browser411

Thumbs up on this list!

I'll echo your points about discovery. Lots of amazing products occupy the long tail that I just don't know about. Amazon does a decent job with their "you may also be interested in" algorithm but they could make the process a lot more fun.

Disagree that no one buys clothing online. It's a massive industry.

Agree that the process is broken. I know someone who orders multiple sizes and colors of a single item and returns most of it after trying it all on. Lot of obvious inefficiency here.

I wonder how much a place like zappos (great return policy) pays for all the returns at the end of the day. I know shoes aren't clothes strictly speaking but it suffers from similar issues.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

I think a 1 page resume is essential. Even Gates or Jobs could have a kick-ass 1 pager.

Exceptions include a need to list technical details like published papers/books, patents, etc.

Great idea--just makes a lot of sense. Some thoughts on UI:

1) Would be great to put listings front and center on the homepage. The idea doesn't need a whole lot of explaining (it's a good thing)

2) I wouldn't auto-hide the internship details on a listing. That is the most important info on the entire site, I think.

3) Agree with commenter that most people prob browse rather than search

Would prefer to see some sort of demo that doesn't require signing up. Maybe a interactive demo, simple flash presentation or at least graphical use cases.

Nitpick: big buttons at the bottom don't seem clickable.

Anyone else bothered by their private labeling practices?

"...the chain also tests branded products to see how well they sell in the stores, and then approaches the manufacturer to make a private label version. The manufacturer's awkward choice is to do it, or let his competitor have the business. (Not to give them a free plug, but several observers say Trader Joe's has a penchant for knocking off or tweaking items...

Would be a lot more interesting if you could mention what your startup does....

Debated whether to re-post or not, but given the unprecedented fallout from the previous week, I thought it was timely. I always point folks to this when they start asking about the subprime mess--it's much more engaging than some of the long, dry articles around.

Apologies to those seeing it again. Hopefully it reached some new eyes.

I wonder if this is a case of over-engineering a solution. Does it have that much more of a positive effect compared to a lower tech solution (e.g., bag of ice). The machine costs $2500 retail.

Yup. Same error for me as well--it was started by a non-hacker... :) However, just quickly glancing the article, I thought that it was a very useful idea. Back in the college app days, I would scour rankings, reports, guides and would get annoyed that they'd show only a peek. Also, it wasn't super clear how something like U.S. News Report graded the colleges.

As a user:

I use Yelp quite a bit... but I don't really trust their rating system since I heard a while back that they pay a lot of their reviewers or "marketing associates". I've often found myself disagreeing with their ratings.

I used Zagats almost exclusively during my corporate days. Reviews seemed pretty trustworthy but the whole annual publishing thing was way too slow.

As a business:

I've heard from classmates of a Zagat family member that the company does pretty well financially. From what I remember, all my consulting/banking friends got a Zagats membership as a company perk, which helped build brand loyalty and probably generated dependable cash flow.

On the other hand, I've heard from media reports that Yelp doesn't generate a lot of cash (they've taken 4 rounds of VC financing). I guess they're waiting for the big exit for their great traffic growth.

Another option:

I recently embarked on this same task for the first time. We found a terrific lawyer who has worked at some big name firms but started his own small practice. Apparently, more than a handful of folks at the big firms do this for various reasons (e.g., lifestyle, more time w/fewer clients).

We found him through a friend who works at a big firm. BTW, the rates these lawyers charge are typically half of the big firms, and you can be assured that they will personally do the work as opposed to a entry-level associate.

Email me at 1isnotprime at gmail for names. If these guys have full plates, they can refer you to their colleagues.

I think he meant the ability to have higher valuation, which often is cited as a multiple of revenue, EBIDTA, etc. For instance, a publicly traded company will tend to have a higher valuation than a private one b/c it is more liquid and stockholders can cash out on some stock exchange at any time.

Dell's vostro (business) line is very nice if you don't want to shell out for XPS. I got a 14", which they don't make any more but I think is the sweet spot for screen size, personally. Build quality is extremely solid and design is nondescript, which fits my style.

Not to pimp my own entry, but I just submitted a post to HN about a 40 yr old company that makes $50-100MM/yr selling white label social network services. Interesting, but perhaps not extremely scalable (i.e., needs a sales force).

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=227040

intrigued, i bought a bunch of their beta bars and sent them some friends as presents. even those who don't care much for dark chocolate really like the bar. i'm pretty sure you'd be able to tell the difference btw hershey's and tcho. it's cool b/c i could taste a lot of different "flavors" like grapefruit. i am biased b/c i'm a bit of a food geek...

spoke to a "in the know" silicon valley lawyer about this a few days ago. two of the three triggers he mentioned are similar to the one posted by tandaraho: 1) when you need to limit exposure to liabilities (e.g., from customers/clients/users); 2) when you've developed intellectual property that needs to be assigned to an entity; 3) when your business partner(s) need firm clarity on where everyone stand.