Hacker News Reader

Comment by webwright | Hacker News Reader

Why not do "Hacker News Readers" as a niche?

I'm just one data point... But, while I think I grok what you're doing, I'm not sure I grok why I should want it. When I read articles, maybe 1 out of 10 makes me want to explore further. When I do want to explore further, there's usually a pretty natural way to do it-- the google search box in my browser. Google uses the link graph to find stuff related to the keyword. You're proposing to have users do it, right? The Google path doesn't seem to be broken to me... Other than the rare time that I can't think up the right search phrase to get good results.

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I'm sure you sometimes click on hyperlinks besides those that show up in search results. The point is to make navigation of that manner via related hyper-links better, which is somewhat orthogonal to search we think. Sure, you can search and find anything, but it's not quite the same as just browsing by clicking links.

Google uses the link graph to find stuff related to the keyword. You're proposing to have users do it, right?

I'm proposing to have users create a new link-graph, separate from the web's own inherent link graph. Keywords have nothing to do with it. :) - Looks like my home page isn't as clear as I thought.

I'd suggest a screencast on how to use it. Is it a separate site? An add-on that allows me to explore/suggest sites based on what I'm currently viewing?

I think I'll be adding my demo to the home page soon, once I polish it. Otherwise, it can be pretty confusing.

There is probably going to be more than one way to use it, but the main way would be a browser extension. A web toolbar is also going to be there for people who don't like installing extensions, to get them started fast. You can see the demo of that (only shows you how you might browse through, had no functionality to add links): http://prettyobscure.jellly.com/

Let me know if it makes any more sense after trying the demo :)

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