

[Show HN] Handpick: The most caring way to share links - freshlog
http://handpick.me

======
alisey
I like the copy on your homepage. Last year I built a prototype of a similar
service and used it for a couple of months with friends, but it turned out
that not having immediate feedback takes a lot of fun out of sharing. Posting
a link to Skype and having a conversation about it in real time feels much
more rewarding. It's something psychological, hard to explain.

Having said that, I still want to explore this idea some time in the future
and see how it works out.

You might want to check out a similar service created by other HN user:
<http://www.yourpane.com/>

~~~
freshlog
Yea, I totally agree that sharing links without a chance of a conversation
springing from it can feel like a bummer.

This is one of the reasons why I decided for Handpick to send a single email
to all people in a single group, so anyone can Reply-to-All and get a
conversation started.

I've been using Handpick to keep in touch with my friends, loved ones and
folks I care about it for close to a year this way, hope you'll find it useful
too =)

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koopajah
I like the email part because it removes the "burden" for some people to think
about checking my profile on either G+ or FB or twitter on which I do not
always post the same things. But I did not understand how I can select which
links to send to whom (for example if I have general CS links for everyone and
JAVA specific ones for 10 people and C/C++ for others, etc.)

This also seems a lot like Subjot cf
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2946547>

~~~
freshlog
Hey koopajah,

It might not be immediately apparent (I may need to work harder on better UI
or copy here), but after you click on the bookmarklet, you'll be able to
select which groups to share what with.

So check all checkboxes for CS and Java-specific stuff for Java-loving groups
etc.

Yea Subjot looks like they're tackling the signal to noise problem on Twitter
as a consumer, while I think Handpick is approaching from the other direction,
where the producer becomes highly selective and specific about what he shares
with who he shares, just because he cares =)

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bokonon
Awesome idea. Every time my girlfriend goes on Reddit I get five or six emails
from her with random links she wanted to show me.

When do you think you'll start letting people into the private beta?

Oh and the "Return to website" link after you submit your email takes you to
<http://freshlog.com/> by the way. I don't know if that's on purpose or not,
just letting you know.

~~~
freshlog
Oh drat thanks for catching that, I'll fix it.

Real soon, actually.

I've been using this everyday to keep in touch with folks I care about for
close to a year now, so the app works, but I'd like to clean up a little first
:)

~~~
bokonon
Very cool. Is it just the bookmarklet or are there extensions for other
browsers? A Chrome extension would be so much nicer than a bookmarklet in my
honest opinion.

~~~
freshlog
Right now there's a bookmarklet.

However, my wife wanted a Chrome extension so much that I wrote a custom one
for her.

I haven't gotten round to learn how to automatically generate custom Chrome
extensions yet, but I'll be happy to manually create them for early beta
testers like you =)

~~~
user24
you don't really want to be automatically generating chrome extensions.
Instead have one definitive extension and have some custom options within it.

~~~
freshlog
Got it, thanks!

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krmmalik
Oh snap. I was going to develop something extremely similar to this over the
next couple of months (i've only just started to learn how to develop).

I can relate totally to the problem you are solving here, and its a very real
one. Let me know if you want me to send you some of the ideas that i had. You
might be able to use them ;-)

~~~
freshlog
Definitely!

I couldn't find your contact from your HN profile, so just email me
al@alvinlai.com.

Thanks!

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user24
I'm upvoting you because well done for launching something. But what I see is
"our service allows you to email your friends, but only with links, and not
using your normal email client". Explain why I'm wrong?

And which of my problems are you solving?

~~~
freshlog
Thanks for the upvote :)

As different groups of folks care about different things, Handpick helps you
easily select which groups of folks to share a link with via a bookmarklet.

As you 'handpick' multiple links throughout the day, Handpick will accumulate
them and send a single email at the end of the day to your selected group of
folks.

That way, it solves the problem of spamming folks over email or IM.

Another benefit of not broadcasting on Facebook, G+ or Twitter is that you can
really be who you are and not have to worry about looking tame, generic,
politically correct or fiddle with privacy settings.

It'll email the folks for you if you have at least one link handpicked, so you
don't have to remember to.

Let me know if I haven't answered your question! =)

~~~
buddydvd
Accumulating links and sharing them to selected groups of people are good
ideas. Instead of emailing links to your friends, how about post the
aggregated list of links to Facebook/G+ as a single post once per day and make
it so that those posts will only be visible to people you select.

~~~
freshlog
Hmm, I haven't taken a look at Facebook's API on selective sharing yet.

I'll look into it, but only after Handpick is solidly loved by all you beta
testers that signed up.

------
freshlog
Nice, 7 private beta requests after 58 minutes on Hacker News, I should have
launched this sooner :)

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ducuboy
Nice, but who sends links by email nowadays? Besides, Facebook introduced
better sharing controls..

~~~
freshlog
I do :)

I've still got pockets of friends whom I really care about but don't use
Facebook.

Also, it's way much easier to be yourself with email Reply-To-All style
discussions without fearing what you post on Facebook coming back to haunt you
later.

