New Startup :: SeenBefore

dereko

Hi Guys,

We just launched a new site https://www.seenbefore.com and would love to get your feedback on what you think of it and is it something you would use.

"Find that website you read weeks ago, faster than any other tool. Chrome only at the moment. Works across multiple machines, displays results within Google's results and stores the website so if the content online ever changes, you can still read it."


Derek

homeOwner

Can you pick and choose what it stores or does it store all the webpages you have viewed by default?

dereko

It doesn't record any pages behind https (secure pages where you login to view something e.g. bank)

It doesn't record any adult sites

You can also create a personal blacklist of sites that you wish to have ignored.

nice1franko

Apologies in advance for being negative!

I'm not convinced that this is useful product. Personally, I can find anything that I've viewed before very easily through google and/or browser history. Also, I wouldn't be overly enthusiastic about giving a small, 3rd party company permission to record my browsing habits.

Even for less tech savvy people that myself, I can't really see the appeal of it. If Average Joe clears his browser history, it's because he wants it cleared - he doesn't want his wife stumbling across the research he's done for her birthday present (or whatever).

vinnyg_glennon

Hi, another one of the founders here.

nice1franko, the product is not for everyone. Main focus is for people who have multiple computers and for whom information is valuable. Examples include a blogger researching articles for 2-3 days or a journalist trying to find something they knew they saw.

Just on your 2 points:
Re Google, I created a tour page to help explain why its better for refinding stuff than Google: https://www.seenbefore.com/tours/gather_around_no_fighting_now

Regards history, lets say you never delete your browsing history. You find the article you read 3 months ago using your history. You click on the link. The content on the page has changed/been updated, and what you were looking for is no longer there. SeenBefore stores a cache of each page, so you can see what it looked like, at the time you first saw it.

We are currently based down on Barrow Street, Dublin (next door to Google) in Dogpatch Labs. If about for a coffee, would love to hear of your feedback, I'm buying!
V

nice1franko

Right, I'll play devil's advocate for ya:

vinnyg_glennon wrote: »

the product is not for everyone. Main focus is for people who have multiple computers and for whom information is valuable. Examples include a blogger researching articles for 2-3 days or a journalist trying to find something they knew they saw.

You're saying this is a *very* niche product. I'd almost ignore the "for whom information is valuable" part since it's implicitly valuable.

vinnyg_glennon wrote: »

People are very good are reading hundreds of webpages a week. We are also very good at remembering snippets of a page. Suppose that I remember a website I saw 3 weeks ago had the phrase "Thierry Henry" in it.

Using Google, I would find 8 million results for that phrase as Google is searching over the entire internet. Normally I would give up...

I'd argue that this is overstating the problem a tad. If you found the article 3 weeks ago, chances are you didn't browse 8 mil pages then either. It's likely within the first 5 pages of search results.

Do you have a rough idea of what percentage of your target market (bloggers, journalists, students, researchers of all kinds) work on multiple machines? I don't but I'd hazzard a guess that most have a primary machine. If that's the case, your target market just got a lot smaller. The other thing is, the only other machine I'm really on (despite having a 3 laptops) is my phone and if I come across something interesting on it then I hit the "Share" button and mail myself directly or use Pocket/Read it later.

I know you're app is different, in that it's for people who have read info and didn't realise the importance of it until later, but I'm highlighting a common cross-platform usecase which further narrows the usefulness of this app.

Thanks for the offer for coffee but unfortunately I wouldn't really have the time! Again, apologies for bearish outlook. It's wholly intended to be constructive and I wish you both the very best of luck with it.

nice1franko

BTW, it looks like Chrome already goes a long way to solving the "people with multiple computers" part of your problem:

http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2392075

"Sync lets you access your Chrome bookmarks, browsing history, and open tabs from other devices where you’re also signed in."

I do love your widget for filtering by date/time though.

Clever idea definitely has its uses for people researching things. Hope you have your technology protected, good look with your plan to sell it to google! (which I guess is what the long term plan is)

The Apprentice

Im sorry but i spend at least 12-14hrs a day on a computer, this includes my work
In the 14 years since i have been arsing on the internet i can think of a handful of times that i could re-read my browser history or not get concerned that i could not refind the page that i was looking for.
I cant fathom a reason even i would use this for research at work, of which i do a lot of.

I am sorry to bust your bubble if i did, but i dont think this gives anyone anything new or even helps people. Its like inventing a machine for opening cans of coke or something.

Im sure you can give away this app but i dont think its a business in the long term if that is your vision.

Overthrow

It's a great idea and while I wouldn't use it myself, for the right people it could be invaluable.

One of the benefits I can imagine it providing is the removal of the need to bookmark things - and maybe this is what you should focus the pitch on.

"Forget about bookmarking, use SeenBefore and you'll never have to bookmark again." or whatever.

Because, bookmarking takes effort and it represents another system of organisation which busy people could do without. I've often been hesitant as to whether I'll bookmark a page or not...it's the laziness versus perceived reward factor. As well as the chances of going back to the page and seeing that it has changed.

vinnyg_glennon

@overthrow That is definitely one of the main benefits. Bookmarking domains (for shortcuts) you visit each day is valuable, but bookmarking content seems pointless to me, as its a manual action and I don't bookmark 99% of the stuff I want to find later.
V

Overthrow

vinnyg_glennon wrote: »

@overthrow That is definitely one of the main benefits. Bookmarking domains (for shortcuts) you visit each day is valuable, but bookmarking content seems pointless to me, as its a manual action and I don't bookmark 99% of the stuff I want to find later.
V

Your website doesn't communicate that, which I think is a big mistake.

The primary value of it is the removal of the need to bookmark. Most people don't appreciate that a website can change content and be different when you revisit. It's a problem that most people have probably only experienced once or twice, if ever.

But everyone has thought "err, is it worth bookmarking? Nah, won't bother, too much hassle."

You could call it 'your browsing history, in the cloud' or something like that.

dbran

Hi

I would be concerned about privacy issues it might generate. For example an employer could use it to see what websites an employee was viewing etc.

Good luck with it anyway.

Dbran