

Annotate "How to Get Startup Ideas" - julien_c
http://www.annotatepg.com/

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bitsweet
I recommend ditching the pseudo-book UX with a page that scrolls vertically
(like the rest of the internet). Clicking to navigate through several pages
reminds me of this tweet I saw the other day.

 _"I like this thing that I'm reading on this website, but I wish it was
spread across more pages." –Nobody, Ever_

Otherwise, looks great

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grimtrigger
Definitely needs tweaking (use more of the blank space), but I disagree.
Scrolling is much more difficult on the eyes, since you need to track the last
line you read as it moves vertically. Do this 100 times in a row and it gets
pretty annoying.

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CaveTech
There was a really cool project a few months back of a variation of vertical
scrolling, where the current page is "peeled" back revealing the next page
from top to bottom.

The effect was you can read as you normally would but lines are stationary so
you don't have to track them. You'd reset your eyes to the top of the page
after finishing one. Not sure how I'd track it down sadly.

~~~
zevyoura
I believe this is the project you're referring to, though it's now integrated
into an ebook reader web app: <http://www.magicscroll.net/>

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jcomis
First off, awesome. I've always wanted something like this ( _especially_ for
pg's essays) and kicked around ideas for how to build something like it. A few
bits of feedback, mostly on the design/interaction side: I don't think only
offering twitter sign in is ideal, the pagination was not very
intuitive/easily discover-able (horizontal might be ok in mobile context with
swipes, but on desktop people want to scroll), the function of the bottom
progress bar is also not intuitive to me (seems more like a zoom at first
glance), the content itself is a little too "boxed in"- don't think there is a
need to contain it like that, and lastly the mobile experience (Gnex) is
lacking (everything is quite small, ui nearly impossible to interact with).

Totally understand that this is just a demo and you've probably thought of
this stuff already but thought I'd chime in just in case it is useful. Great
work!

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goronbjorn
Are the documents hosted on here intended to be public or privately shared? If
the former, I'd worry a bit about clashing with what RapGenius are doing.

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bri3d
Web document annotation isn't a new idea - I worked on a product called
Reframe It 5 years ago doing something similar:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1swp-2QeMI> , and we weren't even close to
the first to market: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_annotation> .

Just like everything else, there's room for more than one player in a market -
why should they be worried about competing with RapGenius?

~~~
mmastrac
Interesting - I was working on DotSpots around the same time. ReframeIt was
one of the people we figured were in the same space.

I've also hoped that web annotation will take off one day, but it seems fated
to sputter every time.

~~~
bri3d
We sure were! Fun to see someone we considered a competitor all those years
ago on HN also.

I think Rap Genius are on the right track: hosted specific-document annotation
seems like a good method to develop a web-annotation technology while still
making money at the same time. We had a lot of interest from specific-document
research organizations like lawyers and journalists, but the "annotate the
whole web" pitch didn't seem to go over too well.

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chrisfarms
Cool. Presents very well. Just to reenforce points others have made:

* Why can't I scroll? ... scrolling is how I read

* That "x" to close the comments pane is very small... I probably clicked around 3 or 4 times trying to get the thing to disappear.

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rhl
This is a great product idea, and a very simple yet powerful take on its
execution. Others have pointed many ways it could be improved (scrolling, the
"x" on the comment panel, etc.), but I cannot emphasize either how interesting
this could be.

This makes me think of "Project Syndicate", at <http://www.project-
syndicate.org/>, the public debate venue for economics/public policy thought
leaders from across the board. They have an interesting discussion system
based on comments users post about paragraphs. Maybe there's an avenue for
future cooperation there?

One way the product could improve is if the social component of the annotation
concept was made more obvious. An explanation of what happens when someone
comments would be welcome.

Also, will the be available as a private/semi-private product? I could use
this for my Kindle books, but would want to share only select highlights among
the many I make.

Overall, great job! Good luck with the YC application!

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jsomers
Nice!

Curious to know what you're using to parse the essays into sentences. Isn't
that quite difficult in the general case?

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eggbrain
Looks to be mostly just splitting by the period -- see article "Startup ==
Growth", page 17 near the bottom (splits on 1.7x at the period, although it
shouldn't)

~~~
flixic
Better algorithm, just as simple, would be splitting at ". ". Making something
smart enough to not split at "fig. 1" and the likes would be more difficult.

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eggbrain
Some thoughts:

1) When I click the "list" button at the top next to the essay name, it shows
me the same list that is on the left side of the screen. Why? Is there
something I can do there that I can't do somewhere else?

2) Why make your auth twitter? I see no value in tying it to twitter unless
you are expecting people to tweet all their annotations, which seems unlikely.

3) There's a ton of unused white space on the right, which makes the app feel
unbalanced.

4) The site is not very mobile friendly -- not a knock against you, but since
it looks like you are already doing responsive css, I thought the mobile site
would be much tighter.

5) Whoa, why are there dozens of media queries in there -- are you really
changing things every 10px?

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goetz
Looks cool! I'd like PG annotations to be integrated as annotations from
users, so you can read them and follow your reading easily (his comments can
be huge but quite informative).

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gmu3
After you click on a comment, I found closing the comment pane less simple
than it could be. The x to close it is fairly small and hidden, and I think it
would be nice if clicking on the comment bubble again just toggled it away
and/or clicking on the text still visible on the left slid the comments away.

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bensw
Seems quite similar to rapgenius

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6thSigma
Looks very nice.

I think allowing the article list to hide would make the app feel more
balanced. Right now the main part of your app takes up a very small real
estate on my screen.

Good luck on getting into YC!

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vyrotek
Is there a way to create a link directly to a specific annotation? I was
looking for a quick way to share a quote/annotation with someone. I'm not
interested in using or signing in with Twitter.

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arthurd
Great idea, i just pushed a modification to have urls pointing to specific
quotes. Now you can copy the url when the comment panel is opened and share
that url with anybody.

~~~
vyrotek
Nice work! I look forward to the royalty check in the mail. :)

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mojoe
It took me a minute to figure out that I needed to click the margins to turn
the page. Maybe add a small arrow or other indicator other than
cursor:pointer. Other than that, very nice.

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ajkjk
That's really cool. But oh-my-god let my mouse wheel scroll.

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davecyen
This is an awesome demo. Way to go and best of luck. I have a feeling you will
go far.

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mrgreenfur
Ahh, rapgenius for normal docs!

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adorable
Awesome product as usual!

How is this supposed to be monetized?

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latifnanji27
Can't scroll?

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sylvinus
good idea, terrible interface :(

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Rick-Butler
I like it, simple and elegant.

