5 ms·

Show HN: Timeline.com

123 points by rohamg 12y ago

habosa 12y ago
I think the servers must be getting killed because the mobile web version loads incredibly slowly or not at all. Also @rohamg I think there are some compatibility issues. In Firefox for Android I see only the site logo on a gray background. Chrome for Android loads ... eventually.
teh_klev 12y ago
No IOS device here. Trying to use the "mobile-web" app but all I get is an empty page with your logo then eventually Chrome asks me if I want to kill the page(on my PC) or nothing happening at all on my Moto G.
sandy007 12y ago
good idea, congratulations!
setheron 12y ago
pretty good domain name
- tuananh 12y ago
  just "pretty good"? When i heard of Timeline now, I think of Facebook. This domain worths quite a lot i think.
nolk100 12y ago
That would not have been a cheap domain name to acquire, especially after Facebook rebranding 'the wall' as 'the timeline'.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- ryanjshaw 12y ago
  And then there's the neighbours, Timelines Inc., who aren't shy at all: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-07/facebook-timelines-website-end-trademark-infringement-suit-1-.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-07/facebook-timelines-...
- tslater2006 12y ago
  Just did a quick site price estimator, probably not super accurate but it said about 18k. http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.timeline.com http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.timeline.com
  - adamnemecek 12y ago
    I'm not sure how reliable that site is considering it's estimating the domain thehungergames.wikia.com to be worth $30.1M http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.thehungergames.wikia.com http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.thehungergames.wi...
    - ph0rque 12y ago
      Also, insurance.com, which was sold for $35.6 million[0], was estimated to be worth <$29k[1]. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_domain_names http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_domain_n... [1] http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.insurance.com http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.insurance.com
beisner 12y ago
Wow. Excellent execution of an awesome idea. Seriously, I've always lamented the fact that news is never presented with enough background, and the fact that these articles allow the user to either get an overview or an in-depth history is really exciting. I currently use Yahoo News Digest for quick updates about the day's events, but this complements that form of news consumption very nicely and I could see myself using it often. Minor point, the UI is a bit glitchy and sometimes the header bar shakes back and forth. Also, navigation from within stories is unclear - I couldn't figure out how to get back to the front page section. I'm not sure if the functionality isn't there or just wasn't working, but a swipe left to go back would be much more user friendly. Well done, and congrats on launching!
ddorian43 12y ago
Why can't that be a website ? Why do you have to make console-exclusives ?
- lewi 12y ago
  https://m.timeline.com/ https://m.timeline.com/
  - hnriot 12y ago
    https://m.timeline.com/bower_components/angular-facebook/lib/angular-facebook.js https://m.timeline.com/bower_components/angular-facebook/lib... Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT app.js:4 Uncaught Error: [$injector:modulerr] Failed to instantiate module timeline due to: Error: [$injector:modulerr] Failed to instantiate module facebook due to: Error: [$injector:nomod] Module 'facebook' is not available! You either misspelled the module name or forgot to load it. If registering a module ensure that you specify the dependencies as the second argument. Chrome/Linux Version 39.0.2171.95 (64-bit)
    - sync 12y ago
      It's your ad/privacy blocker, FYI.
      - zo1 12y ago
        Not working for me on a fresh install of IE10. I.e. (no pun intended) not due to any sort of ad/privacy blocker.
        ericlin2004 12y ago
        Yup, this is an error on our end. We've got a fix for it in the next build. Thanks guys!
  - webwanderings 12y ago
91pavan 12y ago
Pretty awesome idea. I'm willing to contribute.
dbla 12y ago
I love the tagline. It's short, sweet, and immediately gets the point across. Great job!
LiweiZ 12y ago
I planned a tool to combine both timeline and map to be a tool for history exploration. With geography layer and time together, history can be shown in a clearer and impressive way. If one set of those by one user can be called a set. When grouping multiple related sets from different users, it must be amazing. It could be a game changer tool for history research and education. Moving those "meta" data to layers we can easily understand is a dream. Hopefully, I'm able to see it happens soon:)
ABNWZ 12y ago
Looks like this has been developed using the famo.us framework? I only say this because the parallax effect in the video is very reminiscent of a famo.us demo that was there yesterday but gone today.
- CodeWithCoffee 12y ago
  Their about page lists the licenses for several native iOS libraries (AFNetworking, etc) which suggests it is mostly native.
  - DevoAKA 12y ago
    Dev here. It's all native. Our iOS team says, "some of the third party libraries we have are Objective-C, but we've only written Swift code."
fab1an 12y ago
_Absolutely_ love the insight of news being "the short tail of a very long string of events". Along with the promising execution this could well be one of those tremendously successful ideas that look trivially logical in hindsight.
rohamg 12y ago
Wow. Thank you so much for the positive outpour of support, we are near the point of tears of joy with today's launch! I'd like to take a minute and get back to all your questions and comments: * Bugs and glitches: please keep the feedback coming! This is a version 1.0 product, so we're standing ready to fix issues ASAP as they come up. * Technology choice: the iOS app is entirely native, written in Swift. The API is written in GO, and the web app is Angular.JS. Very shiny new tech all-around! * Native vs. Web: We have a native iOS app on the AppStore right now, all other platforms can access full functionality via our web app http://m.timeline.com http://m.timeline.com * Maps and geographical exploration: Can't say much except "coming soon". If you have an interest, experience, or actual technology in this area we'd love to work with you. * Contributing: We'd love to hear from you, and we'd love your help. Shoot us an email: beta@timeline.com
- LiweiZ 12y ago
  Regarding maps and geographical exploration, I agree with you that should be at lower priority. I think start from events happening now such as news is a much better and more efficient way to foster the positive feedback loop. When the timeline module is more polished and with more resources, it could be a good time to explore the module for map layer. Eventually, combining both layers to have a tool that I dream of. I'm just someone interested in this because of how powerful I think it could be. At this moment, I don't have enough skills to bring it to life. Nice work.
- carlob 12y ago
  http://m.timeline.com http://m.timeline.com Does not load anything for me on Safari with Ghostery on.
Stately 12y ago
This is beautiful. It really shows that a lot of thought has been put into it. Have you guys thought about using CartoDB's Oddysey.js[0] to integrate maps in your timelines? It seems both projects are very related to each other. (Full disclosure, I'm a CartoDB employee, although not involved in Oddysey's development) [0] http://cartodb.github.io/odyssey.js/ http://cartodb.github.io/odyssey.js/
dadair 12y ago
Very small thing, but there is a space missing after the period in the tagline: "..string of events.Timeline weaves those.." Otherwise looks awesome!
- schtick 12y ago
  Great eye, and thanks for the feedback! We'll fix pronto.
cheriot 12y ago
I LOVE anything that will add the needed context to news stories. The article on Boko Haram is good. I like video and income map. The actual timeline functionality on the web view still needs some work. With a good timeline you can "feel" the differences in timespan. Overall, I like the idea and the content. More please!
aaronbrethorst 12y ago
Very, very cool. I'm skeptical about your chances of success (I feel like news startups are just behind music startups in terms of mortality rate), but I've been wanting something that looks like this for a good long while. I think the lack of this sort of resource has done a grave disservice to our understanding of world events. So, thanks a lot for agreeing with me, and acting on it :) (n.b. I'm a mobile engineer at NBC News, and arguably in direct competition with these folks.)
JacobMauer 12y ago
I think this is great execution but I'm not sure I would use it over Wikipedia. If I want to know the timeline of Boko Haram, I think I would get more objective and comprehensive timeline information, with sources, from Wikipedia's page on Boko Haram* than the Timeline.com page. 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram#2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram#2009 2 https://m.timeline.com/#!/stories/boko-haram-nigeria-history https://m.timeline.com/#!/stories/boko-haram-nigeria-history
- anextio 12y ago
  Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, Timeline is a news app that appears to publish articles with historical context and an innovative UI. Why would you compare them? Apples and oranges, imho.
ashwinl 12y ago
I like the thought that has gone into expressing the app's motivations. As a curated app, I was interested in learning about the people behind it. Your About, FAQ/Editorial and Licenses section under timeline.com/about was fun to read. Too bad it was hidden away on the homepage. But, maybe you did this intentionally. I'm in the process of working on a timeline-like design, non news related, so this piqued my interest.
ajjai 12y ago
Thats one premium domain...
- AustinDizzy 12y ago
  It's gotta be part of the business strategy. If the business itself flops, they've always got the increasingly popular domain name to sell to the highest bidder.
buren 12y ago
Great idea! Congrats
arjn 12y ago
Oh, Oh! ... dammit. I've been think about something like this for a while now. Nicely done.
discardorama 12y ago
I don't have a mobile device, so I can't really tell what's going on. Can someone give a brief overview of what this is about? It's supposed to be a new way of browsing news, right?
- pioul 12y ago
  The mobile web app works great on desktop as well: https://m.timeline.com https://m.timeline.com
grumblestumble 12y ago
With your servers seemingly being hit kind of hard, I'd recommend a refactor pass to using ng-bind over {{ }} syntax. Seeing unparsed expressions all over the place on your web app.
- ericlin2004 12y ago
  Hi grumblestumble, we're on it now. Thanks for the heads up!
adamfeldman 12y ago
I've been dreaming about a site like this for years. Casual newsreaders need context given to them in a friendly way so they can properly engage with the content. Vox.com explainers are one thing but this is even better. Kudos on launching!!
Jamie452 12y ago
Can I ask, was this at all inspired by reading my blog post that I posted here last year? Looks awesome! http://jamie.st/blog/news-timeline-v2/ http://jamie.st/blog/news-timeline-v2/
knowaveragejoe 12y ago
This is great. Will definitely be my go-to app to kill some time and catch up on things. I noticed an odd sentence structure in an article though. Not sure whether this text was generated, wasn't copy-edited or I'm just not reading it correctly: > Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli was connected to a web of secret tunnels. But they did not save him: the tunnels where Gadhafi was captured in a tunnel while trying to escape Sirte, his hometown, in a golf cart.
- findjashua 12y ago
  yep, 'the tunnels where' in the last sentence seems like a typo
normloman 12y ago
I like the idea of presenting news with related articles for historical context. I don't think I'd download an app. But if it were a website, I'd go there to learn more about a current news topic.
- feroz1 12y ago
  Yeah I would love this to be a website. I tend to read news at work (!) on my lunchbreak, on my desktop, so would love this to be a website.
- fiatjaf 12y ago
  Yeah, me too, probably.
fiatjaf 12y ago
The only way to understand what does it do is by watching a video?

123 points by rohamg 12y ago

I think the servers must be getting killed because the mobile web version loads incredibly slowly or not at all. Also @rohamg I think there are some compatibility issues. In Firefox for Android I see only the site logo on a gray background. Chrome for Android loads ... eventually.

teh_klev 12y ago

No IOS device here. Trying to use the "mobile-web" app but all I get is an empty page with your logo then eventually Chrome asks me if I want to kill the page(on my PC) or nothing happening at all on my Moto G.

sandy007 12y ago

good idea, congratulations!

setheron 12y ago

pretty good domain name

tuananh 12y ago
just "pretty good"? When i heard of Timeline now, I think of Facebook. This domain worths quite a lot i think.

nolk100 12y ago

That would not have been a cheap domain name to acquire, especially after Facebook rebranding 'the wall' as 'the timeline'.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
ryanjshaw 12y ago
And then there's the neighbours, Timelines Inc., who aren't shy at all: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-07/facebook-timelines-website-end-trademark-infringement-suit-1-.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-07/facebook-timelines-...
tslater2006 12y ago
Just did a quick site price estimator, probably not super accurate but it said about 18k. http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.timeline.com http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.timeline.com
- adamnemecek 12y ago
  I'm not sure how reliable that site is considering it's estimating the domain thehungergames.wikia.com to be worth $30.1M http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.thehungergames.wikia.com http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.thehungergames.wi...
  - ph0rque 12y ago
    Also, insurance.com, which was sold for $35.6 million[0], was estimated to be worth <$29k[1]. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_domain_names http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_domain_n... [1] http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.insurance.com http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/www.insurance.com

beisner 12y ago

Wow. Excellent execution of an awesome idea. Seriously, I've always lamented the fact that news is never presented with enough background, and the fact that these articles allow the user to either get an overview or an in-depth history is really exciting. I currently use Yahoo News Digest for quick updates about the day's events, but this complements that form of news consumption very nicely and I could see myself using it often. Minor point, the UI is a bit glitchy and sometimes the header bar shakes back and forth. Also, navigation from within stories is unclear - I couldn't figure out how to get back to the front page section. I'm not sure if the functionality isn't there or just wasn't working, but a swipe left to go back would be much more user friendly. Well done, and congrats on launching!

ddorian43 12y ago

Why can't that be a website ? Why do you have to make console-exclusives ?

lewi 12y ago
https://m.timeline.com/ https://m.timeline.com/
- hnriot 12y ago
  https://m.timeline.com/bower_components/angular-facebook/lib/angular-facebook.js https://m.timeline.com/bower_components/angular-facebook/lib... Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT app.js:4 Uncaught Error: [$injector:modulerr] Failed to instantiate module timeline due to: Error: [$injector:modulerr] Failed to instantiate module facebook due to: Error: [$injector:nomod] Module 'facebook' is not available! You either misspelled the module name or forgot to load it. If registering a module ensure that you specify the dependencies as the second argument. Chrome/Linux Version 39.0.2171.95 (64-bit)
  - sync 12y ago
    It's your ad/privacy blocker, FYI.
    - zo1 12y ago
      Not working for me on a fresh install of IE10. I.e. (no pun intended) not due to any sort of ad/privacy blocker.
      - ericlin2004 12y ago
        Yup, this is an error on our end. We've got a fix for it in the next build. Thanks guys!
- webwanderings 12y ago

91pavan 12y ago

Pretty awesome idea. I'm willing to contribute.

dbla 12y ago

I love the tagline. It's short, sweet, and immediately gets the point across. Great job!

LiweiZ 12y ago

I planned a tool to combine both timeline and map to be a tool for history exploration. With geography layer and time together, history can be shown in a clearer and impressive way. If one set of those by one user can be called a set. When grouping multiple related sets from different users, it must be amazing. It could be a game changer tool for history research and education. Moving those "meta" data to layers we can easily understand is a dream. Hopefully, I'm able to see it happens soon:)

ABNWZ 12y ago

Looks like this has been developed using the famo.us framework? I only say this because the parallax effect in the video is very reminiscent of a famo.us demo that was there yesterday but gone today.

CodeWithCoffee 12y ago
Their about page lists the licenses for several native iOS libraries (AFNetworking, etc) which suggests it is mostly native.
- DevoAKA 12y ago
  Dev here. It's all native. Our iOS team says, "some of the third party libraries we have are Objective-C, but we've only written Swift code."

fab1an 12y ago

_Absolutely_ love the insight of news being "the short tail of a very long string of events". Along with the promising execution this could well be one of those tremendously successful ideas that look trivially logical in hindsight.

rohamg 12y ago

Wow. Thank you so much for the positive outpour of support, we are near the point of tears of joy with today's launch! I'd like to take a minute and get back to all your questions and comments: * Bugs and glitches: please keep the feedback coming! This is a version 1.0 product, so we're standing ready to fix issues ASAP as they come up. * Technology choice: the iOS app is entirely native, written in Swift. The API is written in GO, and the web app is Angular.JS. Very shiny new tech all-around! * Native vs. Web: We have a native iOS app on the AppStore right now, all other platforms can access full functionality via our web app http://m.timeline.com http://m.timeline.com * Maps and geographical exploration: Can't say much except "coming soon". If you have an interest, experience, or actual technology in this area we'd love to work with you. * Contributing: We'd love to hear from you, and we'd love your help. Shoot us an email: beta@timeline.com

LiweiZ 12y ago
Regarding maps and geographical exploration, I agree with you that should be at lower priority. I think start from events happening now such as news is a much better and more efficient way to foster the positive feedback loop. When the timeline module is more polished and with more resources, it could be a good time to explore the module for map layer. Eventually, combining both layers to have a tool that I dream of. I'm just someone interested in this because of how powerful I think it could be. At this moment, I don't have enough skills to bring it to life. Nice work.
carlob 12y ago
http://m.timeline.com http://m.timeline.com Does not load anything for me on Safari with Ghostery on.

Stately 12y ago

This is beautiful. It really shows that a lot of thought has been put into it. Have you guys thought about using CartoDB's Oddysey.js[0] to integrate maps in your timelines? It seems both projects are very related to each other. (Full disclosure, I'm a CartoDB employee, although not involved in Oddysey's development) [0] http://cartodb.github.io/odyssey.js/ http://cartodb.github.io/odyssey.js/

dadair 12y ago

Very small thing, but there is a space missing after the period in the tagline: "..string of events.Timeline weaves those.." Otherwise looks awesome!

schtick 12y ago
Great eye, and thanks for the feedback! We'll fix pronto.

cheriot 12y ago

I LOVE anything that will add the needed context to news stories. The article on Boko Haram is good. I like video and income map. The actual timeline functionality on the web view still needs some work. With a good timeline you can "feel" the differences in timespan. Overall, I like the idea and the content. More please!

aaronbrethorst 12y ago

Very, very cool. I'm skeptical about your chances of success (I feel like news startups are just behind music startups in terms of mortality rate), but I've been wanting something that looks like this for a good long while. I think the lack of this sort of resource has done a grave disservice to our understanding of world events. So, thanks a lot for agreeing with me, and acting on it :) (n.b. I'm a mobile engineer at NBC News, and arguably in direct competition with these folks.)

JacobMauer 12y ago

I think this is great execution but I'm not sure I would use it over Wikipedia. If I want to know the timeline of Boko Haram, I think I would get more objective and comprehensive timeline information, with sources, from Wikipedia's page on Boko Haram* than the Timeline.com page. 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram#2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram#2009 2 https://m.timeline.com/#!/stories/boko-haram-nigeria-history https://m.timeline.com/#!/stories/boko-haram-nigeria-history

anextio 12y ago
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, Timeline is a news app that appears to publish articles with historical context and an innovative UI. Why would you compare them? Apples and oranges, imho.

ashwinl 12y ago

I like the thought that has gone into expressing the app's motivations. As a curated app, I was interested in learning about the people behind it. Your About, FAQ/Editorial and Licenses section under timeline.com/about was fun to read. Too bad it was hidden away on the homepage. But, maybe you did this intentionally. I'm in the process of working on a timeline-like design, non news related, so this piqued my interest.

ajjai 12y ago

Thats one premium domain...

AustinDizzy 12y ago
It's gotta be part of the business strategy. If the business itself flops, they've always got the increasingly popular domain name to sell to the highest bidder.

buren 12y ago

Great idea! Congrats

arjn 12y ago

Oh, Oh! ... dammit. I've been think about something like this for a while now. Nicely done.

discardorama 12y ago

I don't have a mobile device, so I can't really tell what's going on. Can someone give a brief overview of what this is about? It's supposed to be a new way of browsing news, right?

pioul 12y ago
The mobile web app works great on desktop as well: https://m.timeline.com https://m.timeline.com

grumblestumble 12y ago

With your servers seemingly being hit kind of hard, I'd recommend a refactor pass to using ng-bind over {{ }} syntax. Seeing unparsed expressions all over the place on your web app.

ericlin2004 12y ago
Hi grumblestumble, we're on it now. Thanks for the heads up!

adamfeldman 12y ago

I've been dreaming about a site like this for years. Casual newsreaders need context given to them in a friendly way so they can properly engage with the content. Vox.com explainers are one thing but this is even better. Kudos on launching!!

Jamie452 12y ago

Can I ask, was this at all inspired by reading my blog post that I posted here last year? Looks awesome! http://jamie.st/blog/news-timeline-v2/ http://jamie.st/blog/news-timeline-v2/

knowaveragejoe 12y ago

This is great. Will definitely be my go-to app to kill some time and catch up on things. I noticed an odd sentence structure in an article though. Not sure whether this text was generated, wasn't copy-edited or I'm just not reading it correctly: > Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli was connected to a web of secret tunnels. But they did not save him: the tunnels where Gadhafi was captured in a tunnel while trying to escape Sirte, his hometown, in a golf cart.

findjashua 12y ago
yep, 'the tunnels where' in the last sentence seems like a typo

normloman 12y ago

I like the idea of presenting news with related articles for historical context. I don't think I'd download an app. But if it were a website, I'd go there to learn more about a current news topic.

feroz1 12y ago
Yeah I would love this to be a website. I tend to read news at work (!) on my lunchbreak, on my desktop, so would love this to be a website.
fiatjaf 12y ago
Yeah, me too, probably.

fiatjaf 12y ago

The only way to understand what does it do is by watching a video?