Ask YC: Review my app (Panoye)

http://www.panoye.com

by puzz • 18 years ago

38 32 18 years ago

panoye.com

jamongkad• 18 years ago

Wow lovely web app! how did you manage to do this?

mdolon• 18 years ago

I like it. Seems like a useful tool that has been pretty well executed.

Now some observations:

- It's hard to tell who posted a panorama - the only information about the user is their image

- Is each person's rating posted as a comment? This could be problematic if hundreds of people end up rating a panorama

- I'm not too sure your permalink structure is good for the long run (using folders, categorization will make it easier for search traffic to find more content)

These are just my observations, please take them lightly. Like I said, the site is nice overall and can be a useful utility for those interested in panoramas.

Best of luck!

puzz7• 18 years ago

Thanks for your observations. I'll make a panorama author link more visible.

Permalinks are a problem, I agree. I would, for example, like to have links like panoye.com/country/city/panorama-name.html but the problem is with google maps. When you signup for your gmap key - you have ONE key for ONE directory on the web server (for example country/city/). It means that I should have (and use) houndreds of gmap API keys :(

Thank you again for your comment!

bmelton2• 18 years ago

That really only applies to the file/script accessing the map. If you're using .hosts files and mod_rewrite, you can just interpret /country/city/panorama-name as parameters and call the maps API from a central script located in the root.

seano• 18 years ago

You can just get the API key for your domain name, http://panoye.com/, and it will work for all directories in that domain.

icky• 18 years ago

This is neat.. you should sell ad space to travel companies. (Hell, you could even sell travel ads based on the location that the user is currently viewing)...

antirez• 18 years ago

This is really cool and interesting. Still I'm not sure it will be easy to bring to the masses. People like much more to put useless photos of their cats on flickr.

puzz7• 18 years ago

"People like much more to put useless photos of their cats on flickr."

Right :) In fact this is why it is an "app", not a "startup". I have no idea on how to bring it the masses and/or how to make some money from it.

It is still a hobby project and it will probably remain so.

epi0Bauqu• 18 years ago

I love panoramas! A few usability comments:

1) I would really like the "hand" mode to be the default. It took me a while to figure out I could change it.

2) I would like an easy way to load the whole picture in my browser at full resolution so that I can scroll horizontally at will.

3) Related, one approach to 2 that I've done on another site is to automatically resize the picture to the maximum height of the user's browser when they go in view full screen mode.

puzz7• 18 years ago

The "hand vs scroll" issue is a problem. I asked a few of my friends but the results were 50:50. That's why I'm still not sure which one to make the default.

Anyway, thank for your suggestions!

huhtenberg• 18 years ago

Hand mode needs to be default.

It's a commonly accepted UI paradigm that the mouse needs to be 'engaged' (via a button press) in order to have a functional effect on the UI. In the non-engaged mode mouse is only used for indicating otherwise actionable UI elements.

jmtulloss• 18 years ago

I think the hand should have some physics. If you hold and flick, the scrolling should accelerate depending on the speed of the flick.

alex_c• 18 years ago

>1) I would really like the "hand" mode to be the default. It took me a while to figure out I could change it.

I agree. Auto scroll combined with hover scroll is giving me a headache.

There should also be a way to get the image to hold still when using the hand mode.

dazzawazza• 18 years ago

Nice, my first thought was 'how do I photograph a panorama?' after 20 seconds on the landing page I couldn't see how so I left.

Good luck.

songism• 18 years ago

Oh yes, please include this information. I would like to know too.

orionlogic• 18 years ago

one quick tip for taking panaroma picture: - turn your camera clock-wise so that you can take vertical slices of your pictures which will gave you more height.

in this photo there are 5 or 6 vertical slices of photo. http://www.flickr.com/photos/orionlogic/2456850403/sizes/l/

puzz7• 18 years ago

If you still want to try with panoramic photography, here is a very short tutorial on how to stitch them:

http://panoye.blogspot.com/2008/02/tutorial-panoramic-photos...

arthurk• 18 years ago

I find that the letters (especially in the menu) have too much spacing between them. It's hard to read.

jlopez• 18 years ago

excellent job!

parenthesis• 18 years ago

It would be good if when you zoom in on the Google map on the front page, and then go to a panorama from it, and then use the browser's back button, that the Google map would still be how you left it -- so that you can then look at other nearby panoramas).

In a similar vein, the Google map shown to the right of a panorama, should (be able to) locate all the other panoramas too, for the same reason of being able to see what else is nearby.

dangoldin• 18 years ago

I like it! As a suggestion, I wasn't able to find a search bar. Can you search for panoramas?

puzz7• 18 years ago

You're right, I should make it more visible... There is a google custom search field on the homepage (at the bottom of the right column). Or on the menus: Panoye -> Search.

bmelton2• 18 years ago

I like it a lot. A couple of critiques: - I had to look for what the app was. Yeah, the explanation is on the right, at the top of the sidebar, but I'd almost like to see it above the google map on the page. - I'm not terribly keen on the font choices throughout the page... specifically what's bothering me is the character spacing, most noticeable on the right sidebar.

On the whole, I think it's a brilliant idea, and at least to my knowledge, isn't being repeated anywhere else. That said, I'd focus on layout and design, and accentuate the social aspects of the site where I could.

siong1987• 18 years ago

Your web app is cool. Two ways to survice: Get acquired or die because Google implements the same feature.

Anyway, I really live it. It is really stunning and amazing. But, you should at least let users know how to upload their panoramas. Put a big "Upload" button in your frontpage.

grag• 18 years ago

One minor suggestion: Would it be that hard to allow me to click and drag the panoramas without having to click that hand button first?

dmose• 18 years ago

Move search to the top of the page.

buss• 18 years ago

First: How do you pronounce this? Pano-eye? Pan-oy? Pan-o-yay?

Second: I wanted to turn back three times before I created an account because:

1. Why should I have to create an account just to upload a picture? I don't care about people knowing who took the picture, especially since I only have a couple panoramas. Give people the choice of creating an account or uploading anonymously.

2. You want my email? Why would you need this?

3. You emailed me an auto-generated password. Seriously? People will either forget the password and keep doing password recovery or searching through their email for the password or immediately change this to whatever password they usually use on the internet. There is no sensitive information on this site, there's no sense getting in somebody's way and making it a multi-step process for your users to use the password they want to use.

Third: The map on the upload panorama page needs to let me search for locations. I know the name of the place that I took the picture at, why are you making me find it manually?

Fourth: If you screw up orienting the picture (the < 6 deg. error) then you can't get past it and have to re-upload the image. Give me a "start over" button for orienting. Also, I think I oriented the wrong direction because it's telling me that Epcot in Orlando, FL is north of Gainesville, FL, but it's actually south. Either I screwed up or your direction finding is wrong.

satyajit• 18 years ago

The flash viewer is neat. Esp beause its keystroke activated (arrow & ctrl/shift). Why there is no keystroke for the default viewer? (or is there?) I have seen such tools on real estate sites (360˚ view). This one looks very neat though.

livz• 18 years ago

Nice. Be cool if just above the Google map you could enter a place name rather than clicking through the map. So i type "Glasgow" and it brings stuff near to there.

Great work though! Still looking through it.

HeyLaughingBoy• 18 years ago

How does it make money?

puzz7• 18 years ago

Thank you all for your comments/suggestions/criticism. I added all suggestions in my TO-DO list, and will look to implement them as soon as possible.

Ask YC: Review my app (Panoye)

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