

Show HN: Enterprise company search engine for product outreach/sales - dinkman
http://www.whatisnova.com

======
jcr
I like the simple home page with just a search box, and the idea of a way to
find similar companies seems really useful.

1.) The site does not function without javascript. In most cases, this won't
matter, but in some cases it will be a non-starter. This often causes
significant accessibility problems for the blind.

1.1) I realize you're doing just about everything in javascript, but this
means there is no way to share a link to a particular search. Using url
parameters like most other search engines solves this issue.

2.) The modal and forced email entry when trying to "view more" and "view
details" is unexpected and unpleasant. Though you certainly want to get email
addresses from users, you're violating the principle of least surprise here,
and many users will be uncomfortable with handing out their email address.

3.) The text/copy shown when forcing email entry is coarse and uninformative:

> _" Great! We're happy you're enjoying our product. Please enter your email
> address to continue using Nova."_

Is there a reason why a user would want to give you their email address? If
you can communicate a reason, it's a better approach.

BTW, you might want to remove the "no@example.org" address I entered for
testing, and you might want to do some verification of entered addresses (not
easy, but doable).

4.) After getting the "Thanks!" on email entry, the "view more" and "view
details" links still don't work.

5.) Your database of businesses is too incomplete, and your similarity
algorithm needs improvement. (Note: a small number of database entries may be
entirely forgivable if you're just starting out and are looking at your
lengthy todo list with lots of data you need to import ;-). I tried searching
on two company names, [Rocket EMS] and [Information Handling Services] as well
as the common abbreviation for the later [IHS]. The first (rocketems.com) is a
newer and specialized local company, and the second (www.ihs.com) is very well
known and has been in business for more than 50 years. You returned no results
for the two company names, and mostly incorrect results for [IHS].

(sorry, reading Matt Cutts of Google and similar search related sites has me
in the habit of using square brackets [] around queries)

You did locate one of the many subsidiary sites (brand names basically) of
IHS, namely "IHS Engineering360 Media Solutions", but not the parent company.
Though the subsidiary site does earn some of its living through "Marketing &
Advertising" (this tag is most likely derived from SIC codes), it's not
exactly correct or complete. Since you seem to be basing your "similarity"
measure on SIC codes, the "similar" companies listed are very dissimilar.

I'm not entirely certain what I should have expected from the phrase, "find
similar companies" so maybe my expectations were too high?

Well, it may be a little rough in a few places at present, but a company
similarity search engine seems really useful to me, and I wish you luck with
it.

------
mblevin
What data are you ingesting to build similarity and how are you creating your
index? All the searches I did are way off.

For example, when I put in my company - Indicative - you identify us
correctly, but I don't see any other web/mobile analytics companies, only a
bunch of completely unrelated companies - everything from digital coupons to
banner ad A/B testing.

~~~
bpirtle84
We are working on putting together a more detailed category list so we can
drill into deeper comparisons than "Internet" for software/internet companies.
This is a difficult task since often that information is not readily available
to be ingested via algorithm. Any ideas about how we might accomplish this are
appreciated!

------
talonx
View Details always pops-up the dialog asking for email even after it has been
entered.

