

Ask YC: Review my app (Panoye) - puzz
http://www.panoye.com

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icky
This is neat.. you should sell ad space to travel companies. (Hell, you could
even sell travel ads based on the location that the user is currently
viewing)...

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epi0Bauqu
I love panoramas! A few usability comments:

1) I would really like the "hand" mode to be the default. It took me a while
to figure out I could change it.

2) I would like an easy way to load the whole picture in my browser at full
resolution so that I can scroll horizontally at will.

3) Related, one approach to 2 that I've done on another site is to
automatically resize the picture to the maximum height of the user's browser
when they go in view full screen mode.

~~~
puzz
The "hand vs scroll" issue is a problem. I asked a few of my friends but the
results were 50:50. That's why I'm still not sure which one to make the
default.

Anyway, thank for your suggestions!

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huhtenberg
Hand mode needs to be default.

It's a commonly accepted UI paradigm that the mouse needs to be 'engaged' (via
a button press) in order to have a functional effect on the UI. In the non-
engaged mode mouse is only used for _indicating_ otherwise actionable UI
elements.

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dazzawazza
Nice, my first thought was 'how do I photograph a panorama?' after 20 seconds
on the landing page I couldn't see how so I left.

Good luck.

~~~
puzz
If you still want to try with panoramic photography, here is a very short
tutorial on how to stitch them:

[http://panoye.blogspot.com/2008/02/tutorial-panoramic-
photos...](http://panoye.blogspot.com/2008/02/tutorial-panoramic-photos-
with.html)

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mdolon
I like it. Seems like a useful tool that has been pretty well executed.

Now some observations:

\- It's hard to tell who posted a panorama - the only information about the
user is their image

\- Is each person's rating posted as a comment? This could be problematic if
hundreds of people end up rating a panorama

\- I'm not too sure your permalink structure is good for the long run (using
folders, categorization will make it easier for search traffic to find more
content)

These are just my observations, please take them lightly. Like I said, the
site is nice overall and can be a useful utility for those interested in
panoramas.

Best of luck!

~~~
puzz
Thanks for your observations. I'll make a panorama author link more visible.

Permalinks are a problem, I agree. I would, for example, like to have links
like panoye.com/country/city/panorama-name.html but the problem is with google
maps. When you signup for your gmap key - you have ONE key for ONE directory
on the web server (for example country/city/). It means that I should have
(and use) houndreds of gmap API keys :(

Thank you again for your comment!

~~~
seano
You can just get the API key for your domain name, <http://panoye.com/>, and
it will work for all directories in that domain.

~~~
puzz
I tried it once when starting with gmaps API. But, I probably did something
wrong then.

Thank you (both) for pointing out that I was wrong. I'll look at the
javascript API again and see what can be done.

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buss
First: How do you pronounce this? Pano-eye? Pan-oy? Pan-o-yay?

Second: I wanted to turn back three times before I created an account because:

1\. Why should I have to create an account just to upload a picture? I don't
care about people knowing who took the picture, especially since I only have a
couple panoramas. Give people the choice of creating an account or uploading
anonymously.

2\. You want my email? Why would you need this?

3\. You emailed me an auto-generated password. Seriously? People will either
forget the password and keep doing password recovery or searching through
their email for the password or immediately change this to whatever password
they usually use on the internet. There is no sensitive information on this
site, there's no sense getting in somebody's way and making it a multi-step
process for your users to use the password they want to use.

Third: The map on the upload panorama page needs to let me search for
locations. I know the name of the place that I took the picture at, why are
you making me find it manually?

Fourth: If you screw up orienting the picture (the < 6 deg. error) then you
can't get past it and have to re-upload the image. Give me a "start over"
button for orienting. Also, I think I oriented the wrong direction because
it's telling me that Epcot in Orlando, FL is north of Gainesville, FL, but
it's actually south. Either I screwed up or your direction finding is wrong.

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parenthesis
It would be good if when you zoom in on the Google map on the front page, and
then go to a panorama from it, and then use the browser's back button, that
the Google map would still be how you left it -- so that you can then look at
other nearby panoramas).

In a similar vein, the Google map shown to the right of a panorama, should (be
able to) locate all the other panoramas too, for the same reason of being able
to see what else is nearby.

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puzz
Thank you all for your comments/suggestions/criticism. I added all suggestions
in my TO-DO list, and will look to implement them as soon as possible.

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siong1987
Your web app is cool. Two ways to survice: Get acquired or die because Google
implements the same feature.

Anyway, I really live it. It is really stunning and amazing. But, you should
at least let users know how to upload their panoramas. Put a big "Upload"
button in your frontpage.

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satyajit
The flash viewer is neat. Esp beause its keystroke activated (arrow &
ctrl/shift). Why there is no keystroke for the default viewer? (or is there?)
I have seen such tools on real estate sites (360˚ view). This one looks very
neat though.

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livz
Nice. Be cool if just above the Google map you could enter a place name rather
than clicking through the map. So i type "Glasgow" and it brings stuff near to
there.

Great work though! Still looking through it.

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antirez
This is really cool and interesting. Still I'm not sure it will be easy to
bring to the masses. People like much more to put useless photos of their cats
on flickr.

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puzz
"People like much more to put useless photos of their cats on flickr."

Right :) In fact this is why it is an "app", not a "startup". I have no idea
on how to bring it the masses and/or how to make some money from it.

It is still a hobby project and it will probably remain so.

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grag
One minor suggestion: Would it be that hard to allow me to click and drag the
panoramas without having to click that hand button first?

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jamongkad
Wow lovely web app! how did you manage to do this?

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arthurk
I find that the letters (especially in the menu) have too much spacing between
them. It's hard to read.

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dangoldin
I like it! As a suggestion, I wasn't able to find a search bar. Can you search
for panoramas?

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puzz
You're right, I should make it more visible... There is a google custom search
field on the homepage (at the bottom of the right column). Or on the menus:
Panoye -> Search.

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dmose
Move search to the top of the page.

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bmelton
I like it a lot. A couple of critiques: \- I had to look for what the app was.
Yeah, the explanation is on the right, at the top of the sidebar, but I'd
almost like to see it above the google map on the page. \- I'm not terribly
keen on the font choices throughout the page... specifically what's bothering
me is the character spacing, most noticeable on the right sidebar.

On the whole, I think it's a brilliant idea, and at least to my knowledge,
isn't being repeated anywhere else. That said, I'd focus on layout and design,
and accentuate the social aspects of the site where I could.

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HeyLaughingBoy
How does it make money?

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jlopez
excellent job!

