of network infrastructure. We have other integration options without the extension but its the recommended approach. https://www.golinks.io/support.php#technical

I think the question is why the extension needs that particular permission.

Specifically, it's to resolve any go links that exist in your browser, but we plan to explore the partial permissions options to have the user choose if they want this feature enabled or not. This way you could install the extension and have the golink redirection option without the "reading all data" permission.

Re: Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams

#67

Post by seantomburke » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 11:20 PM UTC

misiti3780 wrote: post #58

usaphp wrote: post #6

It asks me to install a browser extension, which asks for this permission: "It can: Read and change all your data on the websites you visit". Is it normal?

wow - nice catch - uninstalled! i really like the idea of the product and i used it for a few minutes, it works great but I do not feel comfortable with those permissions.

Stay tuned, we're working on creating a more granular permissions policy as this is a concern for many users. We can promise you that we don't store or read any information on the sites you visit, but of course it would make users feel more comfortable if they could read it themselves in the permissions when installing.

Re: Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams

#68

Post by benatkin » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 11:20 PM UTC

kyeong wrote: post #13

usaphp wrote: post #6

It asks me to install a browser extension, which asks for this permission: "It can: Read and change all your data on the websites you visit". Is it normal?

The extension will read the text on screen to determine if there are any golinks so that it can change it to a click-through link. We know this may sound scary but rest assure that we do not have any ability to see or save any content. Your privacy is our top concern.

Because extensions automatically update, I believe you do have the ability to do that. It would mean changing the extension and releasing an update. I don't think that you would do that, but it's technically possible.

Re: Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams

#69

Post by seantomburke » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 11:22 PM UTC

badfrog wrote: post #43

Detry322 wrote: post #17

If you want a simple (but bare-bones) self-hosted version of this service, check out the open source version I made a couple years back: https://github.com/Detry322/redisred Here’s a hubot plugin for slack: https://github.com/Detry322/hubot-redisred We use this extensively at MIT for HackMIT and the MIT Pokerbots competition, and best of all, it’s free. The deploy to Heroku button should “just work”.

I think Facebook's "bunny" system is also open source, but I have no idea how easy it is to set up.

We've actually curated a large list of the open source solutions on our blog. Find "The History of Go Links" article to see the full list!

Re: Launch HN: GoLinks (YC W19) – Internal short links for teams

#70

Post by benatkin » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 11:24 PM UTC

pageandrew wrote: post #49

usaphp wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I am wrong but if I visit my tax account page or something where the ssn is displayed - you can see it too?

If you load a page with your SSN, the full page will probably be parsed by the extension in search of a "GoLink". Honestly, that's pretty unavoidable. The parser most likely needs to read every byte on the page to see if its part of a GoLink, and that includes the segment of bytes that includes your SSN. Any ad-blocker or otherwise page-modifying Chrome Extension requires the same permissions and likely does the same…

If someone broke into their account somehow and published a version to the Chrome Web Store, they could do that.

I suggest adding an alert anytime a new version of the extension is published, or if you already get an email from Chrome Web Store each time a new extension is published or the email addresses of the Chrome Web Store account are changed (npm does this I believe), to make sure it gets sent to an inbox that's actively monitored.