

Ask HN: Is this a good idea to get users? - will_brown

I have posted before about my start-up on HN and got great feedback. In short it combines YouTube with a Google Earth interface.<p>I have created "mock accounts" for YouTube channels, such as National Geographic and New York Times, and embedded their respective YouTube videos to their account.<p>See: http://www.ommageo.com/profile_page_anotherppl.php?id=GxQq499JO2 (@NatGeo)<p>http://www.ommageo.com/profile_page_anotherppl.php?id=iXom8DlR91 (@NYTimes)<p>I plan of embedding more videos, maybe 20-25 per profile. Thereafter, I plan on contacting said companies.  I hope that the additional views from my start-up convince said companies to take over the account and continue to embedding their own YouTube videos.<p>After viewing the respective profile pages and video samples do you believe this is: 1. In general a good idea to get existing media companies to use my start-up?  2.  Why or why not?  3. What would you do different?<p><i>www.ommageo.com will work with Windows and Mac OS only.<p></i>*Just to prevent any potential discussion off topic, I am not concerned about making profiles in the names of these big companies and embedding their YouTube videos to the same. It is with the sole purpose of transferring said profile to the same company with the option of deletion if they so choose.
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jere
Seems like it doesn't scale well from your description. You would have to
contact each company yourself _and_ the value for them would be really low
until the site blew up.

If there was an automated way to get representatives from a company to take
control of an account, it might work better, but I don't know how that would
be possible.

It's somewhat akin to companies/universities making facebook pages and youtube
channels. The value is definitely there but only after those apps had been
around for years.

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centdev
1\. Not a good idea in my opinion. 2. Large companies would prefer to be
pitched on the value of your site than to have fake profiles setup in their
brand image/likeness without their approval. 3. You could create a fictions
profile of a company that doesn't exist as a demo of how your service works to
help them visualize it being them.

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sharemywin
I'm not sure of the trademark ramafications of setting up sites with others
trademarks.

