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Rate my startup: oyoLive - Real-Time Mouse Tracking and Live Chat

34 points by thomas-st 16y ago

thomas-st 16y ago
Hi HNers! My name is Thomas and I study computer science in Switzerland. Today I am launching the oyoLive private beta. oyoLive is an analytics tool that allows you to see mouse and keyboard actions of your website visitors in real-time. Combined with a live chat, you can offer support for customers currently on your site. The beta is free, and I'd like you to test the software on your websites and also let me know what use cases you see for using it. Looking forward for your feedback!
- dannyr 16y ago
  What technologies did you use? NodeJS, Python, etc?
  - thomas-st 16y ago
    Hey, I'm using Python (Django, gunicorn) for the web site. The chat uses long polling and live-tracking in the panel is done using WebSockets.
    - dannyr 16y ago
      Cool. Why did you decide to use gunicorn over Apache? Easy installation?
      - thomas-st 16y ago
        I am using it with gevent to have efficient long polling/WebSockets. A gevent-websocket sample is included in gunicorn, and I use that as a basis for my WebSocket implementation. It's been a long time since I last used Apache for a deployment.
- mikemol 16y ago
  Beta signup form broken? It looks like all the input fields from "website you'd like to use" onward (including submit button/links) are missing.
  - thomas-st 16y ago
    It is working for me. Which browser are you using? If it's broken, please send me a screenshot to hello@oyolive.com
    - mikemol 16y ago
      Looks like it works now. Wish I'd taken a screenshot earlier. FF 3.6.8 on Win7 Ultimate x64. Display at 1600x1200 @ 120dpi.
- mikemol 16y ago
  A point of worry. You mention tracking keyboard actions. Does that include as they're typing into text and password fields? If you're trying to avoid capturing that kind of data, how can you be sure you're filtering out, e.g. custom JS-driven text widgets?
  - thomas-st 16y ago
    Right now it captures any text field. I am planning to implement a filter so the website owner can choose which fields they don't want to capture. An idea would be also to specify an entire area of the page that shouldn't be captured.
    - mikemol 16y ago
      Is it plausible to turn off all text capture, or use an 'opt-in' approach to fields and hooks, rather than an opt-out? (edit: On the part of the site administrator, I mean.)
      - thomas-st 16y ago
        Planned (no capture for password fields and an opt-out for other text fields). An option might be also to just display stars on regular input fields, so you could see that users are typing, but not see what they actually type.
        mikemol 16y ago
        And it doesn't capture keyboard input except from known text widgets? My paranoia rests with pagewide onKey* hooks and the like. I'm not a JS guy, though, but I'd assume those are possible. That's why I was curious about total opt-out of key trappings.
        thomas-st 16y ago
        Currently it only captures known input widgets, i.e. no global key strokes.
clavinator 16y ago
great webapp Thomas! I'll definitely sign up for the beta.
SteliE 16y ago
this looks super cool!!! nice job...
nazarl 16y ago
Cool! I'would like to see that on live too.
arunpattnaik 16y ago
Looks very interesting. Can't wait to use it!
mhp 16y ago
This looks very cool! My one concern would be popping up a chat window to a customer and saying "Hi, it looks like you're having trouble with our site" which could come across as creepy. But maybe they'd have to initiate the chat and I'm not understanding this correctly..
- thomas-st 16y ago
  Chats can be initiated both by the website visitor and the website owner, so the website owner has the freedom to choose whether to initiate chats. It looks like sites which use the chat actively have improved conversions though.
d_hoffmann 16y ago
Fantastic idea! love it!
wkasel 16y ago
Wow - now that could be a seriously powerful ordeal!
bengl 16y ago
We've seen a few of these sorts of services pop up lately. Do any of them (including this one) fall back to XHR long-polling, etc. when WebSockets aren't available? I'd like to see data for all my visitors, or at least most of them.
- thomas-st 16y ago
  WebSockets are only used for the admin panel, and there is a Flash-based fallback in case the browser doesn't support them. Visitors send most data using simple GET requests (and use long-polling for the chat). This works with all major browsers. So there is no need to worry.
photon_off 16y ago
This looks very nice. Is there any way to play back recordings of user activities? I generally don't have time to watch my users in real-time, and sometimes there might not be anyone online.
- thomas-st 16y ago
  Yes, of course. You can use the Recording tab to play back older visits at any time. Also, you can play a visit from the beginning and it will automatically switch to real-time mode if that user is still online.
avand 16y ago
Thomas, really nice job. Looks the resolution for mouse tracking isn't as precise as I'd like it to be. I'm not using the chat feature, but see this as a great way to do remote usability testing. It's critical that it not slow down our site, so I'll keep an eye out for performance issues. Feel free to hit me up directly for more feedback. avand at avandamiri dot com.
- thomas-st 16y ago
  Thank you for your feedback! Regarding the resolution, there is room for improvement as the server is currently located in Europe and the website visitor only sends new mouse positions when the previous request returns from the server (in order to avoid multiple requests that may be stuck). oyoLive should not slow down the site, as it loads asynchronously, but tell me if you notice any slowdowns. I'll contact you soon to hear more feedback from you. Thanks so far!
chaosmachine 16y ago
This looks like a nice project, but what's with all the 1-hour-old accounts leaving comments down below?
- thomas-st 16y ago
  I invited some of my developer friends to support my project. I didn't know who has a HN account and who doesn't, but these are all real people.
paraschopra 16y ago
Interesting app! What's your data storage policy? Do you store recordings forever -- I am sure recording data eats up data at a breakneck speed. Also do you store recording data on an external site such as S3?
- thomas-st 16y ago
  There is no storage policy yet for the beta. I was thinking of storing the visits for a certain period of time, with the ability to save selected visits forever. The beta will give me an idea on how much storage I should anticipate. I am currently storing data in MongoDB's GridFS.
benashkan 16y ago
Great product. Already installed it.
matttah 16y ago
It doesn't look like you can change your password on your account after setup.
- thomas-st 16y ago
  Try http://beta.oyolive.com/accounts/password/change/ http://beta.oyolive.com/accounts/password/change/ I'll place a link to this page on the account page.
backroomcoder 16y ago
Just signed up so I will see how it goes over the next few days. Definitely looks like it has potential.
piromiro 16y ago
that's neat! does it affect site load speed?
uvince 16y ago
I finally tried it and really like the mouse tracking and some of the other insights, like resolution. 1) Is there an easy way to share mouse recording videos w/ colleagues? 2) Small Bug: Links to external sites recorded in the movie, namely Paypal, make weird things happen in new tabs. Once again, great job, I'd like to try the chat in the future, too.

34 points by thomas-st 16y ago

Hi HNers! My name is Thomas and I study computer science in Switzerland. Today I am launching the oyoLive private beta. oyoLive is an analytics tool that allows you to see mouse and keyboard actions of your website visitors in real-time. Combined with a live chat, you can offer support for customers currently on your site. The beta is free, and I'd like you to test the software on your websites and also let me know what use cases you see for using it. Looking forward for your feedback!

dannyr 16y ago
What technologies did you use? NodeJS, Python, etc?
- thomas-st 16y ago
  Hey, I'm using Python (Django, gunicorn) for the web site. The chat uses long polling and live-tracking in the panel is done using WebSockets.
  - dannyr 16y ago
    Cool. Why did you decide to use gunicorn over Apache? Easy installation?
    - thomas-st 16y ago
      I am using it with gevent to have efficient long polling/WebSockets. A gevent-websocket sample is included in gunicorn, and I use that as a basis for my WebSocket implementation. It's been a long time since I last used Apache for a deployment.
mikemol 16y ago
Beta signup form broken? It looks like all the input fields from "website you'd like to use" onward (including submit button/links) are missing.
- thomas-st 16y ago
  It is working for me. Which browser are you using? If it's broken, please send me a screenshot to hello@oyolive.com
  - mikemol 16y ago
    Looks like it works now. Wish I'd taken a screenshot earlier. FF 3.6.8 on Win7 Ultimate x64. Display at 1600x1200 @ 120dpi.
mikemol 16y ago
A point of worry. You mention tracking keyboard actions. Does that include as they're typing into text and password fields? If you're trying to avoid capturing that kind of data, how can you be sure you're filtering out, e.g. custom JS-driven text widgets?
- thomas-st 16y ago
  Right now it captures any text field. I am planning to implement a filter so the website owner can choose which fields they don't want to capture. An idea would be also to specify an entire area of the page that shouldn't be captured.
  - mikemol 16y ago
    Is it plausible to turn off all text capture, or use an 'opt-in' approach to fields and hooks, rather than an opt-out? (edit: On the part of the site administrator, I mean.)
    - thomas-st 16y ago
      Planned (no capture for password fields and an opt-out for other text fields). An option might be also to just display stars on regular input fields, so you could see that users are typing, but not see what they actually type.
      - mikemol 16y ago
        And it doesn't capture keyboard input except from known text widgets? My paranoia rests with pagewide onKey* hooks and the like. I'm not a JS guy, though, but I'd assume those are possible. That's why I was curious about total opt-out of key trappings.
        thomas-st 16y ago
        Currently it only captures known input widgets, i.e. no global key strokes.

clavinator 16y ago

great webapp Thomas! I'll definitely sign up for the beta.

SteliE 16y ago

this looks super cool!!! nice job...

nazarl 16y ago

Cool! I'would like to see that on live too.

arunpattnaik 16y ago

Looks very interesting. Can't wait to use it!

mhp 16y ago

This looks very cool! My one concern would be popping up a chat window to a customer and saying "Hi, it looks like you're having trouble with our site" which could come across as creepy. But maybe they'd have to initiate the chat and I'm not understanding this correctly..

thomas-st 16y ago
Chats can be initiated both by the website visitor and the website owner, so the website owner has the freedom to choose whether to initiate chats. It looks like sites which use the chat actively have improved conversions though.

d_hoffmann 16y ago

Fantastic idea! love it!

wkasel 16y ago

Wow - now that could be a seriously powerful ordeal!

bengl 16y ago

We've seen a few of these sorts of services pop up lately. Do any of them (including this one) fall back to XHR long-polling, etc. when WebSockets aren't available? I'd like to see data for all my visitors, or at least most of them.

thomas-st 16y ago
WebSockets are only used for the admin panel, and there is a Flash-based fallback in case the browser doesn't support them. Visitors send most data using simple GET requests (and use long-polling for the chat). This works with all major browsers. So there is no need to worry.

photon_off 16y ago

This looks very nice. Is there any way to play back recordings of user activities? I generally don't have time to watch my users in real-time, and sometimes there might not be anyone online.

thomas-st 16y ago
Yes, of course. You can use the Recording tab to play back older visits at any time. Also, you can play a visit from the beginning and it will automatically switch to real-time mode if that user is still online.

avand 16y ago

Thomas, really nice job. Looks the resolution for mouse tracking isn't as precise as I'd like it to be. I'm not using the chat feature, but see this as a great way to do remote usability testing. It's critical that it not slow down our site, so I'll keep an eye out for performance issues. Feel free to hit me up directly for more feedback. avand at avandamiri dot com.

thomas-st 16y ago
Thank you for your feedback! Regarding the resolution, there is room for improvement as the server is currently located in Europe and the website visitor only sends new mouse positions when the previous request returns from the server (in order to avoid multiple requests that may be stuck). oyoLive should not slow down the site, as it loads asynchronously, but tell me if you notice any slowdowns. I'll contact you soon to hear more feedback from you. Thanks so far!

chaosmachine 16y ago

This looks like a nice project, but what's with all the 1-hour-old accounts leaving comments down below?

thomas-st 16y ago
I invited some of my developer friends to support my project. I didn't know who has a HN account and who doesn't, but these are all real people.

paraschopra 16y ago

Interesting app! What's your data storage policy? Do you store recordings forever -- I am sure recording data eats up data at a breakneck speed. Also do you store recording data on an external site such as S3?

thomas-st 16y ago
There is no storage policy yet for the beta. I was thinking of storing the visits for a certain period of time, with the ability to save selected visits forever. The beta will give me an idea on how much storage I should anticipate. I am currently storing data in MongoDB's GridFS.

benashkan 16y ago

Great product. Already installed it.

matttah 16y ago

It doesn't look like you can change your password on your account after setup.

thomas-st 16y ago
Try http://beta.oyolive.com/accounts/password/change/ http://beta.oyolive.com/accounts/password/change/ I'll place a link to this page on the account page.

backroomcoder 16y ago

Just signed up so I will see how it goes over the next few days. Definitely looks like it has potential.

piromiro 16y ago

that's neat! does it affect site load speed?

uvince 16y ago

I finally tried it and really like the mouse tracking and some of the other insights, like resolution. 1) Is there an easy way to share mouse recording videos w/ colleagues? 2) Small Bug: Links to external sites recorded in the movie, namely Paypal, make weird things happen in new tabs. Once again, great job, I'd like to try the chat in the future, too.