Comment by rezrovs | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rezrovs | Hacker News Reader

A few things:

1) no download, no registration - but I still have to enter a username and password. So I don't understand why you say 'no registration' when I still have to register a username

2) there is no compelling reason for me to install this - it took a while to find this which I guess is the main reason I would install it: 'Synchronized: Access Dashler from any computer and browser.'

3) When I clicked on 'Home' I expected to go to http://www.dashler.com/toolbar/ - I did not realise that the toolbar was not the main thing about Dashler. Then it also took me a while to work out how to get back to the toolbar page again.

4) I agree with a previous poster that I would have loved to see screenshots as I can't view videos at work

Lastly - looks like fun and an interesting idea, but it's not completely clear to me why I should want it. Perhaps you need to make that more clear on the front page.

You don't have to enter a username and password, it's optional. If you don't provide an account, it will create a temporary Guest account, and use a cookie. It's entirely an optional process to type in a username and password. If you want to use your Toolbar across multiple browsers, or if you don't want your toolbar to reset if your cookie is destroyed, then you need to make an account.

You can try the toolbar without installing it by clicking "try it out".

I've found it very difficult to describe what the toolbar does without showing it. Perhaps you are right, I may need screenshots or a slideshow instead of a video.

You're absolutely right, the navigation is odd. The Toolbar might just become all of Dashler. I wanted to offer a start page that allowed you to search multiple sites, as well as instantly search anything you've bookmarked with Dashler. I might scrap it and make the whole focus the toolbar.

The compelling reason to use it is that it ties together the page you are viewing with a variety of shortcuts and tools. I frequently use it to reference a URL I'm viewing against, for example, Reddit. There's a shortcut called "is this on reddit?" which shows me reddit submissions for the URL I'm viewing. There's a shortcut to find which pages link to the page I'm viewing. A shortcut to find conversations across all social media sites for the URL I'm viewing (via BackType). I can search within the site with Google, or get traffic ratings from Quantcast, or see how it's been tagged on Delicious.

On top of that, it's an easy way to bookmark things, and manage your bookmarklets.

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