Ask HN: How can I "test" this idea?
I have been hanging out on reddit.com/r/startups as well as Onstartups for a while now and I thoight I should give in to HN. It is a very interesting community and I would really value your feedback.
http://bit.ly/10xNPsS My idea is to allow users to discover books. Many people say thay they do not remember the full title of a book that they saw. Sometimes they remember certain words such as "Lord","Fly", or "slaughterhouse". Sometimes they do not even remember that! However, I believe humans can rememver objects, shapes and colors much more than words. My "application" would allow users to come on the website, entere colors, words, objects that they remember seeing on the cover, perhaps summarize the book's story (all fields are optional) and even narrow it down by categories if they are confident in the book's genre.
So, if user described a white horse illustration on a red book with yellow titles and one word "rye", they would see a cover of possible books on of which would be "Catcher in the Rye".
Plot summary would work a bit differently but I do not think my explanation of that algorithm is related to the question.
I already know that this isn't a million dollar idea. Rarily do people look for books online. On Goodreads.com however, there are more than 12000 posts about users describing the plot trying to figure out the name of the book. I feel like I want to pursue this idea mainly to gain valuable experience. I have many other more "vaiable" ideas but I feel like this is a good start as there are less variables for me to worry about.
My plan is to contact publishers and ask for their opinion about this. Whether they would think it's worth it to submit keywords for possibly getting more sales is anyone's guess.
Do you guys think I can gain experience from success/failure from this idea? How else can I get keywords (colors, objects etc)? Any other general feedback? I asked my friend about this who has experience with Ruby on Rails but he is not interested, where else can I find potential tech cofounders (please refrain from suggesting forums)? I am looking to learn Django this summer once my University semester is over but I need someone with experience. I can handle design and other aspects of course!
Thanks! Very excited to see what you guys have to say.
- bhargav.
13 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 40.4 ms ] threadbefore you go on, as soon as I read "allow users to discover books", I need to ask you these questions...
* I go to Amazon to "discover" or find details on books - those that I don't know AND those that I know * Then I go to bookdepository * But there are a number of sites that does this "social, book discovery - share what you know etc" - goodreads, shelfari, i dream books, etc.
So my questions is....
* why is yours any different to the above? * is there a KILLER feature you have which none of the above has? * is the killer feature in demand? * Ben Horowitz suggests entrepreneurs to make a product which is at least 10x better than the current incumbents. Is yours going to be 10x better than ones that are out there and have been out there for a long time?
My killer idea is that they search objects, colors, perhaps plot and provide other input and get book covers as results, they can pick the one that was indeed the book they are looking for and click buy (Amazon or other Affiliate redirect).. Chaching
http://i.imgur.com/O2v3hTi.jpg
One general feedback, I think you should try hard to create the database that would fuel your search.
I can imagine something like a gamified data creation. Imagine a "Draw something", but instead of drawings there are books covers and titles. You give a book to two users, with this form:
Describe the plot of this book(in 20 words) Describe the cover of this book (in 10 words) Describe the style of this book (in 10 words) Describe the audience of this book (in 10 words)
One answer, the other try to guess. Am I gone too far? :)
HOWEVER, what are you really offering here? Do you REALLY think you can do a better job of search than google or amazon? That is absolutely what you are up against.
I think the idea of contacting publishers to ask their opinion is useless. They'd say 'yes', if it meant more sales, this is a dying industry, they want anything that 'might' help them.
Keyword search is likely not a good idea. How well do people remember the color of a book, or how good are they going to be at describing what was on the cover.
You've got a potential market, but I think you're going about it the wrong way.
What about an app that lets a user take a photo of a book, and then you match that to where they can find the book online?
Why an app, would just taking a photo of the cover with your phone and sending it to your email id, not do as well?
I have thought of that but if they have the picture they could easily drag that on to Google images and find the book. Also, they have the title of the book in the picture that they took and just searching the title would get them the book. Hence, no need for me.
I do see it as an additional feature however!
Thanks for your feedback.
Bhargav,
I want to start out by saying this is a cool idea. Other people have commented that it's not necessary or that you're building a platform on an industry that's beginning to decay. These positions might be true, but think about this as a first step. You already know this is not the prize idea, so where could you go from here? I'm curious to think of what you could come up with. I already have a few ideas in mind. Let's see if they're similar.