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Lumi – A new way to find things that interest you

35 points by emilepetrone 13y ago

emilepetrone 13y ago
A friend just launched Lumi, "A new and easy way to find things that interest you", and thought it would be nice to send some HN traffic/ feedback. Any and all ideas welcome!
- minimaxir 13y ago
  It should be noted that said friend is a founder of Last.fm. http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/11/last-fm-founders-throw-the-lights-on-lumi-a-site-that-uses-your-browsing-history-to-recommend-new-content/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/11/last-fm-founders-throw-the-...
  - anonymoushn 13y ago
    If it's anything like Last.fm, it should be really good at recommending super popular sites that the user already knows about and does not use.
- area51org 13y ago
  This is an interesting idea, but (as others mentioned) I'd like to know a little bit more about what this site does before I sign up. Just need a little more detail than "find things that interest you."
  - belgianguy 13y ago
    It uploads and analyses your browser history, and attempts to generate a feed based on the recurring themes therein. I installed it, but I didn't like it to just upload my whole browsing history. But it's well designed, looks pretty and so far works as advertised.
    - area51org 13y ago
      Thanks for that — I'm sure the intention of the summary was to keep it simple and to speak to less-technical users. But it'd be nice if there was a slightly more technical description (like yours) available too.
tehwebguy 13y ago
You will get much better feedback if you can show it off without requiring registration.
panzerboy 13y ago
Would be nice to have a tour to give your potential users an idea about what it actually is before requiring a signup.
zalew 13y ago
"[sign up with twitter] or sign up with email". I choose twitter, authorize, then it drops me to creating an account with email.
mike_ivanov 13y ago
FYI: after creating an account they will ask you to install a browser plugin - that's how it works.
- bockris 13y ago
  and that's why I abandoned it immediately.
TruthSHIFT 13y ago
I decided to try it out. That Mac OS installation video is wonderfully clever. I was weary of giving Lumi access to my browsing history, but then I remembered how many companies already have access to it. It's still not done processing my browsing history, so I have no idea if it works.
- hnriot 13y ago
  I think you mean wary, not weary (unless you're fatigued from giving access to your browsing history)
tejaswiy 13y ago
It's an interesting idea, but you've pushed the privacy vs convenience line too far for me. No way I'm going to give a 3rd party app access to my browser history.
DiabloD3 13y ago
That looked interesting, but I don't have a Twitter account. Oh well, another service that doesn't serve most of the Internet. =/
- russx2 13y ago
  You can signup with an email address too.
seiferteric 13y ago
Nice, I created an account with my email, then it asks me to install a browser plugin, which I don't want to do at this time. It says it "works best when you add the extension to your browser" but gives me no option to skip. I don't feel comfortable installing a plugin without getting to know the service a bit better, so I guess I will pass for now.
pashabitz 13y ago
Lame. Asks for twitter account AND to install a chrome extension? And it doesn't let you continue unless you do that? And it has some 1990s style polling mechanism /install?retry=1 ?? Beh.
Ashuu 13y ago
This is not fair!! You must ask for permission if I want to share my browsing history or not! WTF!
deft0nes 13y ago
uploading your browser history.. Fuck
phusion 13y ago
It is a bit much to upload your browsing history and install a plugin. I just went through all of that and gave the service a try. So far I've found at least a handful of articles that I enjoyed reading that I may not have found otherwise. I suppose it's worth it if they're not doing anything nasty with my data. I'd like to think that the Last.fm guy isn't up to any dirty tricks with Lumi... if you're skeptical about privacy concerns, this may not be for you, but I'm enjoying it so far. Also, I'm a former web news editor and still have a serious jones for news, so this was a perfect fit for me.
bharath_mohan 13y ago
When you are on the browser, you can do a lot more with that context. Try http://pugmarks.me http://pugmarks.me - done by ex-Google News engineers. It gives you related news when you visit a LinkedIn profile, related articles for anything - works especially well for long shelf life content. Next, your New Tab is converted into a mirror of your recent interests, where experts on the topic you are reading are shown.
wallacrw 13y ago
Really slick design. I'm guessing most regular folks won't think that hard about sharing their browsing history; if you expect privacy on the internet, you're being silly. And if you put a big juicy button on a pretty page, most folks will click it.

35 points by emilepetrone 13y ago

A friend just launched Lumi, "A new and easy way to find things that interest you", and thought it would be nice to send some HN traffic/ feedback. Any and all ideas welcome!

minimaxir 13y ago
It should be noted that said friend is a founder of Last.fm. http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/11/last-fm-founders-throw-the-lights-on-lumi-a-site-that-uses-your-browsing-history-to-recommend-new-content/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/11/last-fm-founders-throw-the-...
- anonymoushn 13y ago
  If it's anything like Last.fm, it should be really good at recommending super popular sites that the user already knows about and does not use.
area51org 13y ago
This is an interesting idea, but (as others mentioned) I'd like to know a little bit more about what this site does before I sign up. Just need a little more detail than "find things that interest you."
- belgianguy 13y ago
  It uploads and analyses your browser history, and attempts to generate a feed based on the recurring themes therein. I installed it, but I didn't like it to just upload my whole browsing history. But it's well designed, looks pretty and so far works as advertised.
  - area51org 13y ago
    Thanks for that — I'm sure the intention of the summary was to keep it simple and to speak to less-technical users. But it'd be nice if there was a slightly more technical description (like yours) available too.

tehwebguy 13y ago

You will get much better feedback if you can show it off without requiring registration.

panzerboy 13y ago

Would be nice to have a tour to give your potential users an idea about what it actually is before requiring a signup.

zalew 13y ago

"[sign up with twitter] or sign up with email". I choose twitter, authorize, then it drops me to creating an account with email.

mike_ivanov 13y ago

FYI: after creating an account they will ask you to install a browser plugin - that's how it works.

bockris 13y ago
and that's why I abandoned it immediately.

TruthSHIFT 13y ago

I decided to try it out. That Mac OS installation video is wonderfully clever. I was weary of giving Lumi access to my browsing history, but then I remembered how many companies already have access to it. It's still not done processing my browsing history, so I have no idea if it works.

hnriot 13y ago
I think you mean wary, not weary (unless you're fatigued from giving access to your browsing history)

tejaswiy 13y ago

It's an interesting idea, but you've pushed the privacy vs convenience line too far for me. No way I'm going to give a 3rd party app access to my browser history.

DiabloD3 13y ago

That looked interesting, but I don't have a Twitter account. Oh well, another service that doesn't serve most of the Internet. =/

russx2 13y ago
You can signup with an email address too.

seiferteric 13y ago

Nice, I created an account with my email, then it asks me to install a browser plugin, which I don't want to do at this time. It says it "works best when you add the extension to your browser" but gives me no option to skip. I don't feel comfortable installing a plugin without getting to know the service a bit better, so I guess I will pass for now.

pashabitz 13y ago

Lame. Asks for twitter account AND to install a chrome extension? And it doesn't let you continue unless you do that? And it has some 1990s style polling mechanism /install?retry=1 ?? Beh.

Ashuu 13y ago

This is not fair!! You must ask for permission if I want to share my browsing history or not! WTF!

deft0nes 13y ago

uploading your browser history.. Fuck

phusion 13y ago

It is a bit much to upload your browsing history and install a plugin. I just went through all of that and gave the service a try. So far I've found at least a handful of articles that I enjoyed reading that I may not have found otherwise. I suppose it's worth it if they're not doing anything nasty with my data. I'd like to think that the Last.fm guy isn't up to any dirty tricks with Lumi... if you're skeptical about privacy concerns, this may not be for you, but I'm enjoying it so far. Also, I'm a former web news editor and still have a serious jones for news, so this was a perfect fit for me.

bharath_mohan 13y ago

When you are on the browser, you can do a lot more with that context. Try http://pugmarks.me http://pugmarks.me - done by ex-Google News engineers. It gives you related news when you visit a LinkedIn profile, related articles for anything - works especially well for long shelf life content. Next, your New Tab is converted into a mirror of your recent interests, where experts on the topic you are reading are shown.

wallacrw 13y ago

Really slick design. I'm guessing most regular folks won't think that hard about sharing their browsing history; if you expect privacy on the internet, you're being silly. And if you put a big juicy button on a pretty page, most folks will click it.