6 ms·

Scan business cards into more than 250 apps

34 points by WadeF 12y ago

JimmaDaRustla 12y ago
Cool. I use CamCard for Android - you can choose where to store your contact information, but most likely not as many options as this.
blairbeckwith 12y ago
I love what Zapier has done for integrating services. Keep it up guys.
- gk1 12y ago
  Wrong company... Or am I missing some connection?
  - mikeknoop 12y ago
    FullContact's mobile apps are using Zapier to connect to most of the apps listed on this page.
splitbrain 12y ago
"This app is incompatible with all of your devices." I have a Nexus 4 and Nexus 7. Not exactly weird hardware.
- bradmccarty 12y ago
  Hey there. Thanks for the heads up. That definitely shouldn't be happening, considering that we test on a Nexus 4. We're taking a look now to see what's up.
- bradmccarty 12y ago
  Hey Andreas, I figured out what's going on. Because we use real people to transcribe the cards, we found that we were having trouble with accuracy when the cards are in languages other than English. As such, we flagged the app to countries that have English the primary language. As we scale the app, we're going to enable more countries. But right now we wanted to make sure that we're providing the best possible experience, even if that means to a smaller base of users. Very sorry for the inconvenience.
BorisMelnik 12y ago
Just tried this out. I could see this being an app that I would use. Only negative (not an app negative) is in the beginning getting all of them scanned in. I have a few 100 biz cards and wouldn't mind having them stored digitally. The transcribing aspect looks interesting. I am still waiting for my first few to process but very curious to see how their OCR works out.
- bradmccarty 12y ago
  The big thing to mention here is that we don't use OCR, we use real people. It's the main differentiator (aside from the Zapier integration) between Card Reader and just about every other alternative. Yes, it's slower, but it's also incredibly accurate. And really, when was the last time that you scanned in a business card and needed the information from it 20 seconds later?
mikeknoop 12y ago
Big shoutout to Travis @ FullContact for making this happen. Lots of work over the past few months. I love the use case "When I scan a business card, automatically invite them on LinkedIn to connect". Then I can toss the card guilty free.
tamersalama 12y ago
CardMunch originally used real-people too. Don't know what happened when they moved to LinkedIn (and their latest demise). How does your service compare to CardMunch's replacement with EverNote?
- bradmccarty 12y ago
  CardMunch still (for the next few days anyway) uses real people. That didn't change when the company moved under LinkedIn. Unfortunately there was an opportunity there that was never really seized. As for how we compare? That's a matter of personal preference. While I like Evernote a lot, and use it daily, it's just not where I want to store my contacts. Nothing about that makes sense to me. My contacts need to be where they're the most accessible, from the device that I'm going to use to get in touch with them. I don't use a CRM, but if I did, I'd want to scan cards into it because that's where it makes sense for those contacts to live. I'd want to segment them and I'd want to pull them into my phone when I needed them. None of these things are easy to do when you use Evernote as your repository. It's great for being your "second brain", but not so great for being your phone book.
jbverschoor 12y ago
I use scanbizcards. It does OCR and all, doesn't NEED to add to your adress book, and I just love the coverflow view :)
- pbharrin 12y ago
  Why does it need to add your address book?
ForHackernews 12y ago
People use business cards?

34 points by WadeF 12y ago

Cool. I use CamCard for Android - you can choose where to store your contact information, but most likely not as many options as this.

blairbeckwith 12y ago

I love what Zapier has done for integrating services. Keep it up guys.

gk1 12y ago
Wrong company... Or am I missing some connection?
- mikeknoop 12y ago
  FullContact's mobile apps are using Zapier to connect to most of the apps listed on this page.

splitbrain 12y ago

"This app is incompatible with all of your devices." I have a Nexus 4 and Nexus 7. Not exactly weird hardware.

bradmccarty 12y ago
Hey there. Thanks for the heads up. That definitely shouldn't be happening, considering that we test on a Nexus 4. We're taking a look now to see what's up.
bradmccarty 12y ago
Hey Andreas, I figured out what's going on. Because we use real people to transcribe the cards, we found that we were having trouble with accuracy when the cards are in languages other than English. As such, we flagged the app to countries that have English the primary language. As we scale the app, we're going to enable more countries. But right now we wanted to make sure that we're providing the best possible experience, even if that means to a smaller base of users. Very sorry for the inconvenience.

BorisMelnik 12y ago

Just tried this out. I could see this being an app that I would use. Only negative (not an app negative) is in the beginning getting all of them scanned in. I have a few 100 biz cards and wouldn't mind having them stored digitally. The transcribing aspect looks interesting. I am still waiting for my first few to process but very curious to see how their OCR works out.

bradmccarty 12y ago
The big thing to mention here is that we don't use OCR, we use real people. It's the main differentiator (aside from the Zapier integration) between Card Reader and just about every other alternative. Yes, it's slower, but it's also incredibly accurate. And really, when was the last time that you scanned in a business card and needed the information from it 20 seconds later?

mikeknoop 12y ago

Big shoutout to Travis @ FullContact for making this happen. Lots of work over the past few months. I love the use case "When I scan a business card, automatically invite them on LinkedIn to connect". Then I can toss the card guilty free.

tamersalama 12y ago

CardMunch originally used real-people too. Don't know what happened when they moved to LinkedIn (and their latest demise). How does your service compare to CardMunch's replacement with EverNote?

bradmccarty 12y ago
CardMunch still (for the next few days anyway) uses real people. That didn't change when the company moved under LinkedIn. Unfortunately there was an opportunity there that was never really seized. As for how we compare? That's a matter of personal preference. While I like Evernote a lot, and use it daily, it's just not where I want to store my contacts. Nothing about that makes sense to me. My contacts need to be where they're the most accessible, from the device that I'm going to use to get in touch with them. I don't use a CRM, but if I did, I'd want to scan cards into it because that's where it makes sense for those contacts to live. I'd want to segment them and I'd want to pull them into my phone when I needed them. None of these things are easy to do when you use Evernote as your repository. It's great for being your "second brain", but not so great for being your phone book.

jbverschoor 12y ago

I use scanbizcards. It does OCR and all, doesn't NEED to add to your adress book, and I just love the coverflow view :)

pbharrin 12y ago
Why does it need to add your address book?

ForHackernews 12y ago

People use business cards?