4 ms·

Etacts (YC W10) releases first implementation of Gmail OAuth for IMAP

64 points by cominatchu 17y ago

cominatchu 17y ago
HN -- just want to let you know that we listened to your collective feedback on our Etacts launch post last week
- jbyers 17y ago
  Congratulations on the fast turnaround. I have the dubious distinction of writing the somewhat snarky top-voted thread on your previous post [1]. While I'd still like a better understand of etact's privacy features, not having to enter my Google password is good enough for now. I've signed up. 1. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1144606 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1144606
jon_dahl 17y ago
This is a big deal. I'm not going to share my Gmail password with anyone (except my wife, maybe) - which was too bad, because Etacts is a really useful service. Now I'm able to sign up without giving them my password. Hopefully other mail providers will do the same thing.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
mixergyNOTES 17y ago
MixergyNotes on the founder of Etacts http://mixergynotes.com/howie-liu-etacts/ http://mixergynotes.com/howie-liu-etacts/
- covercash 17y ago
  Thanks for posting relevant content to this discussion. I think I would appreciate it even more if your username and url weren't the same. It would make it feel more genuine and less spammy. Perhaps try participating in the discussions as well, not just posting links to your site (as of writing this you have 2 comments, both are links to your site).
apgwoz 17y ago
Are other people getting a revoked certificate error when accessing this with Chrome? Firefox doesn't complain, but Chrome 5.0 on Ubuntu is all over it.
anthropocentric 17y ago
To be clear, you still need to give Etacts your password IF you use Google Apps (not simply gmail), right?
- endtime 17y ago
  I'd like to know too. My primary personal account is on Google Apps.
- fjabre 17y ago
  I just signed up with my domain account and I did not give them my password, although on their site they state that they need it for Google Apps accounts. Pretty odd. It's still in the 'setup' state so I can't really do anything in their UI yet but it did let me login with my google apps email never the less.
  - stanleydrew 17y ago
    If you set up a Google Account with your domain email address wouldn't that explain this?
anthropocentric 17y ago
FYI: Finding it odd that there is no "sign in" button. Tried putting my e-mail address back-in on the home page and I get "need oauth token"
yurisagalov 17y ago
A couple of comments/ideas/suggestions/feel free to ignore me/etc... 1. The lack of sign in button is confusing (this can be solved by simply renaming 'Go' to 'Login') 2. I've been waiting for etacts to finish importing whatever it is importing for almost 6 hours, and with no ETA / status bar / email update I'm inclined to feel that it's either not working, is heavily bottle necked, or something went wrong 3. Assuming the system is actually just busy doing all the processing on my emails, as an end user I would prefer it to do all this in the background, in a manner that is oblivious to me. 4. This means you could/should display 'incomplete' information, as long as it comes with the warning of 'We've still got XXXXXX emails to process' or something similar :) I really just wanted to see what the interface/experience is like, regardless of exactly how much information you've processed (i.e. I'm ok with seeing a 'last contacted 3 years ago' message, even though I contacted them yesterday, because I realize you're still processing the information, but I want to see it now, not five hours from now :) You do a great job at a very simple one-click login/signup, but having to wait forever to use this will (imo) lose a lot of people down the road who just "want to try it" (one of the best quotable comments I've heard a few weeks ago was from one of the founders of BackType -- "Your biggest enemy is the back button") Anyway, I do look forward to using it asap :D
- howsta 17y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. 1) Login button text is fixed. 2) Sorry, having some delays from too many users trying to sign up. We're working on speeding up the import process now. Sorry for the delay!
  - yurisagalov 17y ago
    No worries on the delay, I know you're probably suffering growing pains, which, as we all know, are the best kinds of pains :P My comments were an attempt at looking at things from other users perspective :)
  - yurisagalov 17y ago
    So I know I said no worries, but it's been >24 hours now, and it's still not done importing my contacts (I don't have THAT many ;)... Any ideas on what's going on? (I might not get a response here since this is on the 3rd page now... but going to try anyway ;)
euroclydon 17y ago
First I've heard of etacts. Aside form their actual product, I'm more interested in them as a Ycombinator company, because I can't imagine what the growth/exit strategy for this type of company is. It seems to me that YC is looking for smart people that can crunch a bunch of data. In that sense, they are competing directly with hedge funds for talent. So if you're smart, know some stats, and crunch a bunch of data for a few years, I'll bet you can then turn your collective brain power and IP and any problem you choose.
- pg 17y ago
  I can't imagine what the growth/exit strategy for this type of company is Here's a related puzzle for you. In 1975 a company appears whose product is a Basic interpreter for a cheap microcomputer used by hobbyists. What is their exit strategy?
  - jfarmer 17y ago
    A BASIC interpreter? I wish people would work on real problems, and not toys.
  - euroclydon 17y ago
    Are you saying their strategy is puzzling or not? If not, then is it similar to MSFT? If it is puzzling, are you agreeing with the rest of my comment?
    - netcan 17y ago
      I'm not sure if you are pretending not to understand. The point being made above is clearly that it is not possible to have an exit strategy at that point because the world & the product will change.
      - euroclydon 17y ago
        Okay, It's my naivete even mentioning the word exit. I'm sure nobody's at YC is interested in an exit anyhow. I was just trying to get a sense for whether this product had legs or whether the team and area of technology were the driving factor. However, now that I've heard the term: PCMS, I see the value. I didn't make the connection with CMS. Now, if Etacts would just actually import my gmail...
akardell 17y ago
Has there been an announcement on general availability of Gmail OAuth? Found the techcrunch article about an expected announcement, but no announcement as of yet.
- fjabre 17y ago
  I'd actually be really interested to look at those API specs. Anyone? This has been a long time coming: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849586 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849586
zaph0d 17y ago
Is it just me, or is Etacts really dog-slow?

64 points by cominatchu 17y ago

cominatchu 17y ago

HN -- just want to let you know that we listened to your collective feedback on our Etacts launch post last week

jbyers 17y ago
Congratulations on the fast turnaround. I have the dubious distinction of writing the somewhat snarky top-voted thread on your previous post [1]. While I'd still like a better understand of etact's privacy features, not having to enter my Google password is good enough for now. I've signed up. 1. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1144606 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1144606

jon_dahl 17y ago

This is a big deal. I'm not going to share my Gmail password with anyone (except my wife, maybe) - which was too bad, because Etacts is a really useful service. Now I'm able to sign up without giving them my password. Hopefully other mail providers will do the same thing.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

mixergyNOTES 17y ago

MixergyNotes on the founder of Etacts http://mixergynotes.com/howie-liu-etacts/ http://mixergynotes.com/howie-liu-etacts/

covercash 17y ago
Thanks for posting relevant content to this discussion. I think I would appreciate it even more if your username and url weren't the same. It would make it feel more genuine and less spammy. Perhaps try participating in the discussions as well, not just posting links to your site (as of writing this you have 2 comments, both are links to your site).

apgwoz 17y ago

Are other people getting a revoked certificate error when accessing this with Chrome? Firefox doesn't complain, but Chrome 5.0 on Ubuntu is all over it.

anthropocentric 17y ago

To be clear, you still need to give Etacts your password IF you use Google Apps (not simply gmail), right?

endtime 17y ago
I'd like to know too. My primary personal account is on Google Apps.
fjabre 17y ago
I just signed up with my domain account and I did not give them my password, although on their site they state that they need it for Google Apps accounts. Pretty odd. It's still in the 'setup' state so I can't really do anything in their UI yet but it did let me login with my google apps email never the less.
- stanleydrew 17y ago
  If you set up a Google Account with your domain email address wouldn't that explain this?

anthropocentric 17y ago

FYI: Finding it odd that there is no "sign in" button. Tried putting my e-mail address back-in on the home page and I get "need oauth token"

yurisagalov 17y ago

A couple of comments/ideas/suggestions/feel free to ignore me/etc... 1. The lack of sign in button is confusing (this can be solved by simply renaming 'Go' to 'Login') 2. I've been waiting for etacts to finish importing whatever it is importing for almost 6 hours, and with no ETA / status bar / email update I'm inclined to feel that it's either not working, is heavily bottle necked, or something went wrong 3. Assuming the system is actually just busy doing all the processing on my emails, as an end user I would prefer it to do all this in the background, in a manner that is oblivious to me. 4. This means you could/should display 'incomplete' information, as long as it comes with the warning of 'We've still got XXXXXX emails to process' or something similar :) I really just wanted to see what the interface/experience is like, regardless of exactly how much information you've processed (i.e. I'm ok with seeing a 'last contacted 3 years ago' message, even though I contacted them yesterday, because I realize you're still processing the information, but I want to see it now, not five hours from now :) You do a great job at a very simple one-click login/signup, but having to wait forever to use this will (imo) lose a lot of people down the road who just "want to try it" (one of the best quotable comments I've heard a few weeks ago was from one of the founders of BackType -- "Your biggest enemy is the back button") Anyway, I do look forward to using it asap :D

howsta 17y ago
Thanks for the feedback. 1) Login button text is fixed. 2) Sorry, having some delays from too many users trying to sign up. We're working on speeding up the import process now. Sorry for the delay!
- yurisagalov 17y ago
  No worries on the delay, I know you're probably suffering growing pains, which, as we all know, are the best kinds of pains :P My comments were an attempt at looking at things from other users perspective :)
- yurisagalov 17y ago
  So I know I said no worries, but it's been >24 hours now, and it's still not done importing my contacts (I don't have THAT many ;)... Any ideas on what's going on? (I might not get a response here since this is on the 3rd page now... but going to try anyway ;)

euroclydon 17y ago

First I've heard of etacts. Aside form their actual product, I'm more interested in them as a Ycombinator company, because I can't imagine what the growth/exit strategy for this type of company is. It seems to me that YC is looking for smart people that can crunch a bunch of data. In that sense, they are competing directly with hedge funds for talent. So if you're smart, know some stats, and crunch a bunch of data for a few years, I'll bet you can then turn your collective brain power and IP and any problem you choose.

pg 17y ago
I can't imagine what the growth/exit strategy for this type of company is Here's a related puzzle for you. In 1975 a company appears whose product is a Basic interpreter for a cheap microcomputer used by hobbyists. What is their exit strategy?
- jfarmer 17y ago
  A BASIC interpreter? I wish people would work on real problems, and not toys.
- euroclydon 17y ago
  Are you saying their strategy is puzzling or not? If not, then is it similar to MSFT? If it is puzzling, are you agreeing with the rest of my comment?
  - netcan 17y ago
    I'm not sure if you are pretending not to understand. The point being made above is clearly that it is not possible to have an exit strategy at that point because the world & the product will change.
    - euroclydon 17y ago
      Okay, It's my naivete even mentioning the word exit. I'm sure nobody's at YC is interested in an exit anyhow. I was just trying to get a sense for whether this product had legs or whether the team and area of technology were the driving factor. However, now that I've heard the term: PCMS, I see the value. I didn't make the connection with CMS. Now, if Etacts would just actually import my gmail...

akardell 17y ago

Has there been an announcement on general availability of Gmail OAuth? Found the techcrunch article about an expected announcement, but no announcement as of yet.

fjabre 17y ago
I'd actually be really interested to look at those API specs. Anyone? This has been a long time coming: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849586 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849586

zaph0d 17y ago

Is it just me, or is Etacts really dog-slow?