

Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS - aaln
https://github.com/Aaln/whit
Whit is an open source SMS service, which allows you to query CrunchBase, Wikipedia, and several other data APIs.<p>Simply text 917-791-3098.<p>Special commands include: 
P:'personName',
C:'companyName', 
S:'stockTicker', 
W:'wikiSearch'<p>ex. queries: 'p:bill gates', 'c:apple', 's:fb', 'w:philosophy'
======
mmahemoff
How about supporting multiple queries from a single SMS, given that most users
are probably capped on number of outgoing messages, but not incoming.

~~~
aaln
That's a great feature we haven't considered implementing yet, we will focus
on it asap. Thanks!

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elleferrer
This reminds me of Google Talk Guru, the Google bot that lets you ask simple
questions. It was an experimental service a few years ago. I'm not sure if
it's still accepting invitations, but it still works for me in Google Talk or
Gmail Chat: You can try to "friend" the bot by adding guru@googlelabs.com to
your contact list. I sometimes still use it for a quick reference.

~~~
guiguy
Which in turn reminds me of similar xmpp/jabber account: im@ddg.gg

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wicknicks
Very cool! You might also want to add weather, amazon/yelp ratings for
products/places, directions from place a to b and location based search
(coffee near staples center, la). Would be super useful for people on the move
without access to a data plan.

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yefim323
Cool service. However, it's generally bad practice to reveal your API keys.

~~~
aaln
Thanks! Just fixed.

~~~
pudquick
Careful. All you've done is revise it. I could post a link or two that easily
reveals it in your git repository revision history (6sus.. and 794e..).

Instead, I'll post this link: <https://help.github.com/articles/remove-
sensitive-data>

~~~
drivebyacct2
(useful link, but it's probably easier just to expire it on CrunchBase and
generate a new one, if they didn't already do that)

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vxNsr
Very cool, right now this is only in US?

Do you have any plans to scale it here or are you only showing it as a proof-
of-concept and will be shortly moving it to developing countries (where data
service is less common)?

Also, what's the point of the link at the end, if you're using SMS for this
type of info it seems kinda unlikely that you have a phone that can handle
data...

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asmosoinio
aalns [dead] comment:

\---

Whit is an open source SMS service, which allows you to query CrunchBase,
Wikipedia, and several other data APIs. Simply text 917-791-3098. Special
commands include: P:'personName', C:'companyName', S:'stockTicker',
W:'wikiSearch' ex. queries: 'p:bill gates', 'c:apple', 's:fb', 'w:philosophy'

------
rpicard
I use something similar that I created all the time. Mine connects to the
DuckDuckGo API to pull the Zero-click info which is sourced from Wikipedia,
Crunchbase, and a bunch of others. I never thought to open source it, but
maybe I'll take a few minutes to do that soon.

~~~
aaln
Using the DuckDuckGo api sounds really interesting because Google just shut
off it's SMS service. Please send link when possible.

Whit is meant for anyone to scale for access to any kind of data through sms.

~~~
rpicard
I have the code up on GitHub, but the server I've been using to host the
application myself isn't up right now. I have to debug some problem, but I
don't think there is anything wrong with the code (just my deployment
process).

Here it is: <https://github.com/rpicard/text-ddg>

~~~
rpicard
Okay, it's working now. I just needed to bind Gunicorn to 0.0.0.0 so it would
be externally visible.

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gdonelli
is this thought for developing countries?

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aaln
It is and will be scaled. Half the world still does not have 3g access through
smartphones.

~~~
jckt
holy crap, I was writing a very similar app months ago, based on very similar
premises, but I sorta gave up (actually got too busy as well, etc) once I read
that actually the whole world is going 3g, even most developing countries are
experiencing rapid 3g growth[1].

In any case, this looks very cool, seems better-thought-out than my original
project. Good luck!

[1]: [http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-
mobile...](http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-
stats/b#mobilebroadband)

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suhastech
If you're in India, Intuit has an app ecosystem built around this idea:
<http://txtweb.com/>

~~~
suyash
Very interesting, this can be great for people who don't have data plan but
can still get useful information by sms. Where does it say it's by Intuit, I
don't see Intuit mentioned anywhere?

~~~
suhastech
It is [http://www.nextbigwhat.com/intuit-launches-txtweb-sms-
platfo...](http://www.nextbigwhat.com/intuit-launches-txtweb-sms-platform-for-
mobile-app-developers-297/)

PS: I wrote an app on the ecosystem to manage your email
<http://suhastech.com/mail>

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abava
There is a conceptually similar stuff for Twitter: <http://t411.linkstore.ru>

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xur17
Great work, it looks really neat!

side note - I think your server's down, I'm not getting any response from it.

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ekn
This is similar to the service offered by <http://55444.in> in India.

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benpbenp
Is this named after Whit Sunday (today this year, 19 May) or is that just a
coincidence?

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aaronsnoswell
Just tried to use your service from Australia and got no response :(

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aaln
Sorry, service was turned off momentarily, feel free to try it again!

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noahklein94
This looks really promising. Will you ever add support for email?

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aaln
Accessing email through SMS is already widely popular. This is meant to scale
for any kind of general data.

However, we are adding a service that will email all of your queries to you at
the end of the day.

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darkmuck
this would likely be extremely slow, but what about doing some form of TCP/IP
via SMS, thereby using SMS as a "real" data connection

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suyash
What are you using for SMS? Twillio?

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aaln
Yep, we built whit at the techcrunch hackathon and twilio was a sponsor.

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dror82
Nice Idea.

I'm sure you can spare the prefix letter with a little effort.

You should try and make it as a plugin for existing IM app (e.g. Whatsapp)

~~~
aaln
Agreed, the prefix letters are going to go.

