

YC Reject Seeking Users for Beta  - will_brown

I wanted to begin registering Beta users for my startup www.Ommageo.com.<p>I don't know HN is the best place to solicit users for a Beta since so many in the HN community must dedicate time to their own projects, but the offer is open.  As always I am also welcoming all advice, so if you think there is a better place to find Beta users I am all ears.<p>Please email me if you are want to be a Beta.
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kerno
I've no idea what this does - can you elaborate?

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will_brown
www.ommageo.com is a combination of YouTube and Google Earth. Every video
uploaded to Ommageo is geotagged in Google Earth, so in addition to finding
videos through feeds of your friends and searches, users can browse Google
Earth and find video content based on location (and time).

Kerno if you or anyone else is still confused:

1\. visit the website, 2\. click the "Trending" button, and 3\. watch a video
for yourself.

Note Ommageo uses the Google Earth plug-in which is supported by Mac and
Windows operating systems.

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DividesByZero
You haven't explained why I should care about the location of video content?
What value are you aiming to provide?

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will_brown
Not only is location important to video content, so is time (both date the
video was uploaded and the date the video was created). Why? because that
information is invaluable for video discovery.

How does the average person discover content on Youtube? Surprise they don't
discover it on Youtube, because it was likely shared or embedded on another
website. 500 years worth of Youtube video is watched on Facebook everyday,
that could be users going straight to Youtube and discovering great content
for themselves (there is no shortage of great content), but the problem is
that video discovery on Youtube is so bad people do not go there to browse
content, rather they go when they are looking for a specific video. If you
still disagree look how many cable shows there are that simply have hosts
showing YouTube clips, those shows would not exist if it did not take an
entire team to browse Youtube just to find a half hour of quality content.

If posting videos to Google Earth and finding videos in Google Earth does not
sound fun or interesting to you, and you need to be sold on the "value" I am
creating, maybe this is not for you. The user experience is the inherent
value, your question is like asking why you should care about Google Earth
itself, it is simply a 3d representation of the Earth using satellite imagery
for the purpose of location based content what value are they aiming to
provide? Now if we can agree that location based content is valuable, then I
appear to be the first to tackle location based video content, and I welcome
anyone that wants to register for the Beta and I promise not to sell them on
anything and let them make up their mind for themselves.

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seadog33
> and you need to be sold on the "value" I am creating, maybe this is not for
> you

That's a rather closed-minded approach. Since you are trying to sell this to
us, why not try and make this idea appeal to us? To say that someone needn't
bother if the abstract idea you've presented doesn't seem to work for them...
that's pretty weak and (forgive me if I'm misinterpreting) even comes off as
arrogant. If you have a specific user base in mind, fine, but then say so.
Those who have posted so far haven't a clue the benefit they are getting out
of it. You might have a great product, but it never will be great if people
don't know about it/use it because it affects your bottom line. Instead of
brushing off this person's valid point, why not try and convince us about how
"fun and interesting" your product is? What about more specific use cases? Not
just "here's my product. Try it."

Overall, the reason the value is requested here is that we need to understand
beyond what your new product actually does. Why is it making our lives better?
Why should we want/need to go to it? Is the intent to solve some fundamental
need or frustration? If so, how does it do that?

The difference between your product and pure Google Earth is that Google Earth
was made by a large company that is exploring many different avenues, with an
already established financial base. Were you looking to monetize this
particular product in some way?

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will_brown
Welcome to HN seadog33.

"Ommageo is a combination of Google Earth and YouTube" -I did not intend to be
arrogant I just do not believe there is a better way to describe my start-up
than this simple sentence. It is self-explanatory and should not leave readers
wondering what Ommageo is or thinking this is some "abstract idea" (especially
when I posted the link and anyone can go there now and find videos in Google
Earth and watch them, use the search functions, and visit watch the "trending
video page" - all without registering).

>Instead of brushing off this person's valid point, why not try and convince
us about how "fun and interesting" your product is? What about more specific
use cases? Not just "here's my product. Try it."

I am not here to promote my website, sell anything, explain my strategy to
monetize the product, or convince anyone. I simply asked people who are
interested in being part of my beta to email me or offer advice on finding
additional beta testers. So its not like I am brushing anyone off, its just
that some people are interested in testing Ommageo because I described it as
combining Google Earth and Youtube, two products that people know and use,
while others find Ommageo abstract and think it will be made more clear by
answering business related questions. In my opinion there is nothing wrong
with saying that the Ommageo Beta might not be right for that second group.

>Those who have posted so far haven't a clue the benefit they are getting out
of it.

I cannot disagree with you on this point, but the qualifier is "Those who have
posted", because I have received emails from the people interested in the
Ommageo Beta, another HN member was even kind enough to share one of his
projects which is similar to mine but instead of video it was photo oriented.
So trust me people see the inherent benefit of combining Google Earth and
YouTube and more generally the benefit of location based media sharing and
discovery.

