5 ms·

Genius http://genius.com/ http://genius.com/

cheniel 11y ago
Genius is great. I enjoy using them for song lyrics and I'm hoping their other categories (esp. web annotations) take off as well.
joelrunyon 11y ago
Does anyone else think it's actually difficult to use genius? Also, the white text on black background makes it notoriously difficult to read & seems like a choice made by someone designing a geocities site. Not a great choice for something that's core feature is "readability"
- i336_ 11y ago
  Yes. I remember reading an article on Genius about Heroku (FWIW, http://genius.com/James-somers-herokus-ugly-secret-annotated http://genius.com/James-somers-herokus-ugly-secret-annotated) and hadn't initially bookmarked it. I eventually remembered the "Genius" bit, so went to genius.com to locate the arti-- "...Wait. This is a lyrics sharing site." "Uhh, what?" I had to use my browser history (and my now-dented, slightly-less-certain hunch it was genius.com) to find the article. I like the yellow on black with the hollywood-style hatch-like design, but yeah, it doesn't "have it" just yet.
j_s 11y ago
Would you care to share any additional details explaining why you would highlight just this one of your favorite startups? In my mind, Genius = bad press.
- tedmiston 11y ago
  Sure, two reasons: 1. I believe the web needs an annotation layer, somewhat analogous to the vision of Wikipedia but available globally across all sites. 2. I highlight and annotate aggressively when I read, which is why I care so much about annotation tools. Today I think there are a couple good tools for annotating the web. For drafts or private highlights and annotations I use Instapaper (premium subscription needed). Their is simple and barebones, but functional... it reminds me of Pinboard. However, Genius annotations are public and richer with embedded media, commenting, voting, etc. Another early candidate to watch in annotating the research vertical specifically is Hypothesis (https://hypothes.is https://hypothes.is).
BorisMelnik 11y ago
is this the website that was formely rap genius?
- cheniel 11y ago
  yes

Genius is great. I enjoy using them for song lyrics and I'm hoping their other categories (esp. web annotations) take off as well.

joelrunyon 11y ago

Does anyone else think it's actually difficult to use genius? Also, the white text on black background makes it notoriously difficult to read & seems like a choice made by someone designing a geocities site. Not a great choice for something that's core feature is "readability"

i336_ 11y ago
Yes. I remember reading an article on Genius about Heroku (FWIW, http://genius.com/James-somers-herokus-ugly-secret-annotated http://genius.com/James-somers-herokus-ugly-secret-annotated) and hadn't initially bookmarked it. I eventually remembered the "Genius" bit, so went to genius.com to locate the arti-- "...Wait. This is a lyrics sharing site." "Uhh, what?" I had to use my browser history (and my now-dented, slightly-less-certain hunch it was genius.com) to find the article. I like the yellow on black with the hollywood-style hatch-like design, but yeah, it doesn't "have it" just yet.

j_s 11y ago

Would you care to share any additional details explaining why you would highlight just this one of your favorite startups? In my mind, Genius = bad press.

tedmiston 11y ago
Sure, two reasons: 1. I believe the web needs an annotation layer, somewhat analogous to the vision of Wikipedia but available globally across all sites. 2. I highlight and annotate aggressively when I read, which is why I care so much about annotation tools. Today I think there are a couple good tools for annotating the web. For drafts or private highlights and annotations I use Instapaper (premium subscription needed). Their is simple and barebones, but functional... it reminds me of Pinboard. However, Genius annotations are public and richer with embedded media, commenting, voting, etc. Another early candidate to watch in annotating the research vertical specifically is Hypothesis (https://hypothes.is https://hypothes.is).

BorisMelnik 11y ago

is this the website that was formely rap genius?

cheniel 11y ago
yes