ScreenB.in, short URLs for screenshots
ScreenBin (screenb.in) lets you paste a screenshot from your clipboard directly into your browser (Chrome only) and instantly receive a short URL to your screenshot. The designer on my dev team has demanded this for a couple of weeks, and I only recently found the time to make it at a hackathon I attended.
This is my first time posting to Hacker News and my first live open source product so I'm too sure what to expect, but would love any feedback on the app and suggestions for features and improvements.
Todo's:
- Google Drive support, so I don't have to host all the images!
- some UI for cropping (but that might get in the way of the simplicity)
Fun facts:
- It's named after its spiritual predecessor (which was a downloadable application found at screenbin.org).
- Only works on Chrome as it allows me to extract the clipboard data. Hopefully other browsers adjust their security standards in the near future.
13 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 48.2 ms ] threadI find the scroll overflow on the screenshot display to be clunky and uncomfortable, though. I think I'd prefer a shrink-to-fit/click-to-expand situation.
Also, I tried pasting a ~1mb JPG photo, and the spinner has been going for a few minutes now. Might wanna throw an error or something in weird edge cases.
Some points:
- Great usage flow by having both keyboard shortcuts displayed. I would label each in a smaller font (i.e. "Take Screenshot By..." and "Paste Here With...") for less savvy users.
- Could you insert a preview after it finishes uploading? A quick visual check would rock.
- I would love you if you could picked a colorful name. The trouble with "clean" sterile names is the fact it is really difficult to remember compounded with the url hack. Animals work well.
- My favorite tool: http://www.domainhole.com/brainstormer/ Try using the word "snap" / "paste"
- Change the tagline to say something about pasting it directly. Your clear differentiating feature is the fact that uploading doesn't take a dialog. Something like "Instantly paste your screenshot"
- There's that momentary ecstasy going "Wow, this is amazing." Have Facebook like / Twitter share buttons available the moment people see their pictures appear. This is when the magician just completed the trick and people want to applause. That's your window to spread the word.
- Add a link to your blog! I had fun reading it. Much more interesting than just a twitter handle.
- Polish this site up some and spread the word. It's a very simple app but has incredible utility. It may take a day or two to polish but it'll provide a multiplier to the rate of spread. Good side projects can get legs of its own and help you later down the road.
P.S. Have you guys decided on a project yet?
As for the OwlDen blog, we're launching our fashion ecommerce product in private to beta users this Friday.
http://droplr.com http://cloudapp.com
Uploads contents of clipboard.
You can also drag/drop to the icon in the menubar, as well as auto-upload after ⌘ + SHIFT + 3/4.