4 ms·

Ask HN: would you give us feedback about our saas directory ?

thibaut_barrere 17y ago
A few months back we were looking for a place that would keep track of saas building-blocks that we find useful to build applications (we = Sébastien Gruhier and me). So we finally decided to build this little directory and put it online. We're working on adding more content to it as we go. Please note I'm aware other HNers are working on similar stuff! We just happened to work on this during the last couple of months, it was time we release it :) Any feedback will be most welcome!
- adora 17y ago
  I'm going to guess you know about: http://www.programmableweb.com/apis/directory http://www.programmableweb.com/apis/directory I like your UI much better, however.
  - thibaut_barrere 17y ago
    Well no actually! I didn't know about this one. Thanks for the link!
_pius 17y ago
I love the design; I'll be watching it as you add more services.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- thibaut_barrere 17y ago
  Thank you - you'll want to follow http://twitter.com/kingofapi http://twitter.com/kingofapi for updates - I'll push each new site registered there.
  - savant 17y ago
    Register kingofapi.com as well please before I do :)
    - thibaut_barrere 17y ago
      well - I just did it, but just because you were threatening :) It would be good to get the twitter kingapi name, but no luck so far!
stse 17y ago
Implement the standard "community" things like rating, tags and comments. Make it sortable by paid/freemium. Create a "suggest a service" form to replace the email adress, and put up some contact information. I like the overall design, but maybe the logo "style" seems a bit out of place.
- thibaut_barrere 17y ago
  Yeah the logo is a bit cheesy :) Thanks for the suggestions - we will definitely put a form and allow to filter on paid/freemium. Community stuff is also on our list for later on. Thanks!
  - farnsworth 17y ago
    Honestly I liked the logo, but I'm not crazy about the font it uses.
    - thibaut_barrere 17y ago
      Not sure it's really readable, having a second look. Maybe switching to a more common font will be better here. Thanks for the note.
jmonegro 17y ago
shorten the width a little, I have to side scroll on my netbook. Annoying. Also, I can't open a link by middle-clicking it with my mouse. Annoying as well. Otherwise, pretty nice idea.
- thibaut_barrere 17y ago
  good point, thanks - I'll see if we can fix this!
qeorge 17y ago
A couple of UI things: 1) Can you make it so I can click anywhere on the box instead of just the company title? 2) Putting the item I selected at the top of the list is OK, but unexpected. I would expect these links to go to a profile page or directly to the website. Example: http://www.kingapi.com/billing?selected=cheddargetter http://www.kingapi.com/billing?selected=cheddargetter 3) Make real links to the website, instead of doing the Javascript redirect. Otherwise I can't open the links in a new tab or see the target in the status bar. Otherwise, the site is nice. I like the presentation and the list of services is high quality.
- thibaut_barrere 17y ago
  1) it should already be the case - does it doesn't work on your machine ? which browser ? [edit] 1) I found out - it's not clickable everywhere, there are some spots where it doesn't work. Will fix this! 2) yes, I think it's a bit weird - I will likely change it so it goes to the profile page, and add a "more billing/maps services" underneath 3) good point Thanks!
- decadentcactus 17y ago
  I second point 2, it just seemed weird. As well it wasn't very pronounced (ie it was on top of the list, but maybe it was just sorted funny? Didn't feel like I came to the page to see that). Definitely agree on using a single profile page.
  - thibaut_barrere 17y ago
    It doesn't 'feel' well, I agree. We will put some kind of profile page later on, for the mean time I'm just going to redirect to the website directly, it's just more clear. Thanks!
techarch 17y ago
I like the idea to have a place to catalog API-based solutions. It would be interesting to have folks vote for popular APIs.
- thibaut_barrere 17y ago
  I'll see how we can implement a useful vote feature.
arethuza 17y ago
Looks pretty good. However, I suspect your real challenge will be keeping the signal to noise ratio high.
- thibaut_barrere 17y ago
  Spot on - based on my previous experience (with http://learnivore.com http://learnivore.com), selection is the key. I hope we will manage to keep a good selection up there.
Sujan 17y ago
Get rid of the shadows on the screenshots, ahte it when sites aren't represented the way the really look. Add language or markets and filters for them.
- thibaut_barrere 17y ago
  shadows: we tried without first but we didn't like it. I may try with less shadow later on though :) language/markets - what do you mean more precisely ?
adamzochowski 17y ago
middle click / control click does not work. I do not know how others browse, but among my friends it is common to middle click when having a list of things to checkout.

A few months back we were looking for a place that would keep track of saas building-blocks that we find useful to build applications (we = Sébastien Gruhier and me). So we finally decided to build this little directory and put it online. We're working on adding more content to it as we go. Please note I'm aware other HNers are working on similar stuff! We just happened to work on this during the last couple of months, it was time we release it :) Any feedback will be most welcome!

adora 17y ago
I'm going to guess you know about: http://www.programmableweb.com/apis/directory http://www.programmableweb.com/apis/directory I like your UI much better, however.
- thibaut_barrere 17y ago
  Well no actually! I didn't know about this one. Thanks for the link!

_pius 17y ago

I love the design; I'll be watching it as you add more services.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
thibaut_barrere 17y ago
Thank you - you'll want to follow http://twitter.com/kingofapi http://twitter.com/kingofapi for updates - I'll push each new site registered there.
- savant 17y ago
  Register kingofapi.com as well please before I do :)
  - thibaut_barrere 17y ago
    well - I just did it, but just because you were threatening :) It would be good to get the twitter kingapi name, but no luck so far!

stse 17y ago

Implement the standard "community" things like rating, tags and comments. Make it sortable by paid/freemium. Create a "suggest a service" form to replace the email adress, and put up some contact information. I like the overall design, but maybe the logo "style" seems a bit out of place.

thibaut_barrere 17y ago
Yeah the logo is a bit cheesy :) Thanks for the suggestions - we will definitely put a form and allow to filter on paid/freemium. Community stuff is also on our list for later on. Thanks!
- farnsworth 17y ago
  Honestly I liked the logo, but I'm not crazy about the font it uses.
  - thibaut_barrere 17y ago
    Not sure it's really readable, having a second look. Maybe switching to a more common font will be better here. Thanks for the note.

jmonegro 17y ago

shorten the width a little, I have to side scroll on my netbook. Annoying. Also, I can't open a link by middle-clicking it with my mouse. Annoying as well. Otherwise, pretty nice idea.

thibaut_barrere 17y ago
good point, thanks - I'll see if we can fix this!

qeorge 17y ago

A couple of UI things: 1) Can you make it so I can click anywhere on the box instead of just the company title? 2) Putting the item I selected at the top of the list is OK, but unexpected. I would expect these links to go to a profile page or directly to the website. Example: http://www.kingapi.com/billing?selected=cheddargetter http://www.kingapi.com/billing?selected=cheddargetter 3) Make real links to the website, instead of doing the Javascript redirect. Otherwise I can't open the links in a new tab or see the target in the status bar. Otherwise, the site is nice. I like the presentation and the list of services is high quality.

thibaut_barrere 17y ago
1) it should already be the case - does it doesn't work on your machine ? which browser ? [edit] 1) I found out - it's not clickable everywhere, there are some spots where it doesn't work. Will fix this! 2) yes, I think it's a bit weird - I will likely change it so it goes to the profile page, and add a "more billing/maps services" underneath 3) good point Thanks!
decadentcactus 17y ago
I second point 2, it just seemed weird. As well it wasn't very pronounced (ie it was on top of the list, but maybe it was just sorted funny? Didn't feel like I came to the page to see that). Definitely agree on using a single profile page.
- thibaut_barrere 17y ago
  It doesn't 'feel' well, I agree. We will put some kind of profile page later on, for the mean time I'm just going to redirect to the website directly, it's just more clear. Thanks!

techarch 17y ago

I like the idea to have a place to catalog API-based solutions. It would be interesting to have folks vote for popular APIs.

thibaut_barrere 17y ago
I'll see how we can implement a useful vote feature.

arethuza 17y ago

Looks pretty good. However, I suspect your real challenge will be keeping the signal to noise ratio high.

thibaut_barrere 17y ago
Spot on - based on my previous experience (with http://learnivore.com http://learnivore.com), selection is the key. I hope we will manage to keep a good selection up there.

Sujan 17y ago

Get rid of the shadows on the screenshots, ahte it when sites aren't represented the way the really look. Add language or markets and filters for them.

thibaut_barrere 17y ago
shadows: we tried without first but we didn't like it. I may try with less shadow later on though :) language/markets - what do you mean more precisely ?

adamzochowski 17y ago

middle click / control click does not work. I do not know how others browse, but among my friends it is common to middle click when having a list of things to checkout.