
Ask HN: Can you try my web app beta and give me some feedback? - sbashyal
I am nearing launch for my web app and it is currently in Private Beta. I would like to request HN to give it a try and provide some feedback.<p>Here is the link: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;aiphotosearch.com
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pedalpete
Why oh why would you put it behind an email wall? Why would you need my email
to show me "what I assume" is image search.

My feedback. Ok, I can search for stock photos. But can't I already do that?
There are lots of stock photo searches. But this one uses AI. So what?

Ok, let's see how your solution is better than anybody else. Oh, I can't you
want my email, and I'm not really that bothered.

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sbashyal
tldr; I solved a problem that I had. Would love to get HN community's
feedback.

Appreciate your feedback. I have not launched the app yet, it is in private
beta. This is a hackers community. I am looking for fellow hackers willing to
go through the e-mail wall to try what I have built and provide feedback.

 _There are lots of stock photo searches. But this one uses AI. So what?_ I
have been buying stock photos a lot these past year. Every time, I have spent
a lot of time (and the time value of money) finding the photo that I like. If
you value your time at $100 per hour, the real cost of the stock photo that
took you 30 minutes to find is the stock photo cost + $50.

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pedalpete
As far as the cost being $50 in time. You haven't answered the question as to
why AI is the answer.

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sbashyal
Good point! I am planning to add this description to the site as well.

There are two problems in stock photo search. First, there are multiple
marketplaces with different inventory and price structures. So if you are
looking for stock photos that are not very common, you need to go to multiple
marketplaces, search and comb through the results. We solve this by using APIs
from those marketplaces to bring results for your search so you do not need to
go and repeat your search at multiple marketplaces.

This leads us to the second problem. You now have a lot of photos to comb
through. This is where the AI comes in. You "like" few of the photos in the
search result that are close to what you are looking for and the AI learns
your preferences to bring the results that are similar to the ones you have
liked.

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cocktailpeanuts
You are wasting your precious chance on the front page of HN, especially when
you're asking for help.

I'm guessing the bounce rate is like 99% right now.

If I were you, I would just let people access it if they came from HN referer

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detaro
(clickable link: [http://aiphotosearch.com](http://aiphotosearch.com))

If you give us a demo page to try without signing up (at a private URL and
with a clear time limit if you want), you are going to get a lot more
feedback. Or at least show what we are going to get inside. And don't ask for
a twitter account during signup.

~~~
sbashyal
Thank you for the feedback! Just removed the twitter handle field in the form.
The email is just to send a private invitation - within a minute.

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sdernley
I did a few quick searches and it seemed to narrow down what I would want
pretty well. Good job.

2 things I noticed though:

\- If I do a new search for something I've already searched for, it doesn't
work, nothing happens (console says 500 error). \- You have an about section
that is empty, not sure if you meant to remove it.

~~~
sbashyal
Glad that you liked it! Also, found and fixed the bug causing problems with
repeat searches.

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macscam
you can just type a fake email and get to the actual site.

1\. change the title, it's still "My ASP.NET Application"\

2\. It works OK (searching for 'pizza' shows some photos) and the design is
pretty nice. I think you could improve it by reducing the number of different
fonts you're using.

~~~
sbashyal
1\. Fixed the title 2\. Initial result is regular image search, you get
results based on your keywords. From then onwards, you can like the photos you
somewhat like and click Refine Results. The AI algorithm analyzes the photos
you have liked vs. the others and brings results based on that. You are
basically training your model on the fly. 3\. Good observation on too many
fonts, will work on it

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eecks
I went to the site with the intention of helping you and giving feedback but
it's not accessible without signing up

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samblr
A similar app can be built using google image search api ? how does it
differentiate in feature set ?

~~~
sbashyal
Lets say you are looking for a stock photo of a dog to use in your landing
page like this one: [http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-110687501/stock-photo-
dog-ab...](http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-110687501/stock-photo-dog-above-
banner-cute-jack-russell-terrier-with-empty-white-banner-mockup-template-for-
gift-certificate.html?src=h0kA1QuwvOuIOUP6QpVF0g-1-71)

Google Image Search API does not let you search multiple Stock Photo providers
for photos. We are using APIs from multiple vendors to fetch the stock photos.

Secondly, our AI is geared towards stock photos. You can start searching for
"dog" in aiphotosearch.com, then like a couple of photos that are closest to
the one you are looking for and then refine results. We train a model that
"understands" what you liked vs discarded and uses that to bring more results.

