Our goal with our dataset is to only focus on the personal web. The search APIs that LLMs use rank a lot of SEO/commercial content highly that we were not interested in
Translation: You, Android user, is a second class citizen. And you, you are using the browser??? I won't even describe you, because you are less than that.
Seriously, the product focuses on personal and independent content, primarily published on websites, but the app only works in iOS. That seems like a fundamental mismatch.
We don’t boost any authors/publishers/pieces. We don’t have any specific plan to monetize right now, but many AI-based products seem to work well as paid subscriptions vs using an advertising model.
This is what I'm using Hacker News for. It doesn't require an app, it's super fast, the curating is done by real people (not by AI), and often the comments add a lot of value to the discussed article.
I didn't intend for my comment to be mean. Generally, I think that sometimes the most useful advice one can give a founder (like myself) is "you should consider to pivot". Sure it's not fun to hear, but it can save you a couple of months. In this specific case, I think it'll help the founders to consider that the pain they're aiming to solve might already be answered, better, by existing simpler solutions. I don't think the best comment to leave is always "Amazing idea, wonderful execution!!!".
I didn't think your comment was mean, I just think sometimes people are a little too quick to tell other makers their idea won't work without putting enough time/thought/consideration into if that's true.
When it comes to finding product market fit (and providing feedback into if it exists) sometimes it helps to consider whether or not you are in that market.
I am never buying a Labubu but you better believe there is product market fit there.
"I get a lot of value from HN: it's fast, doesn't require an app, curating is done by real people and the comments add a lot. I'd be curious to learn what types of content your product surfaces that's different from HN?"
How much research did you guys do on the name? This might be the most amazing product ever, but I'll never know. I'm not inclined to install anything with the name "X Buddy". For me, it brings the negative associations from this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BonziBuddy
It's not a knock on anything you've done, because it looks pretty nice. But, just based on the name, I'm not sure I know what it does or why I'd want it. That's a decent amount of inertia to overcome to get someone to install an app on their phone called "browser buddy". It just screams malware to me... but maybe I'm just paranoid.
I suspected you hadn't, which is why I wanted to bring it up. It's admittedly a pretty dated reference, but was really common right around 2000. At least, it was commonly installed where I was around 2001. I don't think it was malware right away (it's been a while), but by the end of it's run, it seemed sketchy at best.
It's a tough balance to get right... you want to be approachable and friendly so that people will try your app. But you don't want to come across as a big purple gorilla or Clippy. I do like the penguin!
I really like this concept. What's the advantage of using your app instead of using ChatGPT etc to surface this kind of content?
I get you have this 'curated' dataset but how much better than a good prompt for ChatGPT do you think this is?
(not intending to be negative, I'm genuinely curious)
Our goal with our dataset is to only focus on the personal web. The search APIs that LLMs use rank a lot of SEO/commercial content highly that we were not interested in
To measure that we do better here, we made evaluations based on how real people recommend websites on their blogs/writing/articles. For example, we tend to surface https://every.to/p/invisible-details-of-interaction-design rather than https://userpilot.com/blog/interaction-design-principles/ when searching for advice on getting better at interaction design.
Interesting concept, though I’m not sure I’d install something called `browserbuddy` on my phone.
We made our essay search usable on the landing page!
Try it out: https://www.browserbuddy.com/
Not available in my country / region says the AppStore. Greetings from Europe.
Hey! We should be live in your region, can you try it now?
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/browser-buddy/id6752281959
ah, i submitted some EU trader requirements stuff. could you shoot me an email @ jeremy@browserbuddy.com so i can let you know when we get approved?
Browser* Buddy
*Not available in a browser.
We're working on porting the recommendation system to the web but our landing page now has the "essay search" part of the mobile app for you to try!
https://www.browserbuddy.com/
We originally started with a webapp but found ourselves using it much more on our phones.
Happy to bring back the webapp if there’s strong interest!
Well, by limiting yourselves to iPhone you are eliminating at least half of smartphone users, and 100% of non-smartphone users.
Please do. Also try making a newtab page.
Would be much easier to try. I was expecting a chrome extension.
yes please bring it back. browsers work perfectly fine on phones
lol yeah why not do webapp so much easier than ios
I've wanted something like this for a long time! Waiting for the android /browser release!
I'm sorry we don't support those yet! Can you send me an email @ jeremy@browserbuddy.com so I can shoot you an email when we have a browser version?
Go Hoos good work Wadehra
congrats arnav, you've come a long way from the balz days :)
Translation: You, Android user, is a second class citizen. And you, you are using the browser??? I won't even describe you, because you are less than that.
Why isn't there a working website? You've been up since 2024
Seriously, the product focuses on personal and independent content, primarily published on websites, but the app only works in iOS. That seems like a fundamental mismatch.
Good point, we put the essay search up on the site (we're working on porting the rest of it over as well).
Try it out! https://www.browserbuddy.com/
My concern with something like this is content marketing or other forms of surreptitious advertising.
Will you clearly indicate “boosted” authors/publishers/pieces?
We don’t boost any authors/publishers/pieces. We don’t have any specific plan to monetize right now, but many AI-based products seem to work well as paid subscriptions vs using an advertising model.
>> We don’t have any specific plan to monetize right now
YC has changed. It's like we're back in the late 90's!
This is what I'm using Hacker News for. It doesn't require an app, it's super fast, the curating is done by real people (not by AI), and often the comments add a lot of value to the discussed article.
We check hackernews every day too but often have a hard time exploring specific interests that are not currently trending.
You're right though, the community/comments add a ton of value and its something we're thinking on.
the tool should be on the open web as a primary, not closed off in a walled garden mobile app.
Good point, we made the essay/blog search available:
Try it out: https://www.browserbuddy.com/
I tend to find substantially more value in HN comments than in the posted articles.
[flagged]
I didn't intend for my comment to be mean. Generally, I think that sometimes the most useful advice one can give a founder (like myself) is "you should consider to pivot". Sure it's not fun to hear, but it can save you a couple of months. In this specific case, I think it'll help the founders to consider that the pain they're aiming to solve might already be answered, better, by existing simpler solutions. I don't think the best comment to leave is always "Amazing idea, wonderful execution!!!".
I didn't think your comment was mean, I just think sometimes people are a little too quick to tell other makers their idea won't work without putting enough time/thought/consideration into if that's true.
When it comes to finding product market fit (and providing feedback into if it exists) sometimes it helps to consider whether or not you are in that market.
I am never buying a Labubu but you better believe there is product market fit there.
Why even give "advice"? Why not phrase it as:
"I get a lot of value from HN: it's fast, doesn't require an app, curating is done by real people and the comments add a lot. I'd be curious to learn what types of content your product surfaces that's different from HN?"
How much research did you guys do on the name? This might be the most amazing product ever, but I'll never know. I'm not inclined to install anything with the name "X Buddy". For me, it brings the negative associations from this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BonziBuddy
It's not a knock on anything you've done, because it looks pretty nice. But, just based on the name, I'm not sure I know what it does or why I'd want it. That's a decent amount of inertia to overcome to get someone to install an app on their phone called "browser buddy". It just screams malware to me... but maybe I'm just paranoid.
Yikes! We'd never heard of that.
We picked "Browser Buddy" to name our surfing penguin logo.
I suspected you hadn't, which is why I wanted to bring it up. It's admittedly a pretty dated reference, but was really common right around 2000. At least, it was commonly installed where I was around 2001. I don't think it was malware right away (it's been a while), but by the end of it's run, it seemed sketchy at best.
It's a tough balance to get right... you want to be approachable and friendly so that people will try your app. But you don't want to come across as a big purple gorilla or Clippy. I do like the penguin!