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Comment by happybuy | Hacker News Reader

I agree with the original comment - how does this help me find more relevant results, or find what I am looking for more easily?

I think you could increase the usage of your site dramatically if you featured a simple, single example of a use case on your homepage which highlights the sites benefits.

E.g. if I search for a particular camera brand, how will your site be a better experience (for me as a user) than simply doing the same search through Google without using your site?

Currently, it's not possible to see the benefits, features or example usages of the site without first going through a sign-up process.

I'd make these small improvements and seeing any effects before deciding to move on.

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Thanks for the suggestions, we appreciate it immensely. We do have to be clearer about how exactly our service benefits users. Concerning your example, imagine receiving personal experiences of the camera you searched for from friends, family, and other followers. You would receive more valuable feedback from people you know and opinions you trust.

It would totally not be useful. When people are searching they are actively trying to find the answer to a question. They don't want to take extra time to comment. Consider:

1) Google's Experimental Search: http://www.google.com/experimental/a840e102.html. They tried making it the default behavior and no one used it.

2) Facebook: you already have a captive audience to ask for advice on non-timely questions.

3) Delicious: people already save and comment on their search results (the parts of the results they care enough about to keep around).

4) Springpad, Evernote, etc: bookmarklets & cross-platform apps let people save links, web pages, and just about anything else.

5) Instapaper, etc: save content for later.

Thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it. In regards to comments, users would be following their friends searches similar to how they follow status updates on Facebook or Twitter. We may just integrate and focus on sharing users' searches with their friends and followers on those networks, since they are already acclimated there.

No way I would want to share my searches with my friends. Far too many personal and private details there; it would be a mess to try to sync up what I might want shared with whom.

We understand your concern and have a "Private Search" button for users who would like to keep certain searches private. You also have the option to make your profile private.

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