Ask HN: How do you search across multiple tools (Slack, email, Gdocs)?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19635402

by noeltock • 7 years ago

13 8 7 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

With all the tools a team runs these days, are there any global search apps (with Spotlight/Alfred) integration that search across Slack, GSuite, email, etc.?

throwaway13000• 7 years ago

Good question. I think I saw a YC company which searches Slack. Can't remeber the name. This is a startup idea waiting to be implemented.

drstewart• 7 years ago

https://swiftype.com/

jamesmcintyre• 7 years ago

There's a whole category of apps that attempt to help with this problem:

getstation.com (yc w2018)

tryshift.com

slapdash.app (yc w2019)

meta.sc

IMO search is only one facet of a larger problem created by both the way we build modern productivity software (still mostly siloed and only sometimes having one-to-one integrations) and the number of apps we use on a daily basis.

Search is one of the more obvious problems but if you zoom out you'll see that workflows are broken and inefficient but we just don't realize it yet (or at least we do not realize how much better it could be in the same way a person using a blackberry in 2006 couldn't really imagine how much better a smartphone could be a year later).

Once a solution comes along that fixes this problem it'll likely introduce a new platform and a new level of user experience but the solution isn't going to be as obvious as global search + "put all my apps in a dedicated browser".

noeltock• 7 years ago

Thanks James, really appreciate the list & thoughts, super valuable.

tdhz77• 7 years ago

I would just like a tool that can search my computer that was written in NodeJs and has an api. Does this exist?

tmaly• 7 years ago

Microsoft has this all built into their 365 solution so that email, chat, docs are all covered.

This is actually a very critical feature for e-discovery and is required in many regulated industries.

Jefro118• 7 years ago

This seems like the closest fit: https://usefyi.com/. (at least judging from the landing page - haven't actually used it myself)

seektable• 7 years ago

there was a startup that addresses exactly this (findo.io) but it is dead now - I guess they didn't get enough traction.

The idea to have 'personal google' is good, however it fails as cloud/proprietary solution. If I give access to my gmail/drives/messangers I want to be sure that this data will not be tracked/used by 3rd parties (even as 'telemetry') - this is possible only with open source self-hosted software.

Ask HN: How do you search across multiple tools (Slack, email, Gdocs)?

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