Etacts (YC W10) launches Gmail Contextual Gadget | Hacker News Reader

Etacts (YC W10) launches Gmail Contextual Gadget

googleblog.blogspot.com

65 pointscominatchu19 comments

It would be nice if on the front page they addressed my privacy concerns in some way. I live in my Google account (gmail/docs/analytics, etc) and I'd like to know what information the app is going to have access to.

Something like Android's pre-install screen would be nice.

That is good feedback and we should make that more clear. To answer your question, the domain admin (when he installs the gadget for the domain) gives us access to each email header as you open the email. To install Etacts, the user clicks through an openid+oauth login screen that details which services we use (gmail and google contacts).

Are you somehow only limited to the headers or simply only using the headers?

3rd party access (beyond the email provider) to someone's entire mailbox seems like a hard sell. The product sounds compelling, but I'd be much more inclined if it were something like a local browser plugin.

I imagine a browser plugin would have access to the entire content of any email you opened.

It's not a browser plugin. It is a web component that Gmail hosts in an IFrame (or caja wrapper?). Your domain administrator must grant API access to the plugin provider's API key.

Can this gadget be used outside of Google Apps for domains?

In other words, can I use it on my gmail.com account?

Yes: https://etacts.com/

So it's like Rapportive but with the recent conversations and at the -bottom- of the email?

We also allow you to quickly set reminders on individuals with whom you'd like to stay in touch.

That's actually pretty huge all by itself - I got a YC interview from making a demo of that feature alone at a startup weekend last year.

http://gosnoozemail.com

It had a few other features too and I ended up having to defer the interview until I could find a cofounder.

Rapportive has raplets. (http://raplets.com)

Do they store any of your information?

They have access to:

Mail - Sender Address Mail - Subject Line Mail - To Recipient Addresses

I'll admit to not being super familiar with administering my Google Apps for Domain settings, but after adding it via the Google Apps Marketplace, and having it now added to my dashboard; it doesn't seem to be working. I realize this isn't Etacts support site, but I'm wondering if anyone else who uses Google Apps for Domain has it working?

Is there a reason why etacts.com doesn't show any screenshots?

this. feels like a terrible landing page (but if it works, it works)

etacts - might wanna do a "review my startup" post and get some feedback.

I just tried etacts for the first time and it seems to think I've received emails from some people before I ever had my gmail account. :/

Congrats on the launch guys! Do you have anything planned for Android? The reason I'm not mentioning iPhone here is because Android's default/primary contact list is in GMail, so it would probably make sense to integrate into Android contacts app and their alerts?

+1 for Android support. A "summary alert" once a week would be nice.

Thanks for the feedback, we do have an Android app planned.

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