4 ms·

Are the documents hosted on here intended to be public or privately shared? If the former, I'd worry a bit about clashing with what RapGenius are doing.

bri3d 14y ago
Web document annotation isn't a new idea - I worked on a product called Reframe It 5 years ago doing something similar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1swp-2QeMI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1swp-2QeMI , and we weren't even close to the first to market: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_annotation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_annotation . Just like everything else, there's room for more than one player in a market - why should they be worried about competing with RapGenius?
- mmastrac 14y ago
  Interesting - I was working on DotSpots around the same time. ReframeIt was one of the people we figured were in the same space. I've also hoped that web annotation will take off one day, but it seems fated to sputter every time.
  - bri3d 14y ago
    We sure were! Fun to see someone we considered a competitor all those years ago on HN also. I think Rap Genius are on the right track: hosted specific-document annotation seems like a good method to develop a web-annotation technology while still making money at the same time. We had a lot of interest from specific-document research organizations like lawyers and journalists, but the "annotate the whole web" pitch didn't seem to go over too well.
hartleybrody 14y ago
products can be technically similar without really competing if they're targeting different use cases
- nightpool 14y ago
  The problem is RapGenius is trying to cover basically all of the "annotate X" usecases. For example, they already have some of pg's articles (Though they need some love! http://rapgenius.com/Paul-graham-cities-and-ambition-lyrics http://rapgenius.com/Paul-graham-cities-and-ambition-lyrics and rapgenius.com/Paul-graham-startup-growth-lyrics if you're feeling helpful), Douglas Adam's speech "Is there an Artificial God", a strong and expanding base in poetry, and are not shy about their plans to annotate everything.
goronbjorn 14y ago
Sorry, didn't mean to imply 'RapGenius is doing this, so you should not do it'–I just meant that 'RapGenius is doing this, FYI you're competing with them'.

bri3d 14y ago

Web document annotation isn't a new idea - I worked on a product called Reframe It 5 years ago doing something similar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1swp-2QeMI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1swp-2QeMI , and we weren't even close to the first to market: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_annotation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_annotation . Just like everything else, there's room for more than one player in a market - why should they be worried about competing with RapGenius?

mmastrac 14y ago
Interesting - I was working on DotSpots around the same time. ReframeIt was one of the people we figured were in the same space. I've also hoped that web annotation will take off one day, but it seems fated to sputter every time.
- bri3d 14y ago
  We sure were! Fun to see someone we considered a competitor all those years ago on HN also. I think Rap Genius are on the right track: hosted specific-document annotation seems like a good method to develop a web-annotation technology while still making money at the same time. We had a lot of interest from specific-document research organizations like lawyers and journalists, but the "annotate the whole web" pitch didn't seem to go over too well.

hartleybrody 14y ago

products can be technically similar without really competing if they're targeting different use cases

nightpool 14y ago
The problem is RapGenius is trying to cover basically all of the "annotate X" usecases. For example, they already have some of pg's articles (Though they need some love! http://rapgenius.com/Paul-graham-cities-and-ambition-lyrics http://rapgenius.com/Paul-graham-cities-and-ambition-lyrics and rapgenius.com/Paul-graham-startup-growth-lyrics if you're feeling helpful), Douglas Adam's speech "Is there an Artificial God", a strong and expanding base in poetry, and are not shy about their plans to annotate everything.

goronbjorn 14y ago

Sorry, didn't mean to imply 'RapGenius is doing this, so you should not do it'–I just meant that 'RapGenius is doing this, FYI you're competing with them'.