

Obvious Corp. backed Branch comes out of private beta - ssclafani
http://www.branch.com/

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btucker
This is pretty great:
[https://img.skitch.com/20120813-1iq1gk3ymwrguhy8qe3qi4192s.j...](https://img.skitch.com/20120813-1iq1gk3ymwrguhy8qe3qi4192s.jpg)

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tensafefrogs
All branches are public, you can link directly to them:

[http://branch.com/b/choosing-the-best-technology-for-my-
webs...](http://branch.com/b/choosing-the-best-technology-for-my-website)

~~~
btucker
Nice! I assumed login was required since it seemed like it forced me to. But
great that direct links are public.

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kmfrk
I think this looks interesting, as long as you don't apply the same "X of Y"
comparisons.

Someone likened it to a forum, and I think it's a nice take on it. Not
necessarily something with SOCIAL all over it.

The promo video was pretty horrible, though. I'm also getting a little tired
of Valley videos that make it sound like we're curing cancer or something.

~~~
wamatt
Yeah, the whole "curing cancer" meme always sounded murky and a bit lame TBH.
It's unlikely it's a binary thing or state that get's magically achieved by
one person or a team, and much more likely the result of small, incremental
advances.

Cancer itself is not even "one thing" phenomologically speaking (IAMNA
oncologist) it's a broad class of diseases, that may or may not have a single
'solution'.

Solution, in this context, being a state where the population does not need to
worry about cancer as a statistically significant cause of death. It could
equally likely linger in a status that is managed but not 'cured' in the
traditional sense of the word, aka HIV.

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staunch
Featured branches: <http://www.branch.com/featured> (sign in required)

Examples (no sign in required):

<http://branch.com/b/barack-obama-the-second-time-around>

<http://branch.com/b/alternatives-to-the-boyscouts>

[http://branch.com/b/buying-equity-in-people-what-do-you-
thin...](http://branch.com/b/buying-equity-in-people-what-do-you-think)

~~~
jessepollak
Also, there seems to be some sort of bug with the email collection modal. It
refuses to go away, even though I've signed in with Twitter _and_ provided my
email. Makes it impossible to click the features stories.

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tensafefrogs
We just pushed out a fix for this - it was happening to people who were
already on our email waitlist.

If you enter your email now it should go away :)

Sorry about that!

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jessepollak
Thanks for the quick fix!

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username3
How is this different from a forum post? It doesn't do anything for debates.
<http://branch.com/b/are-we-currently-in-a-tech-bubble>

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jonursenbach
Seems like a regular Quora thread sans voting.

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akanet
I'm not sure how any of the highlighted features really promote intimacy or
quality in conversation.

~~~
natrius
Let's ignore how they're pitching the service. I've participated in a
Branch[1], and as a replacement for Twitter conversations, it is
extraordinary. That's enough for me to keep the bookmarklet handy.

[1] [http://branch.com/b/for-years-news-developers-have-
debated-t...](http://branch.com/b/for-years-news-developers-have-debated-the-
merits-of-django-vs-rails-is-one-framework-winning)

~~~
wmf
That seems like a low bar, considering that Twitter conversations were never a
good idea.

~~~
natrius
Agreed, but people are having conversations on Twitter. This seems like a low-
friction way to get them to use a better tool for the job.

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kloncks
I hate to be that guy. (And really, I almost never say this). But, coming from
the guys who made Twitter, can we talk about how and why this could possibly
be monetized?

Neat idea. Gorgeous design. But how is Branch Inc sustainable?

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confluence
You presume that it has to be sustainable to generate a profit.

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ceslami
He's making a good point -- how can it be sustainable without profit? Of
course it needn't be sustainable to generate profit, but that's not what he
meant, or said.

~~~
eevilspock
And @confluence is implying that the real goal may not be sustainability, but
profit. See Sparrow, Instagram, and all the other sellouts.

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chimi
It's neat. It's basically a different take on forums or twitter. Where your
twitter page is a jumble of comments about N different conversations, Branch
separates them into threads.

It's a new way and it'll get a lot of attention, but it's really just a way to
communicate and there are lots of them. If Branch succeeds, it'll do so in the
adoption of its style into other communications media, including existing
forums or twitter.

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im_dario
Cool concept! I'm glad to see something like that working. I wrote down almost
a year ago a very similar idea (I called it Flow) in a "incubator" project of
mine: <https://github.com/imdario/lyd/wiki/Analysis>

Maybe it is time to code what I thought ;) It was meant to be a liquid
democracy citizen participatory system.

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smarx
Branch seems to want write access to my Twitter account, even just to "request
an invite." Does anyone know why? It looks intriguing, but I'm not ready to
trust it to that degree.

~~~
josh_miller
Sorry for the confusion! We should be more clear about our intentions. We need
write access so when you do get an invite, you can invite your friends to
branches (via DM or @mention). But we'll never send anything without your
explicit permission.

~~~
smarx
Thanks for the explanation! I would suggest telling users this during signup
(right before they auth).

Word of warning to everyone: when you request an invite, there's a pre-checked
checkbox labeled "Follow @branch to find out about the best new branches." I
like that it's easy to see, but I don't like that it's opt-out.

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look_lookatme
I like the idea and what I've seen so far, but how is this not still a private
site? I can't contribute or be a part of branch until my time comes on the
invite list.

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ceslami
Let me see if I've got this right.

Branch : Invite-Only Online Conversations. Email : Invite-Only Online
Conversations.

Can someone help me bridge the gap?

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kloncks
Better interface for one.

Email has notoriously not been updated for a while. I remember when Gmail
putting threads as conversations being revolutionary.

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ceslami
Threading in Gmail was definitely huge. They beat a lot of desktop mail
clients to the punch, too, which always surprised me.

Seems like Branch would become One More Thing To Check, as opposed to a
replacement for e-mail. I don't think they're going for an replacement,
either. I think I get their point, but I also can't see it as much more than
Twitter repackaged with unique slang and a squeaky clean UI.

~~~
josh_miller
I like to think of branches as public email threads, but I get in trouble when
I say that publicly. Obviously has poor connotations :)

~~~
ceslami
Haha, I'm sure. As far as product design goes, I think you've done a bang-up
job. Individual branches are easy on the eyes and comfortable to consume for
extended periods, and the primary actions are easy to identify. congrats on
the launch.

Out of curiosity, where does it fit into your workflow specifically? Do you
find yourself using either/any of Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc. less in
particular?

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nivertech
looks kinda like Convore

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Bjartr
Sorry, I'm not seeing how this differs from the G+ conversation scheme.

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joshu
Hi Josh!

