4 ms·

If you're at it, why not auto-detect the type of information? Landline and Mobile phone numbers are differentiatable, email address and website url are differnt

by X4 14y ago

If you're at it, why not auto-detect the type of information? Landline and Mobile phone numbers are differentiatable, email address and website url are differntiatable too. I would even go so far and add an auto-import feature LinkedIn/Facebook/Google, that searches for the contact's "name(+address)" online and returns the "possible" results into the right fields automatically into your database. ;) @close.io team I don't use SaaS services except GitHub regularly, but if you would sell license your applicatoin I would buy a copy. I believe this is a good strategy when you've already a "satisfieable" amount of customers. But your mileage may vary.

untog 14y ago
Landline and Mobile phone numbers are differentiatable They aren't. At least not consistently- the UK (where I suspect you might be given you use of "mobile phone") prefixes them all with 07, but in the US and Canada there is no such difference.
philfreo 14y ago
> Landline and Mobile phone numbers are differentiatable, I'm not sure about this in a world with number portability. > email address and website url are differntiatable too Yep, we do this already. > auto-import feature LinkedIn/Facebook/Google, that searches for the contact's We'd like to pull in social data. It's not trivial, though services like FullContact.com can help.
- X4 14y ago
  wow, I hoped, but didn't expect that someone actually listens to my tiny voice in the vacuum of the great Interspace. :) I honestly do highly appreciate that, it's a really great move by you and I'm grateful that you care about perfecting your product :) Most companies think they cannot afford listening to their users, those who do earn my deep respect. Btw. I'm from Germany and "mobile phones" can be differentiated easily here. Not only that, you'll even know which network the other number is signed up with. D1 T-Mobile: 0151x, 0160, 0170, 0171, 0175 D2 Vodafone: 0152x, 0162, 0172, 0173, 0174 E-Plus: 0157x, 0163, 0177, 0178 O2: 0159x*, 0176, 0179 Locating positions of landlines phone numbers is even easier, because there are databases. The picture in the german wikipedia article explains how the association with a location works (no need to read the entire article). http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telefonvorwahl http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telefonvorwahl But here you can get a free Database containing all landline numbers: http://www.vorwahl-nummern.de/vorwahlen/download.php http://www.vorwahl-nummern.de/vorwahlen/download.php I really enjoy how metadata enriches actual data. Direct link: http://www.access-paradies.de/download/pool/vorwahlen_deutschland.txt http://www.access-paradies.de/download/pool/vorwahlen_deutsc...
  - Terretta 14y ago
    In the US, thankfully, pro-consumer laws require telcos and wireless carriers to let you take your number. With some restrictions, a number from anything can end up on anything. So no, not possible to detect using rules. It is possible using a telco routing lookup. More details: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/744227/web-based-api-that-can-tell-me-if-a-number-is-a-landline-or-cell-phone http://stackoverflow.com/questions/744227/web-based-api-that...
  - ygra 14y ago
    You cannot know the carrier because you can keep your number when changing them. I'm with Vodafone and have a 0176 dialing code carried over from my previous contract. But as others pointed out, in the US mobile numbers get normal landline dialing codes so you cannot see a difference. So, in a way, yes, it's possible for some customers to automatically detect that, but then you need to question how many of them come from countries where there is a difference and whether it's really a good use of your time and money to implement something that might only benefit a percent of your users. As for me, even though I'm conscious of UX, I wouldn't care much if I had to classify my phone number once. What they described in the article already goes way beyond what most other signup forms do. (Fun fact regarding area codes and figuring out a city from that: The village I lived in previously was pretty much halfway between two smaller cities and it had the area code from one but administratively belonged to the other. So not even that is easy ;-))

by X4 14y ago

untog 14y ago

Landline and Mobile phone numbers are differentiatable They aren't. At least not consistently- the UK (where I suspect you might be given you use of "mobile phone") prefixes them all with 07, but in the US and Canada there is no such difference.

philfreo 14y ago

> Landline and Mobile phone numbers are differentiatable, I'm not sure about this in a world with number portability. > email address and website url are differntiatable too Yep, we do this already. > auto-import feature LinkedIn/Facebook/Google, that searches for the contact's We'd like to pull in social data. It's not trivial, though services like FullContact.com can help.

X4 14y ago
wow, I hoped, but didn't expect that someone actually listens to my tiny voice in the vacuum of the great Interspace. :) I honestly do highly appreciate that, it's a really great move by you and I'm grateful that you care about perfecting your product :) Most companies think they cannot afford listening to their users, those who do earn my deep respect. Btw. I'm from Germany and "mobile phones" can be differentiated easily here. Not only that, you'll even know which network the other number is signed up with. D1 T-Mobile: 0151x, 0160, 0170, 0171, 0175 D2 Vodafone: 0152x, 0162, 0172, 0173, 0174 E-Plus: 0157x, 0163, 0177, 0178 O2: 0159x*, 0176, 0179 Locating positions of landlines phone numbers is even easier, because there are databases. The picture in the german wikipedia article explains how the association with a location works (no need to read the entire article). http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telefonvorwahl http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telefonvorwahl But here you can get a free Database containing all landline numbers: http://www.vorwahl-nummern.de/vorwahlen/download.php http://www.vorwahl-nummern.de/vorwahlen/download.php I really enjoy how metadata enriches actual data. Direct link: http://www.access-paradies.de/download/pool/vorwahlen_deutschland.txt http://www.access-paradies.de/download/pool/vorwahlen_deutsc...
- Terretta 14y ago
  In the US, thankfully, pro-consumer laws require telcos and wireless carriers to let you take your number. With some restrictions, a number from anything can end up on anything. So no, not possible to detect using rules. It is possible using a telco routing lookup. More details: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/744227/web-based-api-that-can-tell-me-if-a-number-is-a-landline-or-cell-phone http://stackoverflow.com/questions/744227/web-based-api-that...
- ygra 14y ago
  You cannot know the carrier because you can keep your number when changing them. I'm with Vodafone and have a 0176 dialing code carried over from my previous contract. But as others pointed out, in the US mobile numbers get normal landline dialing codes so you cannot see a difference. So, in a way, yes, it's possible for some customers to automatically detect that, but then you need to question how many of them come from countries where there is a difference and whether it's really a good use of your time and money to implement something that might only benefit a percent of your users. As for me, even though I'm conscious of UX, I wouldn't care much if I had to classify my phone number once. What they described in the article already goes way beyond what most other signup forms do. (Fun fact regarding area codes and figuring out a city from that: The village I lived in previously was pretty much halfway between two smaller cities and it had the area code from one but administratively belonged to the other. So not even that is easy ;-))