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Ask HN: Review my startup - TwitterGrep.com : NY Times of Twitter

2 points by justinkelly 18y ago

Hi Guys, Just launched TwitterGrep.com - twitter + wefollow + disqus mashup Aim: present the best of twitter in a clean and simple nytimes.com style with disqus.com to handle discussions Target audience: people who don't twitter but are interested in twitter and the great info coming out of twitter ## PR breif ## Twitter Grep: Twitter powered news and discussion service What TwitterGrep.com is - Twitter Grep is a simple way to see and discuss all the latest news coming out of Twitter. - TwitterGrep.com aims to be the New York Times/Bloomberg Terminal of Twitter. There's so much great information in Twitter, we're here to bring this information to you in the simplest form. What TwitterGrep.com is NOT - Twitter Grep is not some new fancy Twitter client - Its not an Adobe AIR app - Does not require you to have a Twitter account Any feedback would be greatly appreciated Cheers Justin

ObieJazz 18y ago
I like how the pics page lets you see larger amount of data (pictures) at once than is possible just using Twitter, although you might want to check out the layout on that page in Chrome -- some of the text gets covered by ads. Other than that, I'm not sure what the site offers me. Are the News / Tech / Gossip pages simply custom lists of people that are followed? Why do I want to use your lists instead of using my Twitter account, which I've already customized to include the people I'm most interested in following? If your target audience is people don't twitter but might be into it, they're either going to end up moving on to actually using Twitter, or decide it's not for them. In either case, they won't keep coming back to your site.
- jlees 18y ago
  Are the News / Tech / Gossip pages simply custom lists of people that are followed? This - you don't seem to explain exactly what news/tech/gossip actually is or how you define breaking. Maybe for a non-twitter user they don't care but as a twitter user, I do. If that's your secret sauce, I still think you need to find some way of helping visitors understand just why your 'news' etc categories/lists are authoritative. I like the idea of a lens on Twitter though.
  - justinkelly 18y ago
    thanks jlees for the info! i'll add some details to what breaking/gossip etc.. all define basically - breaking - is the latest news from the top x many twitters for given tag each tag - ie. news/gossip/etc.. is the top x twitters for given tag re lens on twitter - thats my main goal - just need to refine to display the best news to attract a userbase cheers justin
- justinkelly 18y ago
  thanks Obie news/tech/gossip are based off wefollow.com rankings for various tags why use them instead of my twitter account - most people on the internet dont have twitter accounts - thus don't have a way to follow this tweets -- 200M facebnook users V 1M~ twitter users - twittergrep.com aims to present the best of twitter to the rest of the net population re audience moving up - agreed could be an issue - but i think there will always be more people who dont use twitter and are after upto the second news than people with twitter accounts thanks again for you comments - much appreciated Cheers Justin
  - owkaye 18y ago
    "most people on the internet dont have twitter accounts - thus don't have a way to follow this tweets" Uh ... it seems to me that if people on the internet actually want to follow twitter tweets they will get a twitter account. I cannot understand how they will find your site before twitter, or even why they would want to. ???
    - justinkelly 18y ago
      thanks owkaye re people getting twitter accounts - if they do thats great - i see TwitterGrep.com more in the vein as channel surfing twitter - or like just looking at the front page of the NY Times to see whats happening - not as serious as getting a account and following all their tweets - just picking a bit hear and there type of browsing habit re how will they find they site - good question - im doing my best at PR'ing the site :) re why they would wont to - why do people go to nytimes.com, news,ycombinator.com etc.. - they want to see whats happening re stuff they are interested in - if you want to see whats happening in the tweetosphere check out TwitterGrep.com cheers Justin
pclark 18y ago
lots of ads.
- justinkelly 18y ago
  modelled add placement off http://digg.com/ http://digg.com/ might need to tone it down - thanks for the feedback! Cheers Justin
- justinkelly 18y ago
  the add placement of http://TwitterGrep.com http://TwitterGrep.com has been toned down just one slot on the right in between user comments thanks again for the input Cheers Justin
  - pclark 18y ago
    nice one. It's a nice site.
    - justinkelly 18y ago
      thanks pclark! I'm a big believer in twitter (and socially created news) as news services - and created this startup to prove it can work let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions Cheers Justin - http://TwitterGrep.com http://TwitterGrep.com
notmyname 18y ago
It would be nice to click on the links in the individual tweets.
- justinkelly 18y ago
  agreed thats a work-in-progress at the moment - should be out in a few days just wanted to launch asap cheers justin
adityakothadiya 18y ago
http://TwitterGrep.com http://TwitterGrep.com
- justinkelly 18y ago
  thanks adityakothadiya cheers justin

2 points by justinkelly 18y ago

ObieJazz 18y ago

I like how the pics page lets you see larger amount of data (pictures) at once than is possible just using Twitter, although you might want to check out the layout on that page in Chrome -- some of the text gets covered by ads. Other than that, I'm not sure what the site offers me. Are the News / Tech / Gossip pages simply custom lists of people that are followed? Why do I want to use your lists instead of using my Twitter account, which I've already customized to include the people I'm most interested in following? If your target audience is people don't twitter but might be into it, they're either going to end up moving on to actually using Twitter, or decide it's not for them. In either case, they won't keep coming back to your site.

jlees 18y ago
Are the News / Tech / Gossip pages simply custom lists of people that are followed? This - you don't seem to explain exactly what news/tech/gossip actually is or how you define breaking. Maybe for a non-twitter user they don't care but as a twitter user, I do. If that's your secret sauce, I still think you need to find some way of helping visitors understand just why your 'news' etc categories/lists are authoritative. I like the idea of a lens on Twitter though.
- justinkelly 18y ago
  thanks jlees for the info! i'll add some details to what breaking/gossip etc.. all define basically - breaking - is the latest news from the top x many twitters for given tag each tag - ie. news/gossip/etc.. is the top x twitters for given tag re lens on twitter - thats my main goal - just need to refine to display the best news to attract a userbase cheers justin
justinkelly 18y ago
thanks Obie news/tech/gossip are based off wefollow.com rankings for various tags why use them instead of my twitter account - most people on the internet dont have twitter accounts - thus don't have a way to follow this tweets -- 200M facebnook users V 1M~ twitter users - twittergrep.com aims to present the best of twitter to the rest of the net population re audience moving up - agreed could be an issue - but i think there will always be more people who dont use twitter and are after upto the second news than people with twitter accounts thanks again for you comments - much appreciated Cheers Justin
- owkaye 18y ago
  "most people on the internet dont have twitter accounts - thus don't have a way to follow this tweets" Uh ... it seems to me that if people on the internet actually want to follow twitter tweets they will get a twitter account. I cannot understand how they will find your site before twitter, or even why they would want to. ???
  - justinkelly 18y ago
    thanks owkaye re people getting twitter accounts - if they do thats great - i see TwitterGrep.com more in the vein as channel surfing twitter - or like just looking at the front page of the NY Times to see whats happening - not as serious as getting a account and following all their tweets - just picking a bit hear and there type of browsing habit re how will they find they site - good question - im doing my best at PR'ing the site :) re why they would wont to - why do people go to nytimes.com, news,ycombinator.com etc.. - they want to see whats happening re stuff they are interested in - if you want to see whats happening in the tweetosphere check out TwitterGrep.com cheers Justin

pclark 18y ago

lots of ads.

justinkelly 18y ago
modelled add placement off http://digg.com/ http://digg.com/ might need to tone it down - thanks for the feedback! Cheers Justin
justinkelly 18y ago
the add placement of http://TwitterGrep.com http://TwitterGrep.com has been toned down just one slot on the right in between user comments thanks again for the input Cheers Justin
- pclark 18y ago
  nice one. It's a nice site.
  - justinkelly 18y ago
    thanks pclark! I'm a big believer in twitter (and socially created news) as news services - and created this startup to prove it can work let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions Cheers Justin - http://TwitterGrep.com http://TwitterGrep.com

notmyname 18y ago

It would be nice to click on the links in the individual tweets.

justinkelly 18y ago
agreed thats a work-in-progress at the moment - should be out in a few days just wanted to launch asap cheers justin

adityakothadiya 18y ago

http://TwitterGrep.com http://TwitterGrep.com

justinkelly 18y ago
thanks adityakothadiya cheers justin