

Show HN: StartHQ - a web app directory - olegp
http://www.arcticstartup.com/2013/03/11/starthq-targets-and-launches-web-apps

======
potomak
I checked my app, Tomatoes [1], it's listed:
<https://starthq.com/apps/tomatoes> but it has very poor ratings

Google 2/5 but from
[https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights#url=t...](https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights#url=tomato.es_2F&mobile=false)
I see it has 81/100

Trust, reliability and privacy are 1/5 and are taken from
<http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/tomato.es> but they don't apply because
there are "Not enough ratings for this site yet" so they should be listed as
"n/a" probably.

[1] <http://tomato.es>

~~~
olegp
Good point about the WOT ratings, will fix that! When it comes to PageSpeed,
81 is pretty low as most other apps are 95+ and the rating is calculated
relative to other entries in the directory. It should be easy enough to fix by
following the instructions that Google provides though. The scores are updated
daily btw.

Edit: It will have the nice side effect of improving performance for your
users and your Google search rank as well.

------
simonswords82
Great idea - any chance of getting our HR web app
<http://www.staffsquared.com> listed with you guys?

~~~
olegp
Done! <https://starthq.com/apps/staff-squared>

~~~
simonswords82
You rockstar :) Thank you so much

~~~
olegp
No problem! Actually apps get added automatically to my verification queue if
you sign up and add it to your launcher as a link. If the link hasn't been
seen before, I verify whether it's an app or not. People have already added a
bunch new cool apps since this post went up, you can see them on the last page
of the search results: <https://starthq.com/apps/?page=60>

~~~
simonswords82
Delighted we jumped in just ahead of blimp, which I'm a huge fan of :)

------
web64
A bit of a shameless plug here, but I launched a similar site a few weeks ago:
<http://applist.io>

applist.io is mainly focused on B2B SaaS apps for freelancers and small
businesses.

~~~
olegp
Nice! Are you based in Norway? We are practically neighbors then. Would be
great to chat to see if we can do something together.

------
oron
Find a way to escape the big old directory listing trap. Categories and such
and you have a killer page. The focus of the UX should be "what do I want to
achieve" find me an app that does X. currently it's too similar to lots of
other directories, last I checked most of them were zombies after a while.

~~~
olegp
Great advice! We started out with "the launcher" which is what you see when
you sign up, but few people found it useful. The response to the directory
though, which I agree has been done to death, has been very positive, so maybe
there's some truth to the Helsinki Bus Station theory
([http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/23/change-
li...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/23/change-life-
helsinki-bus-station-theory)) when applied to product.

------
niggler
Alongside the rankings (Speed, Trust, Reliability, Privacy) there should be
user ranking/rating. For me, curation is the biggest problem (yes, there are
hundreds of startups attacking collaboration, but which is the best for my
need?)

~~~
olegp
Will add that later this week, see my other comments below. I intentionally
want to keep reviews out for now though, since from talking to people it's
become apparent that most people find reviews by strangers somewhat useless
and would prefer recommendations from people they know & who understand them.

------
rustc
Nice idea.

There should also be some more tags or things that would help someone narrow
down results to less apps. Currently all categories seem to have 3-5 pages
with 10 apps each, with just a line of description and URL.

~~~
shloime
Agreed. Too many choices make it really difficult to choose.

~~~
olegp
On one level I want people to browse around a bit and discover new, niche apps
that they wouldn't find otherwise. What actually happened though is that we
have a bug in our ranking code at the moment. The search results should be
sorted by popularity based on Compete score and number of tweets & likes of
the app profile pages within StartHQ itself.

So, all I can say is: come back in a few days and you will find better apps
faster - at the moment I don't want to rock the boat by redeploying the server
wth 60+ users online at the same time due to the HN effect.

~~~
shloime
That sounds like a great solution. I'll be back!

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olegp
Direct link: <https://starthq.com>

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fruchtose
Is this site supposed to be for B2B or general purpose? I'm a bit confused
since the article doesn't specifically mention this as such, but the homepage
invites me to enter my work email.

~~~
olegp
B2B

------
sleepyhead
Not possible to add a web-app? How will the directory grow? I was planning to
list my app <http://makeplans.net>

~~~
olegp
See my comments below. The way to add web apps at the moment is by signing up
and adding the URL to the launcher. I'll add a proper app submission page soon
though.

PS. MakePlans added: <https://starthq.com/apps/makeplans>

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arrtoo
Love the idea! For some reason I totally missed the sign-up button, I was just
blind to it. You might wanna look at making it more obvious somehow.

~~~
olegp
Thanks, I'll experiment with making it more prominent.

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potomak
You're listing Hacker News as a productivity app :)

~~~
olegp
A bit of an inside joke. The rest of the reviews and categorizations are
serious, honest! ;)

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pseudobry
Nice! But when logged in I only get the search bar. When logged in it would be
nice to see the categories as well.

~~~
olegp
Already on it! Should be live later this week.

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shanbady
looks great;checkout my webapp directory which has apps that are mobile
optimized.

<http://webappvault.com>

