Why should I trust these guys with my data? It's bad enough that Google knows so much about me... but at least they have some checks and balances built in. What sort of safety does "greplin" have to offer adopters?
If you get uncomfortable, you can delete your account at any time. We'll delete your data. Not in 14 days, a week or tomorrow. That moment.
We're convinced that you'll find enough value with Greplin to overcome that issue - the same way many did with mint.com.
We're also working with a) encrypted indexes b) only writing the index to disk rather then any content. this shuts down a lot of neat features (generating snippets etc.) - but users that are willing to forgo features for added security might find it useful.
I've been kicking around and gradually prototyping an idea somewhat similar to greplin, but locally hosted. I originally thought of it more as a cloud archival system, as a guard against some dinky web service I use shutting down and locking me out of my data, but once you're collecting all the data adding really good search on top of it is a natural next step. Right now I'm aiming at distributing it as a VM image (because the dependencies and such are rather complicated), but some day I'd like to see it running directly on backup/NAS devices like the Drobo so that you could have a (roughly) "just plug it in" backup solution for both local files and cloud data.
The great thing about OAuth is that you can revoke access after the fact. At least Greplin doesn't ask for your username and password when it's not necessary.
There was a story recently (don't remember which) that sparked a discussion about indexing all the sites I've ever visited. In other words, provide me with a browser history search that didn't suck, in that if I remember looking at some article a few months ago, I should be able to find it pretty easily.
I bring this up because I think this is a great concept, and would be a great tie-in service to (what I understand of) Greplin. That would make it "search for anything you're supposed to know, we'll find it", which to me sounds really cool.
Edit: So your tagline is "the search bar for your life", which fits what I was talking about above even better.
A note from a quick look at your site: the text under the second column ("Greplin works with nearly every computer, browser and mobile device in the market.") is badly aligned, and seems to "crash into" the text on the last column. Looks really bad and makes it hard to read, so you might want to fix it (I'm using Chrome).
Secondly, congrats! Always happy to hear about other Israelis succeeding. Is there any way I can get in touch with you? I'm applying to YC, and would appreciate any advice you have about dealing with visas/etc.
MSR had a prototype application called "Stuff I've Seen" [1]. It was pretty neat - it would index your browser history (along with other stuff). I don't know what happened to it, but I'm guessing that it eventually ended up being part of Windows Desktop Search. I liked the idea that if I remember seeing something earlier, that this tool would find it.
Yup, browser history search is an idea I am toying up with my web app, http://www.folderboy.com. At the moment FolderBoy is search-as-you-type for stuff that you jot down. With hierarchical labels for fluid organizing.
The name has a cool sound, but I think "grep" is only meaningful to people like us, not the mainstream that it targets. Still, create something useful, and the name doesn't matter as long as it's memorable and distinctive, as this is on all counts.
I should probably already know this (and we'll email you about it), but I was wondering how you're currently keeping your dropbox index up to date. our existing APIs don't make it all that easy (or efficient :).
And the TOS forbids anything else (I just signed up):
You agree not to do any of the following while using the Site, Content, Files or Services:
* Attempt to access or search the Site, Content, Files or Services with any engine,
software, tool, agent, device or mechanism other than the software and/or search
agents provided by Dropbox or other generally available third-party web browsers
(such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox), including but not limited
to browser automation tools
Giving them my entire life (a lot of what Google has + a lot of what Facebook has + a lot of what Twitter has + a lot of my files if I decide to do Dropbox) raises serious privacy concerns. But it looks so awesome that I don't give a damn.
EDIT: But I am refraining from doing GMail, Google Voice, or Dropbox for now at least. I try not to do any communication that I truly care about staying private via Facebook or Twitter, so those don't concern me as much.
Yeah that kind of irritated me a bit because authorized them to access my Facebook and then I was told that I would be e-mailed once they are ready for me.
I didn't even get a welcome letter or anything in my e-mail. I at least would of felt better if I had some type of acknowledgment that I signed up for the service, and a status screen where I could check on the indexing process.
It was almost like: "Thanks for letting us use your Facebook data to build out/test our service. We will be in touch."
I wouldn't of signed up if I knew the sign up process was going to be like that.
Same disappointment here. "We'll email you once the system's ready for you" I took as "We're now indexing. Once we get done indexing, we'll e-mail you and you'll be good to go!"
Indexing completed and I still waiting for that e-mail 5 hours later.
just signed up and had the same experience, would have much preferred being told that the system is not ready before I logged into one of my social accounts.
My first thought was, "Doesn't Backupify already offer this?"
Backupify already backs up all your cloud data, so I figured it would be easy for them to index it and provide search. Digging through the Backupify website, it seems they have a strong privacy policy. From their FAQ:
"We don't do anything with your data once it is backed up. We don't look at it, we don't sell it, we don't analyze it, we don't modify it."
I guess it's too late for Backupify to change their privacy policy so they can offer search. Or maybe not. Facebook changed theirs...
One of my concerns about Backupify is that they didn't use APIs (at least when I tried it) so I couldn't revoke access later. I'm pleased Greplin does.
Something I'd really like is the ability to search through my social news comments/submissions. Will websites like Hacker News and reddit be added to the list of indexes?
yes! better yet - as a developer you can write your own indexers for greplin! (little known fact: we were going to launch with a hn module but we hit the site too hard and paul banned greplin)
>Something I'd really like is the ability to search through my social news comments/submissions.
I use comment feeds to archive my own submissions into a feed folder on Thunderbird, makes it quicker when I can't remember a link or resource properly but know I've commented on it before. Also I have a vague idea that it might be interesting to look back on.
It means I usually try to quote or make it clear what the context of a comment is to make it a more readable resource if anyone should ever want to do that.
Maybe it would also make sense to emphasize data security since in essence you give the service access to every private bit of information you have online. It's not mentioned anywhere in frontpage and I'm hesitating to signup without some reassurance that data will be safe.
Based on the services put under the Pro accounts (Salesforce, Google Voice, Basecamp, Box.net and Evernote), $5/month for premium access sounds very low to me.
Granted, I haven't been able to try it at this point. But I can see the value in it, and it looks very well done.
So, I feel that people who will want to use the premium features are people who strive for efficiency and will be ready to pay more than $5. (Salesforce, for example, is not cheap)
I would agree with this. In fact, I bet you could differentiate services for different amounts: Evernote integration is probably not worth nearly as much as Salesforce integration.
You could also consider buffet-style pricing, where you get X services for N dollars, X+Y services for N+M dollars, etc. As you get more services, that may enable you to keep the value/data ration reasonable. It doesn't make sense with 12 services available; with 144 services, it might. I know I don't want to pay extra because you support 130 services I'll never use.
Interesting product. I may be missing a trick here, but is it possible to link to your Google Apps mail/calendar? If I login to Google with my apps username and password, it just tries to connect my @gmail.com account. This could be because my apps email is a secondary email on my @gmail.com account
Where's the autocomplete? I only see find-as-you-type -- there are no Google-suggest like suggestions, per se.
Also, I am very curious to see back-of-the-envelope calculations on resource usage -- e.g. what is the expected billing per user (in dollars)? ("Doesn't matter" is an acceptable answer for now, but I'm worried that this type of service is unreasonably expensive to provide and cannot be offset by ads/freemium models)
That's a great thing, but I really think it should be a desktop app or maybe a desktop option as an alternative to the online service. I know the drawbacks and they are real but I'm just not ready to trust _anyone_ with all my data from all services. I know I can delete the account at any time but then I cannot use it any longer.
Sometimes you sign up for something and wonder how you ever lived without it. I'm getting that feeling already, and I haven't even used it yet. I signed up before finishing the article, it's indexing my data now.
Assuming it works as advertised, this sounds like a brilliant concept. Any timeline on when I can actually start using it?
I absolutely love the idea of an extensible framework that you could write plugins for to connect up to various sources of data, but I'd much prefer the same functionality in a desktop application rather than a hosted web-app. That way you wouldn't have to be paranoid about what is being done with all of your personal information...
Great work, but I don't personally see much value in this. Gmail already has great search, and Facebook and Twitter have good-enough search.
I'm also a little leery of handing out credentials to a third party. I would imagine that adding in support for web-services to desktop search engines (Google or Windows) would provide better value.
This is an awesome idea. Any plans top allow custom indexing plugins? I'd like to be able to index different services and also to deal with special file formats.
I'd also like to be able to search from Emacs, I've signed up for the API so I'll see if I can make that one happen myself :)
We'll see the real value of this service I believe when more and more desktop applications move online. Can you imagine how useful this sort of service would be in the enterprise?
Looking forward to Greplin launching more indexes and developing further.
[+] [-] Sukotto|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danicgross|15 years ago|reply
We're also working with a) encrypted indexes b) only writing the index to disk rather then any content. this shuts down a lot of neat features (generating snippets etc.) - but users that are willing to forgo features for added security might find it useful.
[+] [-] arst|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Sephr|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] edanm|15 years ago|reply
I bring this up because I think this is a great concept, and would be a great tie-in service to (what I understand of) Greplin. That would make it "search for anything you're supposed to know, we'll find it", which to me sounds really cool.
Edit: So your tagline is "the search bar for your life", which fits what I was talking about above even better.
A note from a quick look at your site: the text under the second column ("Greplin works with nearly every computer, browser and mobile device in the market.") is badly aligned, and seems to "crash into" the text on the last column. Looks really bad and makes it hard to read, so you might want to fix it (I'm using Chrome).
Secondly, congrats! Always happy to hear about other Israelis succeeding. Is there any way I can get in touch with you? I'm applying to YC, and would appreciate any advice you have about dealing with visas/etc.
[+] [-] Splines|15 years ago|reply
[1] http://news.cnet.com/2100-1012-997350.html
[+] [-] resdirector|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vark|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pg|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 10ren|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrduncan|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arashf|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sesqu|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jackowayed|15 years ago|reply
EDIT: But I am refraining from doing GMail, Google Voice, or Dropbox for now at least. I try not to do any communication that I truly care about staying private via Facebook or Twitter, so those don't concern me as much.
[+] [-] bkudria|15 years ago|reply
"Thanks for registering for Greplin. We're in beta. We'll email you once the system's ready for you."
Bummer.
[+] [-] fraXis|15 years ago|reply
I didn't even get a welcome letter or anything in my e-mail. I at least would of felt better if I had some type of acknowledgment that I signed up for the service, and a status screen where I could check on the indexing process.
It was almost like: "Thanks for letting us use your Facebook data to build out/test our service. We will be in touch."
I wouldn't of signed up if I knew the sign up process was going to be like that.
[+] [-] aik|15 years ago|reply
Indexing completed and I still waiting for that e-mail 5 hours later.
[+] [-] Mistone|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danicgross|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] troymc|15 years ago|reply
Backupify already backs up all your cloud data, so I figured it would be easy for them to index it and provide search. Digging through the Backupify website, it seems they have a strong privacy policy. From their FAQ:
"We don't do anything with your data once it is backed up. We don't look at it, we don't sell it, we don't analyze it, we don't modify it."
I guess it's too late for Backupify to change their privacy policy so they can offer search. Or maybe not. Facebook changed theirs...
[+] [-] Lewisham|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] heed|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danicgross|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pbhjpbhj|15 years ago|reply
I use comment feeds to archive my own submissions into a feed folder on Thunderbird, makes it quicker when I can't remember a link or resource properly but know I've commented on it before. Also I have a vague idea that it might be interesting to look back on.
It means I usually try to quote or make it clear what the context of a comment is to make it a more readable resource if anyone should ever want to do that.
[+] [-] k7d|15 years ago|reply
http://www.greplin.com/ http://www.evernote.com/
Maybe it would also make sense to emphasize data security since in essence you give the service access to every private bit of information you have online. It's not mentioned anywhere in frontpage and I'm hesitating to signup without some reassurance that data will be safe.
Other than that, good stuff.
[+] [-] tbrooks|15 years ago|reply
Capture anything => Find anything
Access anywhere => Get it anywhere
Find things fast => Search at lightning speed
[+] [-] Timothee|15 years ago|reply
Granted, I haven't been able to try it at this point. But I can see the value in it, and it looks very well done.
So, I feel that people who will want to use the premium features are people who strive for efficiency and will be ready to pay more than $5. (Salesforce, for example, is not cheap)
[+] [-] SoftwareMaven|15 years ago|reply
You could also consider buffet-style pricing, where you get X services for N dollars, X+Y services for N+M dollars, etc. As you get more services, that may enable you to keep the value/data ration reasonable. It doesn't make sense with 12 services available; with 144 services, it might. I know I don't want to pay extra because you support 130 services I'll never use.
[+] [-] bruceboughton|15 years ago|reply
... Google seriously suck at accounts!
[+] [-] Mistone|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lukesandberg|15 years ago|reply
i also like the little info box at the bottom where it says that greplin was founded in September 2010. :P
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] arnabdotorg|15 years ago|reply
Also, I am very curious to see back-of-the-envelope calculations on resource usage -- e.g. what is the expected billing per user (in dollars)? ("Doesn't matter" is an acceptable answer for now, but I'm worried that this type of service is unreasonably expensive to provide and cannot be offset by ads/freemium models)
[+] [-] endtime|15 years ago|reply
However, it really needs to support multiple accounts from the same service.
[+] [-] fauigerzigerk|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gfunk911|15 years ago|reply
Assuming it works as advertised, this sounds like a brilliant concept. Any timeline on when I can actually start using it?
[+] [-] elasticdog|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Splines|15 years ago|reply
I'm also a little leery of handing out credentials to a third party. I would imagine that adding in support for web-services to desktop search engines (Google or Windows) would provide better value.
[+] [-] axomhacker|15 years ago|reply
From the article: "Greplin only uses OAuth and other APIs for authorization, so they never see your third party site credentials".
[+] [-] almost|15 years ago|reply
I'd also like to be able to search from Emacs, I've signed up for the API so I'll see if I can make that one happen myself :)
[+] [-] amac|15 years ago|reply
Looking forward to Greplin launching more indexes and developing further.