

Show HN: Start to ambitious #1, addon to Google faster - devinrhode2
http://TheScoutApp.com

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alanh
"Show HN: Start to ambitious #1, addon to Google faster" is a nonsense title.

"Start to ambitious" does not parse as English and adding "#1" does not help;
"addon" is also not a verb, and if we substitute "add on", the phrase "add on
to Google faster" still does not mean anything.

Is this petty? I don’t know. It bothers me to have a completely inscrutable
title on the home page.

 _Edit_ After looking at the page, it would seem this is, indeed, an
incredibly lazy submission title: It gets its name from PG’s essay on
ambitious start-ups; replacing Google is ambitious idea #1, and apparently
building Yahoo! Axis on Google counts as insanely ambitious. "Addon to Google
faster" is supposed to convey "extension (?) for faster Googling."

On the linked page, you will find the odd choice of Myriad — Apple’s constant
ad-copy font — and Jobsian phrasing (“insanely great”). Apple has _nothing_ to
do with this. Then you’ll note the poorly-chosen phrase “searching Google” —
no, you’re searching the Internet _with_ Google. Results are not limited to
Google.

I suppose one could say I am being cruel, but there are maybe 20 words here
and most of them are erroneous or poorly chosen. I don’t think it’s “just” a
language barrier; PG’s essay was in English, and yet even the phrase lifted
from there managed to corrupt _all_ the words!

~~~
jaredsohn
add-on-->"extension (?)"

Add-on is a term used by most browsers that includes both plug-ins (such as
Flash, QuickTime, Adobe Reader, etc. that are included in a webpage via object
or embed tags) and extensions (Adblock Plus, FlashBlock, Ghostery, etc. which
alter the UI and/or inject JavaScript). The term doesn't seem exactly right
here, though, since I don't think Google uses the term at all for Chrome.

Edit: Originally was going to write that it was a Firefox term (at least with
respect to browsers), but wanted to publish and hoped I could research the
other browsers before someone responded. After a little more searching it
seems like Opera uses the term add-on (<http://www.opera.com/addons/>) as
well, although I don't think it includes plug-ins. Regardless, the use of the
term in most cases is likely due to Firefox.

~~~
alanh
"most browsers"?

No.

I can only think of Firefox. Certainly not Safari or Chrome. I don’t think
Opera or IE do, either.

And this is a Chrome extension.

 _Edit:_ Sure, though, add-on (which needs the hyphen) is far from the worst
thing here :)

 _Edit:_ Okay, Firefox & Opera. That’s a total of 21% market share. :-/

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carlsfinch
Wow, guys don't be so harsh. Remember what Y Combinator is about. Sharing
great ideas, being ambitious and chasing that dream of becoming a valuable
asset.

First, how many even looked passed the title and downloaded this and tried it
out? Sure, we can say it's a completely erroneous ambitious title, but c'mon
look at the idea behind it, and the possibility before you go retorting and
slamming down someone's dream.

I tried out this app, and I know this person behind the app, and I have to say
honestly minus the years of experience that the developer obviously lacks he
could potentially become an extremely valuable asset in the valley.

Why? Because not only is he ambitious, and has a vision for what he wants, but
he continuous to work at it, continuous to learn despite the nay Sayers and is
constantly asking for the advice on how to make his app better. Sure, it's
obvious he's no Jobs, Zuck, or Gates but you don't need to be a genius with
years of experience and the terminology of an Oxford English Professor, and
the calculations of an MIT Professor. You need a dream and the willing to not
give up no matter what people say or throw at you, and more importantly be
able to quickly adapt to change.

Let's be frank, this is not even beta ready and is probably released way too
early, but for what it could potentially become.

It'll eventually be a top extension many people would download if the
developer put in the right time, resources and people behind it.

------
jaredsohn
Here's the author's description of the site from a meetup group page (I
remembered seeing this there recently.): <http://www.meetup.com/Startup-
Grind/members/15953101/>

"It helps you get answers much faster with Google. The Chrome Extension
immediately opens the first result when you search, and places your search
results on the left in a sidebar. You can view 5 results in just 5 clicks, as
opposed to 10 with regular google."

Just adding this text to the page (ideally right now while it is on the front
page of Hacker News) would go a long way toward making it clear what the
extension does.

~~~
devinrhode2
Thank you. I'm so insistent on getting short copy, I shoot myself in the foot,
as others have pointed out.

The next thing I plan on doing is taking the screenshot, and making is a auto-
play as a screencast, just like path (<http://path.com>)

------
irrationalfab
Thank you for making this. I like it and I will give it a try, nonetheless the
first impression is good.

As the other comments point out the copy is very bad. I think that you should
improve it and that HN commenters should check things out before writing. To
be honest I've only tried because of the backslash (I don't like to install
extensions from non authoritative sources).

Finally, this is a nice extension... but if a frame is your concept of
ambition, you should reread PG's essay.

\---

This is an extension that replaces google with a sidebar loading immediately
the first page that you search. It allows to browse among the search results
quickly.

------
Killswitch
There's nothing about your page at first glance that tells me what you're
doing, most people will click the link, see something trying to install, and
discard/close the window.

Might want to fix that.

~~~
devinrhode2
Point blank, you hit the nail on it's head. :(

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streptomycin
So they reinvented this? <http://www-
archive.mozilla.org/projects/search/sidebar.jpg>

~~~
devinrhode2
No, this is entirely different than anything I can tell is happening here.
Scout creates a 'smartframe' (a fixed iframe - sorta like a virtual tab. any
site can be framed, and you're authenticated on the page too)

Basically, the whole page is viewable, you can interact with it, and it looks
great too!

~~~
streptomycin
No, you just described the old Mozilla sidebar. You could put anything there
and interact with it. If you weren't around for that era, just look at this:
[https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=...](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=993&bih=551&q=mozilla+sidebar&gbv=2&oq=mozilla+sidebar&aq=f&aqi=g-S1&aql=&gs_l=img.3..0i24.1441.3016.0.3120.15.9.0.6.6.0.76.499.9.9.0...0.0.3dFxAGLiAQA)

------
steve8918
Sorry, but it doesn't show me what this actually does, and there is zero
chance I'm just going to allow an extension to be installed on my browser.

Also, "insanely great" is a Steve Jobs trademark phrase in spirit, although
probably not legally. Regardless, stealing his catch phrase for this mundane
app sticks out like a sore thumb, and I would change that if I were you.

------
jat850
You likely are already aware of this, and maybe your selected domain name is
not your permanent long-term choice for the project, but "scoutapp.com" (also
named Scout) is a rather popular analytics package. It may lead to some
branding confusion, even though the product goals are clearly different.

~~~
devinrhode2
yeah... it was a hasty decision. spending time thinking about names just feels
unproductive I guess

------
jlarocco
I'm not really seeing what's going on here.

What is the app doing?

~~~
ernestipark
It's a split pane Google with the results on the left and the page on the
right.

~~~
devgutt
This would be good for HN as well

~~~
jaredsohn
Like this? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2245271>

~~~
devgutt
Very cool, thanks.

