

Show HN: My Zappos/Twilio hackathon entry  - callmeed
http://www.anonysize.me 

======
jqueryin
Great idea. It gives me that "duh" moment that I hadn't thought of it before!

While I think the visuals are beautiful, I did notice that your current call
to action on the page appears to be the description itself. The actual form
action has the least weight to me visually, as the button hovering above the
example draws the eye.

If your intention is on conversions of the form, perhaps you might consider
shifting the focus with some very small re-work.

~~~
michaelschade
I agree. I actually hovered over the example at first thinking that it might
be interactive since there was such a prominent CTA above it.

To the point of the description drawing the most attention, perhaps it should
be swapped with the actual signup form–the description can align itself on the
left and the form would be centered (which may actually provide a nice
balance: description left, example right, and what you actually do right
between the two).

~~~
iodave
Same here. At first, I thought "Like This" was the same thing for me to like
it on Facebook. You may want to phrase that somewhat differently.

Love the concept! Good luck!

------
AndrewGCook
You should figure out websites that have affiliate programs, force the
requester to choose a website, and when you end the text message, include the
website to add some validity. Including the well-known brand will seem like it
comes from a more legitimate website than you (no offense).

For example:

"Hey Andy!Someone shopping on Zappos.com for you and wants to know your shoe
size. Reply with your size (ex '9', '10.5')

Also, when you send back the sizes to the requester, you could include an
affiliate link for the site they requested to help monetize.

~~~
callmeed
What if I let online retailers provision their own unique number and embed the
service in their website?

------
jpadilla_
I just tried this with my gf. She was seating across to me and When she
received the text message, she was confused and told me "OMG how do they know
my name?". Then I explained to her what it was, she obviously told me she
wouldn't have answered it. Maybe it'd be cool to find a way to validate the
sender to the receiver without losing the anonymosity. Really digging this
though! I always hate having to ask people their sizes, what they like, etc...

------
jjacobson
This is awesome. Now if only Zappos had an affiliate program so you could make
some money off of these clicks too.... Oh wait! We do!

~~~
knandyal
JJacobson - I am having issues with the affiliate program of Zappos for a
visual search engine we are creating. I would like to ask you about this. My
email is knandyal at stylewok dot com. thanks

------
jrubinovitz
Wow this is a great hackathon project. It's simple, but something that people
will actually want to use after the hackathon. I do agree that the message may
need some tuning up though. Maybe say "John is using anonysize.me to ask you
for your size" etc. It adds some credibility even though no one has heard of
you, and it leads to brand awareness, advertising, and hopefully more users
(this is just based on the text message on your homepage, however).

------
skadamat
This is a really neat concept and the design is gorgeous!

How effective has this been? Personally if I got an anonymous text like that I
wouldn't reply haha

~~~
matznerd
why not, what's the worst that someone can do with your shoe size?

~~~
_pius
Responding to spam at all lets the spammer know that they've got a "live one"
on the other end of the email/phone.

~~~
lucaspiller
Not true for SMS. Basically all SMS gateways provide some form of delivery
receipt, which are automatically sent to notify of successful delivery of a
message.

------
notatoad
the only downside i see to this is that anybody i might use this service on
would immediately know it was me, because i'd be the only one nerdy enough to
use it.

worded another way: the only way i see to make this service better is to make
it more popular.

------
danso
Love the idea (and the pun). But I can't think of many of my non-tech savvy
female friends (speaking from NYC) who would not be totally freaked out by
this.

Those of us more familiar with data (both males and females) know that if we
were to get a message like this, it most likely came from a friend or former
friend since it requires knowing your phone #. But in a world of constant
social media privacy scares, the average person is going to be hyper paranoid
about sending off any kind of personal data to an anonymous requester.

 _and of course I'm not implying that females are less likely to be tech
savvy. I'm implying that in my own set of female friends, there is a higher
fear of stalkers than among my male friends)_

~~~
callmeed
UPDATE: I tested this on a male friend yesterday who happens to be in the same
area code as my twilio #. Today his wife saw the message and thought some lady
was trying to seduce him or have an affair. This is funny.

Funny I actually tweaked the SMS message a few times after some female friends
I tested it on got creeped out a bit.

The main feedback was to make it clear that someone close to them initiated
it. (close in the social sense)

~~~
danso
Yes I don't think it's a failure on your part at all, it's just a very hard
needle to thread.

The interconnectedness of technology scares people who don't work in it. My
roommate freaked out when she found all her personal info was on pipl, even
though she has a Twitter account and her info on various other niche sites,
including public records. And no amount of logical argument could persuade her
that she was not being personally targeted.

------
deepkut
Zappos will love this. Great idea and I love the name. As a critique, I'd
recommend rearranging the form/descp/iphone image on the launch page. I think
you rather have users read what this is before the "SIGN UP" on the left!

~~~
jjacobson
Agreed! We do love it!

------
GMali
Apart from the comments seen here, just a small bit of advice from me: Fix the
color of your ordered list. I noticed that it's gray for "li" in general, and
white for "#splash ol li", but its still gray in Chrome for Ubuntu.

------
darwinGod
From the comments below, it seems that only the "non-nerds", "non-tech savy"
guys would be naive enough to be suspicious when they get an anonymous SMS
notification to divulge personal details.Maybe in a perfect world, that is
true, but we are not there yet. I know that the next big viral, customer-
facing app/service would probably be pushing the boundary of privacy and build
new business-models around it. I find this a tad depressing.

------
acgourley
neat idea, did you conceive it at the hackathon or bring it in?

~~~
callmeed
Yeah I didn't even know of the hackathon until reading Twilio's blog
Wednesday. Thought of it then and built it Wed and Thurs night. The hackathon
is actually sponsored by Zappos and i think it started on Monday.

------
ale55andro
Love the idea, very simple and quite fresh. Though I agree with others that
the service will require awareness. I doubt people will want to provide
personal information without knowing the source. Still I can't help but think
that an idea like this will quickly spread. Good job!

------
zitterbewegung
You could expand this and have it work on clothes and ring sizes.

~~~
callmeed
That was the initial plan (clothes) but I ran out of time. Plus the Zappos API
was a little confusing on a few details.

One thing that baffles me is women's clothes sizes ... some things are small,
med, large ... others are 1, 3, 5 ... and others 2, 4, 6, etc ... ugh :/

~~~
pluies
And just wait until you have to internationalise it...

~~~
mkopinsky
Apparently different brands also size things differently. A size 6 from Banana
Republic would be a size 8 at GAP. People go to the expensive store and feel
better because they bought a smaller size.

------
kwamenum86
Cool. But I think most people would be able to guess who sent the text based
on who is likely to be buying shoes for them.

------
creativityhurts
Super simple and neat idea, awesome job!

------
jurre
Cool! Does this work outside of the US?

~~~
matznerd
theoretically it shouldy as twilio has recently expanded to UK, Canada, and
are in beta for a few others... <http://www.twilio.com/faq/international>
<http://www.twilio.com/international-sms>

------
ludicast
Wow, awesome. Do agree with the arguments about some of the freakiness, ut
could so this being huge.

------
gerbera
I really like this, nice job.

------
emilepetrone
Very sharp- great job!

------
danso
So I tried this on my friends while we were all waiting in line for a movie.

I tried it on one friend first and she glaced at it and immediately thought it
was spam. Then I sent it to her BF who thought it was weird but also assumed
it was spam. Both were annoyed when I told them I had sent it for giving a
service their phone #. The couple is young and fairly tech savvy.

Also, the message-success screen was too wide for the iPhone and would not
zoom out properly.

Perhaps this should be done by email? The big problem with the phone is that
you provide them with no context at all about the site.

------
aforty
Ok, this is awesome!

------
AznHisoka
Ok, so they sent them a text.. then what? Does it pick out the gift for me as
well? Does it send the gift to that person for me? Or it just gets the shoe
size, ring size, or whatever?

~~~
omfg
Really?

~~~
AznHisoka
Umm.. Look at the homepage Step #3) We find them great gifts.

If you're just finding the size, reword it to "You find them great gifts", NOT
we.

