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"Show HN: Start to ambitious #1, addon to Google faster" is a nonsense title. "Start to ambitious" does not parse as English and adding "#1" does not help; "ad

by alanh 14y ago

"Show HN: Start to ambitious #1, addon to Google faster" is a nonsense title. "Start to ambitious" does not parse as English and adding "#1" does not help; "addon" is also not a verb, and if we substitute "add on", the phrase "add on to Google faster" still does not mean anything. Is this petty? I don’t know. It bothers me to have a completely inscrutable title on the home page. Edit After looking at the page, it would seem this is, indeed, an incredibly lazy submission title: It gets its name from PG’s essay on ambitious start-ups; replacing Google is ambitious idea #1, and apparently building Yahoo! Axis on Google counts as insanely ambitious. "Addon to Google faster" is supposed to convey "extension (?) for faster Googling." On the linked page, you will find the odd choice of Myriad — Apple’s constant ad-copy font — and Jobsian phrasing (“insanely great”). Apple has nothing to do with this. Then you’ll note the poorly-chosen phrase “searching Google” — no, you’re searching the Internet with Google. Results are not limited to Google. I suppose one could say I am being cruel, but there are maybe 20 words here and most of them are erroneous or poorly chosen. I don’t think it’s “just” a language barrier; PG’s essay was in English, and yet even the phrase lifted from there managed to corrupt all the words!

devinrhode2 14y ago
Great writing is not my forte at all. I'd love suggestions though!
- alanh 14y ago
  You know, I took a quick peek at your comments on HN just now, and they are all comprehensible and generally well-formed. This one is no exception. I would suggest putting yourself in a reader’s shoes. What do they know? What should they? What might they mis-interpret? Be as unambiguous as you can.
jaredsohn 14y ago
add-on-->"extension (?)" Add-on is a term used by most browsers that includes both plug-ins (such as Flash, QuickTime, Adobe Reader, etc. that are included in a webpage via object or embed tags) and extensions (Adblock Plus, FlashBlock, Ghostery, etc. which alter the UI and/or inject JavaScript). The term doesn't seem exactly right here, though, since I don't think Google uses the term at all for Chrome. Edit: Originally was going to write that it was a Firefox term (at least with respect to browsers), but wanted to publish and hoped I could research the other browsers before someone responded. After a little more searching it seems like Opera uses the term add-on (http://www.opera.com/addons/ http://www.opera.com/addons/) as well, although I don't think it includes plug-ins. Regardless, the use of the term in most cases is likely due to Firefox.
- alanh 14y ago
  "most browsers"? No. I can only think of Firefox. Certainly not Safari or Chrome. I don’t think Opera or IE do, either. And this is a Chrome extension. Edit: Sure, though, add-on (which needs the hyphen) is far from the worst thing here :) Edit: Okay, Firefox & Opera. That’s a total of 21% market share. :-/

by alanh 14y ago

devinrhode2 14y ago

Great writing is not my forte at all. I'd love suggestions though!

alanh 14y ago
You know, I took a quick peek at your comments on HN just now, and they are all comprehensible and generally well-formed. This one is no exception. I would suggest putting yourself in a reader’s shoes. What do they know? What should they? What might they mis-interpret? Be as unambiguous as you can.

jaredsohn 14y ago

add-on-->"extension (?)" Add-on is a term used by most browsers that includes both plug-ins (such as Flash, QuickTime, Adobe Reader, etc. that are included in a webpage via object or embed tags) and extensions (Adblock Plus, FlashBlock, Ghostery, etc. which alter the UI and/or inject JavaScript). The term doesn't seem exactly right here, though, since I don't think Google uses the term at all for Chrome. Edit: Originally was going to write that it was a Firefox term (at least with respect to browsers), but wanted to publish and hoped I could research the other browsers before someone responded. After a little more searching it seems like Opera uses the term add-on (http://www.opera.com/addons/ http://www.opera.com/addons/) as well, although I don't think it includes plug-ins. Regardless, the use of the term in most cases is likely due to Firefox.

alanh 14y ago
"most browsers"? No. I can only think of Firefox. Certainly not Safari or Chrome. I don’t think Opera or IE do, either. And this is a Chrome extension. Edit: Sure, though, add-on (which needs the hyphen) is far from the worst thing here :) Edit: Okay, Firefox & Opera. That’s a total of 21% market share. :-/