
Show HN: Fed up with WebEx, so we built a way to screen share in under 20 sec. - ttruong
http://www.screenleap.com/
======
huhtenberg
Nicely done, but there are few issues from the top of my head.

1\. Security - this should really be going over SSL. In fact, the whole site
needs to be SSL'd.

2\. P2P - I bet you are not P2P, and you won't be able to be P2P if you keep
the viewer in the confines of the browser. However, the client-to-client
traffic really needs to go peer to peer. It's an absolute must. This is what
keeps the cost of running the service low and this is what allowed LogMeIn to
grow like a fire and eat Citrix lunch. You keep pushing all data through
yourselves, your bandwidth usage and infrastructure upgrade bills will likely
to kill you. Scaling a server-relayed service is a bitch of an issue, don't
underestimate it.

3\. Java dependency for sharing - you'd be surprised how many locked-down
corporate setups have no Java (not that they are your target audience). I
personally don't have Java installed either (and again, I am probably not your
target user either). A fallback to Flash would make a lot of sense. Also the
screen _sharing_ on iPhone/Pad/etc would require a native app, which
effectively means that you are on your way to replicate join.me.

4\. Patents - I'm sure the easiest way to knock you down is through a patent
litigation. Be mindful here. Try and build a bit of a defensive portfolio if
you can.

All in all, good luck. You are entering a crowded market littered with failed
startups... and interesting acquisitions ;)

~~~
ttruong
1) This is in the works.

2) We are currently not P2P but that is one direction that we are considering
for a future complementary product. We have done some calculations and believe
that it is possible to make service economically viable (even with free basic
usage) but it remains to be seen if we are right.

3) Unfortunately, it is not possible to implement a sharing application purely
in Flash because it does not provide the necessary calls as far as we know.
Our goal is to remove the pain from viewing so an iPhone/iPad/Android version
would fit in with our goals.

4) Thanks for the pointer.

Thanks for all the feedback!

~~~
mbesto
I think Adobe has a flash screen sharing service that uses solely flash. I
forget if you have to install a client or not.

<http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html>

~~~
atlbeer
Yes there is a client

------
ChrisNorstrom
Please ditch the generic stock photo of a lady on a broken laptop on the
beach. It makes your site look like a cheap travel agency.

Go for a home computer setting or even an office setting.

Like one of these or something.

<http://us.fotolia.com/id/28015494>

<http://us.fotolia.com/id/35919645>

<http://us.fotolia.com/id/27612067>

~~~
ttruong
We would love to get in touch with any great designers out there that can help
us with this.

~~~
andrewfelix
I'm a designer and I think I'm great.

<http://www.andrew-rose.com/>

<http://dribbble.com/andrewfelix>

~~~
slug
Just to let you know that if I have javascript disabled (noscript) on my
browser, most of your links for the portfolio don't work. Don't know if it
matters in the real world, but just a heads up.

~~~
phillmv
It doesn't matter in the real world.

I'm pretty sure no one even bothers checking if javascript is disabled. I know
you can't access Facebook without it (or at least with Lynx); doesn't that
exclude basically every web app?

------
joshaidan
Just to give you some feedback. The biggest issue I have with the site is that
I'm not sure if I can trust you.

How do I know my privacy is protected?

How do I know you're not a phising company trying to steal personal data by
spying on screen sharing sessions?

Those are some of the questions I ask myself. And it's also the first
impression I get when I look at the site. Also, I don't see a phone number
anywhere on the site I can call to speak to somebody, or to even verify that
you're a real company. There's also no real explanation of how the technology
works, and how the tech could protect my privacy--if it in fact does.

I'm not trying to be harsh, just giving you my honest opinion. You have to
find some way to make me trust you, if you want me to use your product.

~~~
ttruong
Thank you for the feedback. We wanted to get a MVP out as soon as possible so
we can start getting feedback on the idea. Unfortunately, we haven't had time
to add all the information about who we are and how to contact us. We will
correct that in the coming weeks.

~~~
nbpoole
How do I report a security vulnerability to you guys?

~~~
ttruong
Please email us at support (at) screenleap.com.

~~~
nbpoole
Just sent

------
samstave
Join.me has been my goto replacement for webex.

This operates exactly like join.me - however I like join.me's shorter URLs - I
would suggest copying a format similar to theirs.

However I really like the "share whats in the rectangle" feature.

~~~
ttruong
Thanks for the suggestion on the URL. When we eventually support accounts, we
plan to allow you to start a screen session by simply clicking on a name from
your buddy list so hopefully the longer URL will be less of an issue for
frequent users.

~~~
sdellysse
Convenience is what you should be going for. If you're able to generate a
short url for convenience, the chances of someone signing up later rather than
saying "Signup just to try? fuck it" are higher.

Hell, when generating the url, just make a call to the api at
<http://tweak.tk> so that you can display the short one side-by-side with the
long one. Provided your codebase is well formed, a change like that should not
be astronomical.

(P.S. Tweak.tk is really awesome. At least check it out.)

~~~
calloc
If you are going to use an URL shortening service, please go with one that is
universally recognised by most tech people, such as bit.ly. I've never heard
of tweak.tk and I've never seen it come across my Twitter feed.

~~~
kristofferR
The cool thing about tweak.tk is that it's operated by the .tk-registry and
you're getting a free generated .tk domain instead of just a page on the
domain of the shortening service. Jdyk56.tk instead of bitly.com/jdyk56

~~~
ultrasaurus
Wow, that's simultaneously cool and means I'm not going to use it.
<http://ddpor.tk> looks too much like a link to a scam site.

------
chops
Three thoughts:

1) Can I safely assume you're working on a way to share desktop control, for
things like tech support? Seems like the next _semi-major_ logical step.

2) Out of curiosity, how do you plan to monetize this beast? Freemium, with a
more feature-rich paid version (voip, desktop control, etc)? Or...something
else?

3) Very cool. Great job guys!

~~~
ttruong
1) We want to really nail the screen sharing experience first and make it work
reliably for everyone. Remote desktop control and live collaboration are
follow-up ideas that we are definitely looking into.

2) Freemium is one option that we are considering. We want to keep focusing on
reducing the time it takes to share a screen and see what kind of use cases
emerge before deciding on how to monetize it. Besides freemium, we think there
might be possibilities for integration with other sites for support or
enhancing the browsing experience. For example, a clothing site could have a
stylist available that could walk users through the site and help them pick
outfits that they might like.

3) Thanks!

~~~
LearnYouALisp
Have you tried using PNG or GIF compression? The presumably JPEG compression
right now has many artifacts.

~~~
ttruong
That's something we are looking into. We think that there will be different
optimal image formats depending upon the use case (i.e., are you sharing an
illustration or a photo). We want to see what those use cases are before
optimizing.

~~~
darklajid
How do you see what the use cases are? Are you asking .. or watching? I'm kind
of serious here, because as others have stated, this has the 'untrusted'
sticker on it for now.

Otherwise: Congratulations. From my day to day 'support the in-laws' sessions:
This could be very helpful.

~~~
ttruong
We'll definitely be asking. The trust of our users are very important to us.
If you have an interesting use case, please let us know.

We wanted to soft launch something now to start getting feedback about the
product. We'll be doing a formal launch in the next couple of weeks and will
have a lot more detail to share about us and the company then.

------
alexholehouse
One privacy enhancement which would be nice would be to see a list of IPs
viewing the screen. Not sure how easy it would be to implement, but would give
me total peace of mind to know only 1 IP is viewing (if that's what I'm
expecting).

Stellar job though - no barrier to use whatsoever.

------
aresant
Beautiful product, dead simple and I'd use this over Join.me which I see as
your closest competition for quick screen sharing.

GOOG & Skype are also getting a lot faster on their feet in this space.

I'm intimately familiar with this landscape as we're preparing to launch our
FREE webinar platform, <http://www.MeetingBurner.com>, in the very near future
after ~1yr in beta.

Our target is the "webinar" space which includes all the trimmings like
registrations, invitations, bundled conference lines / skype / telephony,
analytics, pay walls, etc.

But we have a solid contingent of users that just want screen sharing 90% of
the time and I love your focus on "2 clicks to start a meeting" etc.

Elegant solution and good luck.

~~~
bithive123
Please let your marketing folks know that there is a silent (ok, not this
time) constituency of people like me who cringe at the term "webinar". Some of
us even filter such terms from appearing in our inboxes.

Please call it what it is: a seminar. When people share their slides online
they don't call it a "websentation" because it would be so goofy as to be
insulting. Why should a seminar be any different?

~~~
aresant
Interesting, I never had those connotations myself but see it repeated a few
times in this thread

When we set out to put together our media plan / SEO we researched all the
varieties of keywords / etc and were surprised to see how far out ahead
"webinar" is from "online meeting" / "online seminar" / "screen sharing" / etc

eg:

[http://www.google.com/trends/?q=webinar,+online+meeting,+onl...](http://www.google.com/trends/?q=webinar,+online+meeting,+online+seminar,+screen+sharing&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

------
antimora
There is a Chrome extension by Google that allows quickly share screens
without needing to install Java.

It works on Linux as well.

Here is a link to the extension
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhk...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp)

~~~
farzighasi
Some users face problem as it uses 5222 port and this one is blocked at many
places e.g. in our college only 80 and 443 are open.

------
danso
So I had more than 110 viewers at one point, and also screenleaped into
someone else who was screeleaping my screenleap:
<http://yfrog.com/z/oe15628524p>

The product was effortlessly easy to run. Obviously there was a usage overload
but otherwise, people were able to watch me Tweet and screenleap into other
people's screenleaps in real time (and also watch me scroll through cat gifs).
Extremely well done, bravo!

------
brd529
I wouldn't use this over join.me because of the compression artifacts. I use
join.me to lead webinars and a professional appearance is critical.

However, I am glad to see another competitor in the space. The killer feature,
IMHO, would be adding a VoIP / Telephone bridge so people could get audio
either way. Webex and Gotomeeting do this, but they are clunky in other areas.

~~~
ttruong
We have some optimizations in place so that if your screen doesn't change, the
screen shot quality will progressively improve. As we improve the compression,
we plan to increase the default image quality too.

------
samlev
Cool, but I couldn't close the java 'ScreenLeap' dialog without using chrome's
task manager to kill the java plugin.

(I'm running Ubuntu 11.10, and chrome 16.0 if that helps)

Also, I feel "No downloads, installs" is a little disingenuous - just because
it's not installed as a full-time application doesn't mean that it's not
downloaded or installed.

~~~
ttruong
Thanks for the feedback. Point taken on the "no downloads or installs". We
wanted to convey how easy it is for someone to view your screen but I can see
that it doesn't accurately describe the process for sharing your screen. We'll
work to improve the messaging.

~~~
SoftwareMaven
I would be cautious about changing your marketing based on feedback here.
While we understand you are really downloading an applet, 99% of the people in
the world won't even care that distinction exists. A/B test on your target
market.

------
almost
Wow, that's really slick! Any plans to license the software for use in other
products? It would make a great addition to some help desk software...

~~~
ttruong
That is definitely a route we want to consider. If you know someone in the
space, we would love an introduction.

~~~
tapp
> If you know someone in the space, we would love an introduction.

I do - my email address is in my profile. Let me know your preferred method
for getting in touch?

------
lobster45
Looks interesting, but I do not run java on my machines so this wont work for
me.

------
prophetjohn
This looks nice. Is there any way to switch who is sharing their screen among
participants? We have weekly meetings for product demos and WebEx allows us to
trade of who is the presenter.

~~~
ttruong
Presenter swap is almost done. We should have it available within the next two
weeks.

------
jczhang
Two things: 1\. It was odd that you can't resize using the top and left
borders. 2\. I'm using 2 monitors (laptop + monitor) and I can't move the
rectangle to the secondary monitory.

------
snampall
I have been using <https://join.me/> and pretty happy with it.

How is this different from <https://join.me/>?

~~~
ttruong
For join.me, you need to have Flash installed to view someone's screen.
Screenleap allows you to view from any device with a web browser, whether it
be a PC, tablet, or smartphone. In the same way that you don't worry about
what email program someone is on before sending them an email, we want to make
it so you don't have to worry about what device a person is on before showing
them your screen.

~~~
eps
How do you plan to compete with LogMeIn once they have an HTML viewer? Which
they either already have or will have and very soon.

------
dxbydt
Just tested this. Ok so it works. Very cool! Now chances of someone correctly
guessing a permutation of three 3-digit numbers are 1 in 901^3 = 732 million,
but still, is that the only form of security ? I can call someone over the
phone & give them my screen key ie. 3 3-digit numbers. Someone else can
overhear that & also go to screenleap and enter those 3 numbers & suddenly my
screen isn't private anymore...

~~~
ttruong
Once we support accounts, we plan to add privacy controls so that sessions are
secured from accidental viewing.

------
nodata
Nice - but I can't stop sharing my screen. Even if I click "Stop sharing
screen", even if I _try_ to close the popup window with that button in it.

------
matdwyer
I need these to be dead simple as I use them to help walk my Mom through
simple tasks on the PC from 2000 miles away.

Thank you for helping keep the hair on my head

------
manuscreationis
Just wanted to add, I just used this to show some work to a friend, and it
worked really well. Had it up and running quickly, he joined easily, was able
to see everything I did.

Only gripe, the window re-sizing wasn't working properly. Once I re-sized it
once (width-wise), it didn't let me re-size it any more, only move it around.

Otherwise, very easy to use product

------
xm1994
If I hadn't found <http://join.me> a few months ago I'd be jumping up and down
right now. This is just as effortless, great job there. I'd suggest making the
two options: share a screen, and join a session stand out even more from the
rest of the homepage.

~~~
DrCatbox
Join.me attempts to serve me a .exe file when on my GNU/Linux computers.
Useless.

~~~
JS_startup
Horror!

------
eps
Ah, the joy of product marketing.

The VIEWING is from any device, but SHARING is not.

Ability to view on iPad in the browser _is_ a step up from join.me, but it
appears to be the only major difference. Am I missing something? I am a long
time LogMeIn user, so I am probably right smack in the middle of your target
audience.

~~~
ttruong
We eventually want to support sharing from any device but it won't be as
painless as viewing from any device.

Being able to view from the iPad or smartphone without any install is the
major difference right now between Screenleap and join.me. For future
direction, since the viewer is HTML/JavaScript-based, we think there may be
opportunities for deeper integration with other products to make it even
easier to get a screen sharing session started. We also think that it may be
easier for us to provide a branded and more customized screen sharing
experience.

------
sachleen
Just tried it. Works pretty well. I especially like the share rectangle region
feature.

I have been using <https://join.me/> since it allows me to control the other
person's screen as well. The setup is just as simple but it requires you to
run a downloaded file.

------
onwardly
Its like the Stripe for screensharing , I love it.

As for monetization, I think a good strategy might be something like the first
3 are free, and then you pay $5 for 30 screenshares afterwards. Atleast for
me, I'd be willing to pay that and it seems like a straightforward/fair way to
price it.

Good luck!

------
joshuarrrr
My boss works in a different city, and we're on the phone all the time. The
simplicity of this is priceless. I especially appreciate that the viewing side
requires no setup. That makes it much preferable to WebEx or Skype when I'm
dealing with less tech-savvy folks.

~~~
samstave
You'd like join.me as well.

------
cantlin
Great product. Am I alone in thinking the design could use a refresh? Is this
in the works? A really distinctive visual identity is what would turn this
from "cool thing I saw on HN" to a solution that I'll remember long enough to
reach for it next chance I get.

------
arjn
I'd like to check it out but it asks me to download java which I already have.
However the java plugin does not show up in FF for me. Any idea how to enable
it and could you include those instructions too ? Thanks.

------
missing_cipher
I love this. How feasible would a Chrome/Firefox extension be? An icon by the
URL to start a share without going to another URL would be amazing(and
something no one else does as far as I know).

Great product. Best of luck! :)

------
sim0n
Best/easiest screen-sharing implementation I've seen so far, great work!

------
wesbos
Awesome job. Screenr.com uses the same java method to record my screen and it
_never_ works, this was up and running in lessss than 20 seconds. Would love
to see a recording featured added.

------
Mcole1987
That is such a great app! I love how simple it is to share the link and
there's no need to download anything.

Are there any plans to share the screen of an android phone? I think that
would be pretty fun.

~~~
ttruong
Thanks! We eventually want to add support for sharing from iOS and Android
devices, especially tablets.

------
pygorex
Two questions:

1\. Right now my screen share app of choice is TeamViewer. You could own this
space if screen control was added, very easy to setup and use.

2\. Monetization strategy? Are you looking to monetize this app?

------
skystorm
Very nice, worked flawlessly when I just tested it with a friend (other than
having to kill the java process by hand in the end). Thanks in particular for
supporting Linux!

------
joshbaptiste
Great product.. This disrupts all of the clunky screen sharing products I have
used in my tech life. Dare I be bold and state this may be the Dropbox of
screen sharing.

------
emehrkay
Doesnt seem to work on my Lion with the latest Java installed

~~~
ryanjmo
Me either, exact same setup. This happened to me on <http://keepvid.com> as
well; that site runs on a java plugin as well.

I'm happy that it isn't just me (I was actually scanning the comments to see
if anyone ran into this problem), but I really would like a solution to this.
If anyone finds one, let me know!

~~~
ttruong
Please email us at support (at) screenleap.com and we'll try to help
troubleshoot.

------
sandropadin
This is a great idea and very well implemented. I too would like to see an API
of sorts. Maybe a white-label screen sharing service. Good luck!

------
webwanderings
TeamViewer (free) is not bad but it times out after some time and you have to
relaunch the meeting with a new code. Will give this one a try.

------
keturn
Nice! I just shared a screen from a Linux laptop to a phone with the Dolphin
browser and it Just Worked. Pretty high latency though.

------
manuscreationis
Mind sharing what your particular frustrations with WebEx are? (Not that I'm
defending the product, just curious)

~~~
ttruong
For us, the main frustration was showing your screen to someone who you didn't
frequently collaborate with. If they didn't have WebEx installed, you would
have to ask them to download and install it, create an account, and then get
invited to a meeting. The whole process can take more than 10 minutes which is
more than enough for most people to decide that it's not worth the trouble,
especially if it's for something like a sales demo.

We want to make it as easy to share your screen with someone as it is to
instant message them. If we do, we hope people will start using it frequently
throughout the day for all sorts of ad-hoc collaboration.

~~~
aidenn0
Really? It's more like "Here's a link, click on it and enter your name and
e-mail address" then accept the java applet. Takes maybe 2 minutes.

~~~
xxdiamondxx
I think the difference is, you don't need the java applet to view, only to
share.

------
tommi
Does it allow me to only share a specific applications? I don't want to show
everybody my email and other stuff.

~~~
ttruong
Right now, you can limit what is shown to what's inside a rectangle. The
rectangle is movable and resizable although that is currently not obvious from
the UI. We want to eventually allow you to select the application that you
want to share.

------
macspoofing
Great job guys. I love the simplicity.

How are you guys streaming the images down? Any interesting technologies or
methods used?

------
deltaqueue
Any chance at offering this through SSL in the future? Or does the
transmission already go through SSL?

~~~
ttruong
Yes, we plan to support SSL in a future release.

------
grannyg00se
Is it typical for tablet and smartphone browsers to have a java run time
environment? Mine does not.

~~~
grannyg00se
Oh, I see. The java plug in is only required for sharing. So I can still view
on my blackberry.

Tested and working well. This will come in handy.

------
kvinnako
This is a very usefull website with great potential. And nice and clean
interface. Good work.

------
sktrdie
"No installs" - first thing it asks me to do is to install a Java plugin. No
thanks.

~~~
rogerbinns
Java is shown in the instruction screenshots, but it would be nice if it was
clearing saying "share your screen _if_ java is installed". I have Java
disabled so this doesn't work for me, nor does it work trying to share my
Android screen :-)

I had expected something like a cross platform browser plugin that isn't Java.

------
rabidsnail
It's not safe to assume that everyone has the java plugin installed anymore.

------
soci
Looks promising. I'll be using it in a meeting I have right now. Thanks.

------
robbrown451
You built that in less than 20 seconds?!!! Damn, you guys are good.

------
lincolnq
Wow, this is effortless and works well, just like Dropbox. Nice job.

------
thekevan
I was able to view my PC screen on my Droid 3 stock browser.

------
zyad
Great Product ! What about the API ? And Screen recording ?

------
fady
wow. i was curious if this would work on my networked machine and it did.
boom! that was pretty quick. a+ guys

------
wingspan
Awesome, works on Windows Phone.

------
kvinnako
this is a very usefull website with a fantastic opportunity to become big...

------
joshcrowder
Great Job!

Do you have an API?

I just dropped you an email :)

------
denysonique
Thank You

------
jdelsman
Awesome product!

------
Craiggybear
Scary!

Works well, and yes, effortless. Impressive.

------
mihaela
It requires Java. Enough said.

