That’s Highlig.ht
Reshared post from +Robert Scoble
Sometimes I want to cry for entrepreneurs
Tonight I got a nice email from an entrepreneur who lives in Los Angeles that’s developed a competitor to Highlight (the app that I’ve picked to be “the app of SXSW” next week: http://scobleizer.com/2012/03/05/have-arrington-and-conway-screwed-up-big-time-with-their-investment-in-highlight/ ). The entrepreneur wanted to have his app considered for the “SXSW roundup” I, and other folks, are working on.
“Cool,” I think. I hadn’t heard of this particular one, so off I go to get it. I won’t name it, cause that’s just bad karma coming my way, but I do think it’s useful to see why Highlight is kicking ass on this competitor.
First thing it wants me to do is sign on. It presents more options than Highlight, but I get what it’s trying to do. They want to make it easy to sign onto this app with either Facebook or by letting you enter everything manually. I always go for the Facebook login because it’s usually easier and these things really demand you to import all your likes and your friends (I have about 200 likes on Facebook and I don’t want to manually reenter all those things).
I understand the philosophy of giving users choice. Some users have complained in my comments. The thing is they are wrong. There aren’t enough of the “don’t use Facebook” login folks to matter and even they will get pulled into these things in the future if they prove to have value. I’ve seen this happen dozens of times in my career. By listening to the complainers they made the UI and sign on more complex for the 97% who just want to use Facebook.
So, I click the “quick signon” button. So far so good. Except instead of doing the new style Facebook login (which pops up the Facebook app, uses that to authenticate, then switches back to the new app) they ask for my user name and password for Facebook. Sigh. But OK.
I enter it in. Then it says it might take a while if I have lots of likes. OK, Highlight didn’t, it went very fast.
But, anyway, I wait a few seconds and then it gives me an error “200” which doesn’t really tell me anything. Worse, I can’t sign on now. I delete the app, start again, now it gives me even more errors.
And people wonder why certain apps win in the marketplace?
Software is hard. Building simple software that works every time is harder. It makes me want to cry, because I actually love it when companies execute well and everything goes smoothly.
By the way, this particular app says that they are shipping on both iPhone and Android. I’m noticing a trend lately. Apps that try to go cross-platform too quickly end up sucking and losing the market to a player that goes iPhone first, then ports after everything is working. We’ll see if anyone can change that, but so far that’s a big trend I’m noticing.
Another competitor, Glancee, just shipped an update last night to my Testflight account (you will get it later in the week) and it’s faster than it used to be, and the UI is simpler, but it isn’t as fast as Highlight and it’s not as simple. These little differences are what decides winners and losers and it’s gotta be frustrating for the entrepreneurs to watch a competitor kick their behinds, but that’s what’s happening in real time on my phone.
In the meantime, http://highlig.ht/ is pulling away from the pack in a VERY BIG way. So far I haven’t seen anything come close as “the app” for SXSW.
Anyway, more testing ahead in about 1.5 hours as our Startup Bus heads from San Francisco to Los Angeles. See ya from the bus!
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Highlight | iPhone App – A fun way to learn more about people nearby
Highlight gives you a sixth sense about the world around you, showing you hidden connections and making your day more fun.
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