Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS

https://github.com/Aaln/whit

by aaln • 13 years ago

63 39 13 years ago

github.com

Whit is an open source SMS service, which allows you to query CrunchBase, Wikipedia, and several other data APIs.

Simply text 917-791-3098.

Special commands include: P:'personName', C:'companyName', S:'stockTicker', W:'wikiSearch'

ex. queries: 'p:bill gates', 'c:apple', 's:fb', 'w:philosophy'

noahklein94• 13 years ago

This looks really promising. Will you ever add support for email?

aaln9• 13 years ago

Accessing email through SMS is already widely popular. This is meant to scale for any kind of general data.

However, we are adding a service that will email all of your queries to you at the end of the day.

rpicard4• 13 years ago

I use something similar that I created all the time. Mine connects to the DuckDuckGo API to pull the Zero-click info which is sourced from Wikipedia, Crunchbase, and a bunch of others. I never thought to open source it, but maybe I'll take a few minutes to do that soon.

aaln9• 13 years ago

Using the DuckDuckGo api sounds really interesting because Google just shut off it's SMS service. Please send link when possible.

Whit is meant for anyone to scale for access to any kind of data through sms.

rpicard4• 13 years ago

Sure thing. I'll probably re-do it in Flask because I looked at the code for the first time since last October and it's way more complicated than it needs to be. There are only a few lines of code, but there are a bunch of cruft files for the Perl framework I was using (Dancer). It'll only take a few minutes to port it though.

rpicard4• 13 years ago

I have the code up on GitHub, but the server I've been using to host the application myself isn't up right now. I have to debug some problem, but I don't think there is anything wrong with the code (just my deployment process).

Here it is: https://github.com/rpicard/text-ddg

yefim323• 13 years ago

Cool service. However, it's generally bad practice to reveal your API keys.

aaln9• 13 years ago

Thanks! Just fixed.

moshberm2• 13 years ago

Whoops! Should've mentioned that. :-D

pudquick• 13 years ago

Careful. All you've done is revise it. I could post a link or two that easily reveals it in your git repository revision history (6sus.. and 794e..).

Instead, I'll post this link: https://help.github.com/articles/remove-sensitive-data

bvdbijl• 13 years ago

Please note that the keys will not be truly deleted, because they are still in the GIT history

suhastech2• 13 years ago

If you're in India, Intuit has an app ecosystem built around this idea: http://txtweb.com/

suyash2• 13 years ago

Very interesting, this can be great for people who don't have data plan but can still get useful information by sms. Where does it say it's by Intuit, I don't see Intuit mentioned anywhere?

suhastech2• 13 years ago

It is http://www.nextbigwhat.com/intuit-launches-txtweb-sms-platfo...

PS: I wrote an app on the ecosystem to manage your email http://suhastech.com/mail

suyash2• 13 years ago

What are you using for SMS? Twillio?

aaln9• 13 years ago

Yep, we built whit at the techcrunch hackathon and twilio was a sponsor.

abava• 13 years ago

There is a conceptually similar stuff for Twitter: http://t411.linkstore.ru

mmahemoff• 13 years ago

How about supporting multiple queries from a single SMS, given that most users are probably capped on number of outgoing messages, but not incoming.

aaln9• 13 years ago

That's a great feature we haven't considered implementing yet, we will focus on it asap. Thanks!

ekn• 13 years ago

This is similar to the service offered by http://55444.in in India.

elleferrer• 13 years ago

This reminds me of Google Talk Guru, the Google bot that lets you ask simple questions. It was an experimental service a few years ago. I'm not sure if it's still accepting invitations, but it still works for me in Google Talk or Gmail Chat: You can try to "friend" the bot by adding guru@googlelabs.com to your contact list. I sometimes still use it for a quick reference.

aaln9• 13 years ago

That sounds really cool. Definitely will check it out. Thanks.

guiguy• 13 years ago

Which in turn reminds me of similar xmpp/jabber account: im@ddg.gg

gdonelli• 13 years ago

is this thought for developing countries?

aaln9• 13 years ago

It is and will be scaled. Half the world still does not have 3g access through smartphones.

jckt• 13 years ago

holy crap, I was writing a very similar app months ago, based on very similar premises, but I sorta gave up (actually got too busy as well, etc) once I read that actually the whole world is going 3g, even most developing countries are experiencing rapid 3g growth[1].

In any case, this looks very cool, seems better-thought-out than my original project. Good luck!

[1] http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile...

wicknicks• 13 years ago

Very cool! You might also want to add weather, amazon/yelp ratings for products/places, directions from place a to b and location based search (coffee near staples center, la). Would be super useful for people on the move without access to a data plan.

vxNsr• 13 years ago

Very cool, right now this is only in US?

Do you have any plans to scale it here or are you only showing it as a proof-of-concept and will be shortly moving it to developing countries (where data service is less common)?

Also, what's the point of the link at the end, if you're using SMS for this type of info it seems kinda unlikely that you have a phone that can handle data...

dror82• 13 years ago

Nice Idea.

I'm sure you can spare the prefix letter with a little effort.

You should try and make it as a plugin for existing IM app (e.g. Whatsapp)

aaln9• 13 years ago

Agreed, the prefix letters are going to go.

darkmuck• 13 years ago

this would likely be extremely slow, but what about doing some form of TCP/IP via SMS, thereby using SMS as a "real" data connection

aaronsnoswell• 13 years ago

Just tried to use your service from Australia and got no response :(

moshberm2• 13 years ago

Might be turned off at the moment.

aaln9• 13 years ago

Sorry, service was turned off momentarily, feel free to try it again!

benpbenp• 13 years ago

Is this named after Whit Sunday (today this year, 19 May) or is that just a coincidence?

xur17• 13 years ago

Great work, it looks really neat!

side note - I think your server's down, I'm not getting any response from it.

asmosoinio• 13 years ago

aalns [dead] comment:

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Whit is an open source SMS service, which allows you to query CrunchBase, Wikipedia, and several other data APIs. Simply text 917-791-3098. Special commands include: P:'personName', C:'companyName', S:'stockTicker', W:'wikiSearch' ex. queries: 'p:bill gates', 'c:apple', 's:fb', 'w:philosophy'

Show HN: Whit - Access any kind of data through SMS

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