

Show HN: The way I'll beat Facebook? - talhof8

Hi!
3 months ago, while I was exploring my Facebook newsfeed, was the first time I really got bored of Facebook. I started to wonder why, and to be honest - I haven't figured it out yet. But I did start to think of the gaps Facebook doesn't cover. Maybe I'm wrong, but one of the things that came up to me is the subject of interests and users will to use social networks in order to get to know new friends (real ones), in an efficient-good way. I thought combining those two gaps is a really good idea.
So I started to develop that big idea (double meaning) - interests based social network.
The site is in a quite advanced stage but some key features are still missing. Even though, I released an early sign-up landing page (www.itimdi.com), in order to see the amount of demand on this one.
I'd like to get your feedback on that project, please.
Thanks in advanced!
======
DanBC
The text on the left hand side is nice and readable. Big, set out nicely on a
grey background with a bit of dropshadow to help keep it readable against the
background.

The text on the right hand side is a bit small for me. The background image
and the small size make that text hard to read for me.

There are a few typos and errors in the text; eg "How do we different from
other social networks?".

The idea is probably good. But I'm unsure of a few things. I connect to other
people interested in things I'm interested. If one of those people is sharing
images and video will I see all of those images, or just the ones relevant to
my interest?

Imagine I'm interested in netball, canoeing, and real ale. I connect to Bob
because he's interested in Real Ale and Dog Showing. Bob posts a lot of images
of his Dalmatian at various shows. Do I see all those dog show photos?

EDIT: When I'm using Pinterest I get a lot of stuff that I'm not really
interested in. And I know that I'm missing a lot of stuff that I would be
interested in.

I pin stuff to a board called "Humanitarian", for example. I'd really like to
have other similar pins shown to me. So if I could have a list presented of
"here's some other tags / boards / users you may be interested in [developing
world] [africa] [unicef] [unhcr]" that'd be great. I don't know if that's an
idea you can use.

It's a nice idea. I'm not sure how it'll work to compete against facebook,
because FB allows people to set up little groups.

~~~
talhof8
First, thanks a lot for your honest feedback! I resized the right hand side
font-size and corrected the errors in the text (and will keep doing that).

About your first question: You'll see the interest related images, though if
you'll get inside his profile you'll see all of them.

About the 2nd one: As said above, you will only see the interest related pics
on your feed, that means you won't see the dogs pics at all (on your feed).
Getting into his profile will make you see all of his collections.

Your suggestion may fit, and if so, will probably be active on a later stage.
I can ensure you that most of facebook's users do not use this feature. Even
if they do, it's far away from being the feature I'd like it to be.

Thanks again!

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joshmlewis
I would be careful saying that you'll beat Facebook, because then people
expect this to really rival Facebook when it can't at this stage. PG
recommends this when going after a problem, don't tell investors that you're
tackling email because then they will expect to see massive results and
constantly compare, on the flip side, take one part of it and get that down
and go from there.

~~~
talhof8
Ofcourse I don't expect to rival Facebook at this stage, though, I do think
this idea worth developing it. Thanks for your feedback!

~~~
joshmlewis
It's ok to be in your mind say I want to beat Facebook, I'm not trying to
discourage you from beating Facebook, I don't even have a Facebook, but when
you tell the masses that you're going to beat Facebook it burns an image into
their mind that this is going to be better than Facebook right off.

~~~
talhof8
Alright, got your point and did a little adjustment. Thanks :)

------
alex_g
Look at it this way- if nobody ever tries to beat Facebook, it'd pretty sad.
Anything is better than nothing.

First things first, name needs to change. It's not catchy and I can't see half
the country saying "I'll add you on itimdi". That's very important. Otherwise,
I can't say much because I haven't seen the site yet.

~~~
talhof8
I see the issue with name, but I think it's pretty marginal at this point.
I'll consider to release some pics of the product really soon. Thanks!

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dholowiski
The most important thing Facebook has right now is a critical mass of users.
You can't really set out to beat that, you have to sneak up on them with a
really good product. How about something that unifies all the Bio monitoring
devices, or cloud services, or even social networks?

~~~
talhof8
I really don't expect to see 1 milion people signed-up, or even 100,000, in
the next couple of weeks, but, I think that if people like that idea and are
exposed to it, they will sign-up. so it's worth trying, isn't it?

BTW, what do you think of that project?

~~~
idoh
It's hard to judge the project because it's just a LaunchRock landing page.

~~~
talhof8
I agree. Therefore, I think I'll add some snapshots or something like that.
sign-up and try it once it'll release.

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mapster
Facebooks problem as I see it, ergo my problem with Facebook is the daily or
hourly updates of family and friends is overboard. If I check Facebook 2x /
month, I would like to see a summary of BIG events and skip all the minor
posts, shares, and comments.

~~~
talhof8
I didn't think about it actually, but it sounds a good idea. What would you
consider BIG? Most "liked"?

------
talhof8
Hi, I'd like to ask you to read, please, the "more info" section and tell me
what do you think about the basic idea? Do you have any improvement
suggestions? Thanks in advance!

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yashchandra
Is this your landing page ? I am asking since you contact email is :
contact@gmail.com ? \- Times Sq. Background is too flashy. I suggest change it
\- Due to the background, the page fonts are hard to read. For example, the
error message is in red which does not mingle well with the times sq.
background. \- "meet and interact with new friends, easily and efficiently".
How easily ? How efficiently ? Just saying "easily and efficiently" does not
really mean much. Either remove those words or add more specifics.

~~~
talhof8
Yes, talhof8@gmail.com is my private email. You are welcome to check it.
Actually, the points you brought up sound pretty relevent, so I'll consider
it. What kind of background do you think will be better?

Thanks!

