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We use Facebook to validate your identity and send the download link directly to the recipient's Facebook message inbox. You might want to consider offering a

by miles 14y ago

We use Facebook to validate your identity and send the download link directly to the recipient's Facebook message inbox. You might want to consider offering a couple of different options; none of these file transfer services have a FB requirement: http://wetransfer.com http://wetransfer.com http://yousendit.com http://yousendit.com http://letscrate.com http://letscrate.com http://ge.tt http://ge.tt Or perhaps you want to position this as a FB-only service? It would certainly differentiate your service, but might also limit your user base unnecessarily.

alagu 14y ago
It would certainly differentiate your service, but might also limit your user base unnecessarily Limiting user base? I don't think it would hurt much. Half of internet users use Facebook. I think they have a good chance at giving better user experience by tying with Facebook.
- aneth4 14y ago
  Half of internet users use Facebook. If half of those internet users friends use facebook, this limits Sendrail to 1/4 of potential matches. If half of those internet users' potential recipients of files are friends (colleagues, acquaintances, chat room contacts, etc may not be fb friends) that gets us to 1/8 of use cases as potentially solved with Sendrail, and Sendrail is only useful to Fb users 1/4 of the time. Most people won't want to use a service that's useful only 1/4 of the time for a particular task, so this is far worse than a 50% reduction in potential users. This is how you get no users.
- miles 14y ago
  Limiting user base? I don't think it would hurt much. Half of internet users use Facebook. Even assuming that figure is true, why cut your potential user base in half right off the bat? And for those who are FB users, what do they do when they want to exchange files with non-FB users? The service will be unusable in such cases even for FB users, and sendrail ends up losing more transactions.
  - ukd1 14y ago
    Even if they have cut their initial user base in half, it doesn't mean they will not add alternatives in the future. FB integration solves a whole lot of issues around auth and sign up and generally makes your life easier when prototyping things imho.
  - ritikm 14y ago
    We also support hooking into your address book on your Mac, and are working on integrating your online email address book and ActiveDirectory into it. We're trying to cover every single contact mechanism out there so you don't have to worry about "finding the right tool" to send a file to someone -- we hope to make SendRail work for every single use case you encounter.
    - white_devil 14y ago
      So how do you plan to make money? I can't see any pricing information, so I guess this is yet another case of users being the product.
- misnome 14y ago
  Half the internet may use Facebook, but how many people, in the target audience for this service, prefer to tie as little as possible to their Facebook account? I know that if a third party service wants to tie to Facebook, I immediately say "No thanks".
  - jamesbritt 14y ago
    I know that if a third party service wants to tie to Facebook, I immediately say "No thanks". Same here. I tend to assume that any company so coupled to Facebook probably has the same concern about user privacy as Facebook, i.e. none.
mwexler 14y ago
Agreed: Many groups block FB; if you want any corporate or business use, you probably don't want to require FB logins.
spartango 14y ago
I'd agree that generally it's not the best idea to limit a service to just FB users (unless it is fundamentally tied to FB). That said, it's not horrible to start with FB and iterate outward... As long as that iteration happens in the near future.
itmag 14y ago
We use Facebook to validate your identity and send the download link directly to the recipient's Facebook message inbox. Technical question: how are they able to do this? I needed to programmatically send Facebook PMs a while back, and from what I could tell it was not possible. What gives?

by miles 14y ago

alagu 14y ago

It would certainly differentiate your service, but might also limit your user base unnecessarily Limiting user base? I don't think it would hurt much. Half of internet users use Facebook. I think they have a good chance at giving better user experience by tying with Facebook.

aneth4 14y ago
Half of internet users use Facebook. If half of those internet users friends use facebook, this limits Sendrail to 1/4 of potential matches. If half of those internet users' potential recipients of files are friends (colleagues, acquaintances, chat room contacts, etc may not be fb friends) that gets us to 1/8 of use cases as potentially solved with Sendrail, and Sendrail is only useful to Fb users 1/4 of the time. Most people won't want to use a service that's useful only 1/4 of the time for a particular task, so this is far worse than a 50% reduction in potential users. This is how you get no users.
miles 14y ago
Limiting user base? I don't think it would hurt much. Half of internet users use Facebook. Even assuming that figure is true, why cut your potential user base in half right off the bat? And for those who are FB users, what do they do when they want to exchange files with non-FB users? The service will be unusable in such cases even for FB users, and sendrail ends up losing more transactions.
- ukd1 14y ago
  Even if they have cut their initial user base in half, it doesn't mean they will not add alternatives in the future. FB integration solves a whole lot of issues around auth and sign up and generally makes your life easier when prototyping things imho.
- ritikm 14y ago
  We also support hooking into your address book on your Mac, and are working on integrating your online email address book and ActiveDirectory into it. We're trying to cover every single contact mechanism out there so you don't have to worry about "finding the right tool" to send a file to someone -- we hope to make SendRail work for every single use case you encounter.
  - white_devil 14y ago
    So how do you plan to make money? I can't see any pricing information, so I guess this is yet another case of users being the product.
misnome 14y ago
Half the internet may use Facebook, but how many people, in the target audience for this service, prefer to tie as little as possible to their Facebook account? I know that if a third party service wants to tie to Facebook, I immediately say "No thanks".
- jamesbritt 14y ago
  I know that if a third party service wants to tie to Facebook, I immediately say "No thanks". Same here. I tend to assume that any company so coupled to Facebook probably has the same concern about user privacy as Facebook, i.e. none.

mwexler 14y ago

Agreed: Many groups block FB; if you want any corporate or business use, you probably don't want to require FB logins.

spartango 14y ago

I'd agree that generally it's not the best idea to limit a service to just FB users (unless it is fundamentally tied to FB). That said, it's not horrible to start with FB and iterate outward... As long as that iteration happens in the near future.

itmag 14y ago

We use Facebook to validate your identity and send the download link directly to the recipient's Facebook message inbox. Technical question: how are they able to do this? I needed to programmatically send Facebook PMs a while back, and from what I could tell it was not possible. What gives?