Show HN: Mapsaurus, the visual map of the Android Store
mapsaurus.com
mapsaurus.com
The idea is well executed, very slick, but I'm not sure how this site would help me discover fun new things as the friction is high (eg, have to remember your site first) - I'd almost want some sort of slide-like toolbar that scrolled apps with their descriptions at random at the bottom of my computer screen (yeah, that's distracting, but if I were into trying lots of different apps and had more time, that might be fine)
One more thing - you have the main headline "Discover great apps for your Android Phone" and a little below in green you say "Also available on Android" which seems unnecessary?
edit: I think my mistake might be that I was using it on my mac instead of using it from an android device (which I don't have) - so that use case makes more sense....
The subtitle "also available on Android" is a link to the Android Play Store because we're both a website and a native Android app. I think the Android app solves a bit of the problem with the friction; if a user has downloaded our app, they can easily go back to it later without having to remember the name.
I really like the idea of a sliding random list of apps (perhaps trending ones). The cool thing about our interface is that even if those random apps aren't perfect for the user, they can still provide great starting points for exploration.
Just a small detail: While sharing it on facebook I noticed that the sharing popup was cut off by the navigation frame and it was a bit hard to complete the message.
We built it in about 3 months.
We use SVG and d3.js for the web interface. In the Android app, we use native Canvas (and share Javascript code with the website-- about half of our code is shared between the Android app and website!)
Your Android app says "Double click an app to start." I think it would be more fitting to read "Double tap" instead.
A bit funny considering it's for finding Android apps.