5 ms·

Show HN: StartHQ - a web app directory

42 points by olegp 14y ago

rustc 14y ago
Nice idea. There should also be some more tags or things that would help someone narrow down results to less apps. Currently all categories seem to have 3-5 pages with 10 apps each, with just a line of description and URL.
- olegp 14y ago
  If you click through, there's more info on the app. A popularity rating made up of the site's Compete.com rank and number of likes+tweets on StartHQ will be added this week. I'll also need to merge some categories and create new ones, e.g. "Office" is really empty despite there being 600 apps in the directory, since most are better classified as "Collaboration" tools.
- shloime 14y ago
  Agreed. Too many choices make it really difficult to choose.
  - olegp 14y ago
    On one level I want people to browse around a bit and discover new, niche apps that they wouldn't find otherwise. What actually happened though is that we have a bug in our ranking code at the moment. The search results should be sorted by popularity based on Compete score and number of tweets & likes of the app profile pages within StartHQ itself. So, all I can say is: come back in a few days and you will find better apps faster - at the moment I don't want to rock the boat by redeploying the server wth 60+ users online at the same time due to the HN effect.
    - shloime 14y ago
      That sounds like a great solution. I'll be back!
olegp 14y ago
Direct link: https://starthq.com https://starthq.com
simonswords82 14y ago
Great idea - any chance of getting our HR web app http://www.staffsquared.com http://www.staffsquared.com listed with you guys?
- olegp 14y ago
  Done! https://starthq.com/apps/staff-squared https://starthq.com/apps/staff-squared
  - simonswords82 14y ago
    You rockstar :) Thank you so much
    - olegp 14y ago
      No problem! Actually apps get added automatically to my verification queue if you sign up and add it to your launcher as a link. If the link hasn't been seen before, I verify whether it's an app or not. People have already added a bunch new cool apps since this post went up, you can see them on the last page of the search results: https://starthq.com/apps/?page=60 https://starthq.com/apps/?page=60
      - simonswords82 14y ago
        Delighted we jumped in just ahead of blimp, which I'm a huge fan of :)
niggler 14y ago
Alongside the rankings (Speed, Trust, Reliability, Privacy) there should be user ranking/rating. For me, curation is the biggest problem (yes, there are hundreds of startups attacking collaboration, but which is the best for my need?)
- olegp 14y ago
  Will add that later this week, see my other comments below. I intentionally want to keep reviews out for now though, since from talking to people it's become apparent that most people find reviews by strangers somewhat useless and would prefer recommendations from people they know & who understand them.
potomak 14y ago
You're listing Hacker News as a productivity app :)
- olegp 14y ago
  A bit of an inside joke. The rest of the reviews and categorizations are serious, honest! ;)
potomak 14y ago
I checked my app, Tomatoes [1], it's listed: https://starthq.com/apps/tomatoes https://starthq.com/apps/tomatoes but it has very poor ratings Google 2/5 but from https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights#url=tomato.es_2F&mobile=false https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights#url=t... I see it has 81/100 Trust, reliability and privacy are 1/5 and are taken from http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/tomato.es http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/tomato.es but they don't apply because there are "Not enough ratings for this site yet" so they should be listed as "n/a" probably. [1] http://tomato.es http://tomato.es
- olegp 14y ago
  Good point about the WOT ratings, will fix that! When it comes to PageSpeed, 81 is pretty low as most other apps are 95+ and the rating is calculated relative to other entries in the directory. It should be easy enough to fix by following the instructions that Google provides though. The scores are updated daily btw. Edit: It will have the nice side effect of improving performance for your users and your Google search rank as well.
pseudobry 14y ago
Nice! But when logged in I only get the search bar. When logged in it would be nice to see the categories as well.
- olegp 14y ago
  Already on it! Should be live later this week.
sleepyhead 14y ago
Not possible to add a web-app? How will the directory grow? I was planning to list my app http://makeplans.net http://makeplans.net
- olegp 14y ago
  See my comments below. The way to add web apps at the moment is by signing up and adding the URL to the launcher. I'll add a proper app submission page soon though. PS. MakePlans added: https://starthq.com/apps/makeplans https://starthq.com/apps/makeplans
web64 14y ago
A bit of a shameless plug here, but I launched a similar site a few weeks ago: http://applist.io http://applist.io applist.io is mainly focused on B2B SaaS apps for freelancers and small businesses.
- olegp 14y ago
  Nice! Are you based in Norway? We are practically neighbors then. Would be great to chat to see if we can do something together.
oron 14y ago
Find a way to escape the big old directory listing trap. Categories and such and you have a killer page. The focus of the UX should be "what do I want to achieve" find me an app that does X. currently it's too similar to lots of other directories, last I checked most of them were zombies after a while.
- olegp 14y ago
  Great advice! We started out with "the launcher" which is what you see when you sign up, but few people found it useful. The response to the directory though, which I agree has been done to death, has been very positive, so maybe there's some truth to the Helsinki Bus Station theory (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/23/change-life-helsinki-bus-station-theory http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/23/change-li...) when applied to product.
fruchtose 14y ago
Is this site supposed to be for B2B or general purpose? I'm a bit confused since the article doesn't specifically mention this as such, but the homepage invites me to enter my work email.
- olegp 14y ago
  B2B
arrtoo 14y ago
Love the idea! For some reason I totally missed the sign-up button, I was just blind to it. You might wanna look at making it more obvious somehow.
- olegp 14y ago
  Thanks, I'll experiment with making it more prominent.
shanbady 14y ago
looks great;checkout my webapp directory which has apps that are mobile optimized. http://webappvault.com http://webappvault.com

42 points by olegp 14y ago

rustc 14y ago

Nice idea. There should also be some more tags or things that would help someone narrow down results to less apps. Currently all categories seem to have 3-5 pages with 10 apps each, with just a line of description and URL.

olegp 14y ago
If you click through, there's more info on the app. A popularity rating made up of the site's Compete.com rank and number of likes+tweets on StartHQ will be added this week. I'll also need to merge some categories and create new ones, e.g. "Office" is really empty despite there being 600 apps in the directory, since most are better classified as "Collaboration" tools.
shloime 14y ago
Agreed. Too many choices make it really difficult to choose.
- olegp 14y ago
  On one level I want people to browse around a bit and discover new, niche apps that they wouldn't find otherwise. What actually happened though is that we have a bug in our ranking code at the moment. The search results should be sorted by popularity based on Compete score and number of tweets & likes of the app profile pages within StartHQ itself. So, all I can say is: come back in a few days and you will find better apps faster - at the moment I don't want to rock the boat by redeploying the server wth 60+ users online at the same time due to the HN effect.
  - shloime 14y ago
    That sounds like a great solution. I'll be back!

olegp 14y ago

Direct link: https://starthq.com https://starthq.com

simonswords82 14y ago

Great idea - any chance of getting our HR web app http://www.staffsquared.com http://www.staffsquared.com listed with you guys?

olegp 14y ago
Done! https://starthq.com/apps/staff-squared https://starthq.com/apps/staff-squared
- simonswords82 14y ago
  You rockstar :) Thank you so much
  - olegp 14y ago
    No problem! Actually apps get added automatically to my verification queue if you sign up and add it to your launcher as a link. If the link hasn't been seen before, I verify whether it's an app or not. People have already added a bunch new cool apps since this post went up, you can see them on the last page of the search results: https://starthq.com/apps/?page=60 https://starthq.com/apps/?page=60
    - simonswords82 14y ago
      Delighted we jumped in just ahead of blimp, which I'm a huge fan of :)

niggler 14y ago

Alongside the rankings (Speed, Trust, Reliability, Privacy) there should be user ranking/rating. For me, curation is the biggest problem (yes, there are hundreds of startups attacking collaboration, but which is the best for my need?)

olegp 14y ago
Will add that later this week, see my other comments below. I intentionally want to keep reviews out for now though, since from talking to people it's become apparent that most people find reviews by strangers somewhat useless and would prefer recommendations from people they know & who understand them.

potomak 14y ago

You're listing Hacker News as a productivity app :)

olegp 14y ago
A bit of an inside joke. The rest of the reviews and categorizations are serious, honest! ;)

potomak 14y ago

I checked my app, Tomatoes [1], it's listed: https://starthq.com/apps/tomatoes https://starthq.com/apps/tomatoes but it has very poor ratings Google 2/5 but from https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights#url=tomato.es_2F&mobile=false https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights#url=t... I see it has 81/100 Trust, reliability and privacy are 1/5 and are taken from http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/tomato.es http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/tomato.es but they don't apply because there are "Not enough ratings for this site yet" so they should be listed as "n/a" probably. [1] http://tomato.es http://tomato.es

olegp 14y ago
Good point about the WOT ratings, will fix that! When it comes to PageSpeed, 81 is pretty low as most other apps are 95+ and the rating is calculated relative to other entries in the directory. It should be easy enough to fix by following the instructions that Google provides though. The scores are updated daily btw. Edit: It will have the nice side effect of improving performance for your users and your Google search rank as well.

pseudobry 14y ago

Nice! But when logged in I only get the search bar. When logged in it would be nice to see the categories as well.

olegp 14y ago
Already on it! Should be live later this week.

sleepyhead 14y ago

Not possible to add a web-app? How will the directory grow? I was planning to list my app http://makeplans.net http://makeplans.net

olegp 14y ago
See my comments below. The way to add web apps at the moment is by signing up and adding the URL to the launcher. I'll add a proper app submission page soon though. PS. MakePlans added: https://starthq.com/apps/makeplans https://starthq.com/apps/makeplans

web64 14y ago

A bit of a shameless plug here, but I launched a similar site a few weeks ago: http://applist.io http://applist.io applist.io is mainly focused on B2B SaaS apps for freelancers and small businesses.

olegp 14y ago
Nice! Are you based in Norway? We are practically neighbors then. Would be great to chat to see if we can do something together.

oron 14y ago

Find a way to escape the big old directory listing trap. Categories and such and you have a killer page. The focus of the UX should be "what do I want to achieve" find me an app that does X. currently it's too similar to lots of other directories, last I checked most of them were zombies after a while.

olegp 14y ago
Great advice! We started out with "the launcher" which is what you see when you sign up, but few people found it useful. The response to the directory though, which I agree has been done to death, has been very positive, so maybe there's some truth to the Helsinki Bus Station theory (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/23/change-life-helsinki-bus-station-theory http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/23/change-li...) when applied to product.

fruchtose 14y ago

Is this site supposed to be for B2B or general purpose? I'm a bit confused since the article doesn't specifically mention this as such, but the homepage invites me to enter my work email.

olegp 14y ago
B2B

arrtoo 14y ago

Love the idea! For some reason I totally missed the sign-up button, I was just blind to it. You might wanna look at making it more obvious somehow.

olegp 14y ago
Thanks, I'll experiment with making it more prominent.

shanbady 14y ago

looks great;checkout my webapp directory which has apps that are mobile optimized. http://webappvault.com http://webappvault.com