

Discover a startup every time you open a new tab - instakill
http://startuptabs.com/

======
Udo
The preview doesn't even work in Firefox, which is disappointing.

I love the idea, however, the format doesn't work for me at all. Showing the
startup's website takes a long time to load, and it's a bad user experience.

Instead what you want to show people who open a new tab is a standardized UI
(I'd go for: the startup name, what is does in one line, one standard-sized
image, some text, and a link). If you'd do that, you could _preload_ one or
several startups and make those tabs load instantly. That way it's a lot less
jarring and distracting for the user.

Also, a Firefox version is a must-have.

~~~
uptownhr
Yea, I've been wanting to make a firefox version as well but never made a
firefox extension before. I'll be working on this next.

Oh yea, I fixed the firefox issue. Was a minor css error regarding 100%
height.

Thanks!

~~~
uptownhr
I also thought about the "title, description, screenshot" approach. But I
really wanted startuptabs to be a stage for the startups. My goal is to make
it easy for quick feedback from the community. When sites load slow, bad
colors, etc... it should become apparent. Or the reverse, when sites load fast
and looks great, they will stick out.

~~~
Udo
_> When sites load slow, bad colors, etc... it should become apparent._

It's not only that. When your user opens a new tab, they don't expect a huge
marketing website to already be there. It's too disrupting, and in my opinion
the overlay element just adds to the clutter.

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rjtavares
Sounds like a procrastinator's wet dream...

On the opposite end of the spectrum, a minimalist to-do list every time you
open a new tab: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dayboard-new-
tab-p...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dayboard-new-tab-
page/kimodcegbhclamjcbifgfaldeengbgij)

~~~
jonpaul
Wow. Did you make this? Put some contact info on your page if so! Implement
history and labels and you have me as paying customer. No joke.

~~~
jtcchan
But it _is_ there! In any case, hi hello. :) I'm working on history -- but
Chrome storage only allows me to go back 30 days or so. Maybe 45. Dealbreaker?

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mkoryak
Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? I open new tabs for a reason
- to open another webpage.

This will both annoy me and distract me.

Reading the comments everyone loves the idea and gives basically the same
reasons I gave for hating it. Whats wrong with me?

~~~
blaincate
AHA! There is a big problem for my usability. I press the tab in chrome to get
view my bookmarks and use them. now they are gone ! uninstall !

~~~
codazoda
Chrome should fix this. There should be a way to have an app (in a tab) and
also to show the bookmarks bar on that one page. Then an option in the app
could turn it on and off. Beyond this apps control, probably.

A link isn't enough. I need one click access to my bookmarks.

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hosay123
Doesn't appear to work in Firefox, white page with single circular minus
symbol in the top left

~~~
FlyingSnake
Ditto. Sad to see that FFox isn't the preferred choice of devs.

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shimms
Great idea! Only drawback I'm finding is that I don't want to wait for the
page to load, I'm typing my URL and hitting enter before the startup's page
has loaded.

Good for wanting to randomly find a startup, but was hoping it'd be a way to
discover new startups as part of my daily internet usage. Don't think I'll end
up seeing many of the pages this way.

~~~
uptownhr
Thank! Will be working on speeing up the site loads but it's a bit tricky.
Someone else mentioned maybe uses images and preload them. Still thinking
about how I should tackle this.

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huhtenberg
That's all I'm getting when clicking on "Try It Out" -

[http://i.imgur.com/Nw1tsAu.png](http://i.imgur.com/Nw1tsAu.png)

~~~
uptownhr
Fixed! Please try it out again!

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3rd3
I always have about:blank as default page in new tabs because anything else is
a distraction from my actual intention why I chose to open a new tab. Too
often I find myself forgetting what I was actually doing (or parts of it) when
a new tab has irrelevant information in it. I could imagine that it’s a
psychological effect similar to this one:
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-
throug...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-through-
doorway-makes-you-forget/)

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Timsalabim
What a great idea that I'll never ever use as it will just kill all
productivity :)

Imagine working on a project, need to Google something and suddenly it's 1,5
hours later and you're reading up on some random framework you've never used
and certainly don't need for your current project because this cool startup
that popped up in your new tab gave you another great idea and and and...

~~~
girvo
So... Hacker News?

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bjark
I love the idea, but I would never get any work done if I would see an
interesting startup each time I opened a tab.

~~~
uptownhr
Haha, I've heard this before. Takes some time getting used to :). I will be
working on a history feature soon and should help with this problem.

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aerovistae
Would be awesome if not for the fact that it displays the extension info in a
column on the left for every new tab. Why does it do that? Why isn't there an
option to hide that? I added the extension to see the startup pages, not to
see the damn column.

~~~
uptownhr
Ability to hide the column coming soon.

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CalRobert
Hah, the idea here is kind of cool but watching an unending stream of startup
landing pages sounds like a form of torture.

Finally, (solution to problem that doesn't exist) for (people like
you/engineers like you) who know (what matters/what counts).

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billyhoffman
Even with only using the preview on their website, Startuptabs provides
something interesting: it's a super easy way to page through the websites of
random startups. After bouncing through several dozen I see that:

-95% of these are thinly styled Twitter Bootstrap sites with huge hero images.

-Sweet jesus most of these load super slow.

-There are some interesting ideas here, but a whole lot of "[buzz word][buzz word][buzz word][buzz word], for the [buzz word]" copy.

In fact, this is a great way to see how you should change your startup's
website so it doesn't sink into all this sameness.

Oh, and perhaps having a 1920x1080 photograph saved as a 1.3 MB+ PNG image as
a background is a bad idea too...

~~~
uptownhr
You're right, Startuptab definietely reveals how you should not create a
landing page. After using it for months, "load speed" as google mentioned is
one of the most important aspect.

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herval
Love it! Now all you need is a "Valleywag version" that will show you a random
startup that doesn't make any sense (eg. subscription service for coins -
basically any startup mentioned on Valleywag, I suppose?)

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blaincate
I get this on chrome :

Google has disabled use of the Maps API for this application. The provided key
is not a valid Google API Key, or it is not authorized for the Google Maps
Javascript API v3 on this site. If you are the owner of this application, you
can learn about obtaining a valid key here:
[https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/...](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/tutorial#api_key)

~~~
uptownhr
Hi Blaine,

I'm pretty it's not Startuptabs because we aren't using the maps api. Do you
have another extension that is using it?

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marmarlade
Love it. Works for me in Chrome (Version 35.0.1916.153 to be precise)

Only downside: it's basically the browser equivalent of remembering you have
to get your keys from the bedroom, going upstairs to get them, forgetting why
you went back to your room in the first place, picking up the copy of Wired on
your nightstand, heading out, and getting to the office only to realise you
forgot your keys.

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awjr
Quick thing which I think I've noticed is this appearing in the console bar:

"Denying load of chrome-
extension://bknfklfehllgmnbmlhejjoalkimnikfc/jquery.min.map. Resources must be
listed in the web_accessible_resources manifest key in order to be loaded by
pages outside the extension."

I did get a warning message from Google about your maps dev key not being
valid.

~~~
uptownhr
I'm pretty sure that is not from Startuptabs. That library is not used ...
Perhaps another extension you have installed?

~~~
awjr
No it's definitely from that extension. Goes away when the extension is
disabled. I'm debugging a lot of javascript atm and the console now has that
message in it even when testing on localhost. No biggie but does seem a bit
odd.

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lpolovets
Great idea! Just wondering, why does the Chrome extension need to "access my
data on all websites" if this only operates when I create a new tab? Also, the
StartupTabs sidebar frequently blocked chunks of content for me, and even if I
closed it in one tab, the sidebar would reappear as soon as I opened a new
tab.

~~~
uptownhr
Hey, I wasn't sure how I can lessen the permission usage. I've tried removing
almost everything in my permission area and it's still says that. I've also
checked out many other chrome extensions and this seems to be common. I'll be
looking into this more soon.

In regards to the tab, I'll add the feature to remember that you collapsed the
tab so it doesn't reappear until you uncollapse it.

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spountzy
Good idea, would be nice to have the posibillity to search through all
startups you feature. Perhaps on your website...

~~~
mychaelangelo
ditto, would be good to have search and a category based browse function.

~~~
uptownhr
Agreed and is on the roadmap. Search should be pretty easy but categories is a
bit more difficult.

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obvio
This [http://poshfeed.com](http://poshfeed.com) uses a similar apparoach
(using tabs) but offers curated content instead.

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amerdidit
Why does opening this make called to
[https://spottster.com/](https://spottster.com/)?

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rashthedude
You stole my idea. Oh well on to another one.

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jblok
Good idea. Takes ages to load though! A screenshot, logo and short description
of the startup would be better I think.

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beghbali
your requested permissions: read my data on all websites?!! really? No bueno

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ben0x539
Am I missing something or is this basically a reverse adblock?

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reshambabble
Thanks for creating this!! I just submitted our startup :)

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slosh
I love the idea

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donmb
Didn't realise there are so much useless startups out there.

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frou_dh

        404 Value Proposition Not Found

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madeel
looks inspiring, :)

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desouzt
This is a great idea!

