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Ask HN: Review my mobile Safari add-on

9 points by vais ↗ HN
With more and more people using Safari on the iPhone to browse the web for work and play, the lack of in-page search functionality is baffling. If you have ever used the "Edit → Find" feature of your regular Web browser, you must wonder why it is not available in Safari on the iPhone. I have grown tired of waiting on Apple to add it, and the existing alternatives are:

a) Install and use a totally different browser -- not an option, I love Safari b) Use one of the lame bookmarklets circa 2007 -- tried it, hated it: too buggy and no UI

So, I made my own. I went the bookmarklet route because this is the only way to add features directly to Safari. Accessing in-page search functionality is exactly 2 taps - same as the two clicks required for "Edit → Find" in traditional browsers.

I hope I have managed to pique your interest even a little bit - you can see the videos and read more about Find In Page for mobile Safari here:

http://findinpage.blogspot.com

Thanks in advance for your comments,

Vais

9 comments

[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 25.9 ms ] thread
milestinsley
You are charging $0.99 for an app that does nothing more than copy a URL to the pasteboard. I understand that you are trying to make the process of adding the bookmarklet to Safari simple, but making it free with a how-to video/tutorial would be way cooler.

I think your target audience (people who want in-page search) will also notice that the app is very slim on features and understand that it's simply a URL!

Of course, it's $0.99! Personally, I'm happy to pay that, but I think you have unnecessarily raised the barrier for entry for a lot of people, who are used getting a lot more for that price.

The actual bookmarklet is really cool. Nice work! It's pretty slick and does the job really well. I can think of quite a few times I will be using it :)

cmelbye
There actually is already a free "Find in Page" bookmarklet: http://www.lifeclever.com/17-powerful-bookmarklets-for-your-...

(Number one on the list.)

milestinsley
Cool. I will have to try this out too!
vais
Please do ;) Once you install it, here are a few suggested search terms guaranteed to put a smile on your face:

empty string, $, <, >, span, div, table

Spoiler: any reserved Regular Expressions characters will result in an invalid search. Any reserved HTML keywords will expose markup and garble the page beyond recognition.

More details on that here: http://findinpage.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-makes-this-find-...

vais
cmelbye, you are right to point this out - there are actually several incarnations of free find in page bookmarklets floating around the Web since 2007. I even wrote this post explaining why I felt the need to create my own and charge for it:

http://findinpage.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-makes-this-find-...

In a gist, all the ones I have tried have no UI and have major design and usability, not to mention technical issues (you can read the blog post for details). At any rate, they were not good enough for my own use.

The idea is that if you have a serious need for a reliable, convenient, usable tool then you wouldn't mind paying $0.99 for it.

vais
milestinsley, thank you for a thoughtful comment and kind words about the bookmarklet. As for the app itself, you are totally correct - it has 0 features - it is just a convenient delivery mechanism for the bookmarklet data.

But there is more to it: I was trying to find a way to use the App Store infrastructure to sell a bookmarklet. I think this is the first time this has been attempted - only time will tell if this scheme gains acceptance, or, as you suggest, people will balk at the idea of paying for apps that simply copy a URL to the pasteboard.

Last note regarding "...a lot of people, who are used getting a lot more for that price..." - I think this is more of a testament to the sad state of the App Store than anything else. $0.99 is the lowest price the App Store lets you charge for an app. Below that is free. Since I cannot go any lower than $0.99, I think the developers whose apps deliver more value than mine should charge more - not the other way around. The fundamental problem with with the App Store is that this mentality took root and flourished, creating a race to the bottom.

Frazzydee
> I think the developers whose apps deliver more value than mine should charge more - not the other way around

If other developers' apps have a market value within ($0.05, $0.99], but yours has a market value of $0.05, why should they raise their price above $0.99?

vais
For the sake of preservation of the market itself. If my only option is to make my app free just because others have discounted their work beyond reason, I may opt to no longer deliver any new products to such a market (give up on it), and pursue other markets instead. This benefits neither the developers nor the consumers.
Frazzydee
That's a good argument for why Apple should allows you to set a lower price, but I still don't understand why other developers should raise their prices. Especially if $0.99 is the optimal market price that generates the highest revenue, and the only consequence is you leaving the market.