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Like many of you, our minds and hearts continue to be with the people of Ukraine. Product Hunt is a global community connected through our love of products and technology.

We know that our thoughts can feel trivial during this time — particularly if you’re separated by miles and borders — and that finding a way to help is difficult. In times of crisis, we are always inspired by makers who lead not only with their thoughts but with actions, too. Makers around the world have been rallying to create and share resources for how we can help.

We've compiled a few of them here:

Help Ukraine Win: A collection of resources and info on how foreigners can help
Help Ukraine: Another detailed resource for how those outside Ukraine can help
Help Ukraine | Crowdsourced List: A list of resources to help Ukraine with crowdsourced info
We Stand With Ukraine Website Badge: A simple website badge to show support for Ukraine
Pro Ukraine Website Banner: A website banner that directs Russian users to Help Ukraine Win — for Russian civilians who want to support Ukraine

These resources provide various ways to help, from suggestions on where to donate (if you are able) to petitions that you can sign and more to support Ukraine.

Every year, Google drops Year in Search, a website with an emotion-inducing video that highlights what people searched globally that year. The project leverages data from Google Trends, Google's product that analyzes the popularity of queries in its search engine across regions and languages.

Year in Search is probably not the only time you’re exposed to Google Trends data throughout the year. A study conducted in 2009 used Google Trends to track influenza epidemics — it’s credited as being the study that opened the door to research studies using data from Google Trends. These days the tool has a range of uses across industries, from forecasting financial markets to understanding election results and developing marketing tools. Axios, for example, has been using Google Trends this week to analyze the parts of America paying closes attention to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, down to the district.

Google has yet to drop its own API for builders to leverage this big data, though some developers have been using an unofficial API to do so. And the Google Trends website alone has its limitations. For instance, users can’t see volume related to searches, only a 0-100 index (i.e. “How many searches exactly did that term get on that day?”)

Yesterday, we saw an interesting new product to enable users to get more out of Google Trends. The makers at Glimpse launched Google Trends Supercharge, a Chrome extension that makes it easier to understand and visualize the data you’re seeing in Google Trends.

“Our team has loved Google Trends since forever but we’ve always been bummed that there’s no way to see search volume in the tool, or that there’s no good way to discover new and relevant trends, among a bunch of other frustrations,” wrote Glimpse maker, Noah Fram-Schwartz, while introducing the product.

The extension lets you see absolute search volume, a breakdown of search by channels, and the trajectory of data. Users can set alerts to track trends, too.

Google sees over 3.5 billion searches per day so finding better ways to harness that data is no little feat. Early adopters who were quick to try the product were excited to get more depth out of their analyses.

“I am stunned, this is just so damn goood! I really loved the minute details that it adds to the search result data, super excited for its future,” wrote one commenter.

The makers mentioned they’re working through a big roadmap of features, so now is a great time to voice what you need most out of trending data.

We’re Notion users here at Product Hunt, along with 20 million-plus users out there. It’s probably not fair to call out alternatives to Notion when the real hovering giants are MS Office (includes Word) with 1.2 billion users and Google Workspace (includes Docs) with 3 billion users.

Though Notion may have a long way to go until it reaches mass adoption like Microsoft and Google, it’s done such a great job fostering an avid community while tending to individual creators that it often feels bigger than it is.

Over the past few years though Coda has gained a lot of steam and emerged as a noteworthy competitor in the space. The startup reached unicorn status in July after raising $100M in a Series D funding round. It has 1 million-plus users.

Co-founders Shishir Mehrotra and Alex DeNeui, two MIT graduates and both formerly Microsoft and Google makers, launched Coda’s beta four years ago, noting to the Product Hunt community that they started building a new type of document from scratch that “erases the boundaries between words and data.”

Coda went on to iterate, consistently taking a spot among the top five products of the day. It launched Packs in 2019, which is Coda’s name for building blocks that turn the tools’ workspace into a way to manage apps. Figma founder, Dylan Field, who hunted it noted: “I was super impressed with how this release lets you connect all sorts of things to Coda via the web, including sending text messages via Twilio, automating Github PRs and creating conditional formatting based on live weather forecasts.”

With Coda’s newest launch yesterday, Mehrotra shared that the team has been rebuilding Coda’s editor and reimagining the Pack ecosystem: “We found we couldn’t fully realize our vision of the all-in-one doc until we bridged a few more divides, some of which have been entrenched in documents for decades.”

Packs is now an open platform and users are invited to create Packs that can be shared with others. This opens the door for makers to build off of what Coda and Packs can do to increase productivity. To support this new ecosystem, Coda introduced a marketplace, a revenue-share system, and a Maker Fund. “Right now we have dozens of Packs, soon we’ll have thousands.”

Changes to the Coda editor includes customizable page layouts and the ability to include pages inside of table row. Another feature users will love is dark mode. But we think the most interesting part of this launch is the new Packs ecosystem to rival the kind of community that we’ve seen Notion create.

Makers are weighing in and asking questions on the launch page now. What do you want to know about Coda?

Much to learn you still have.

You probably know that but the question is “how?”

Learning from experts is one of the most popular and interesting ways to learn (or be entertained). Who among us hasn’t audited a class at Twitter U? We spend so much time unraveling Twitter threads because that spool is big and full of secrets.

The biggest challenge is accessing expertise. Today we met a new product to tackle that. Newcon is like “Netflix for professional keynote presentations and conference content.” Many of us can relate to its maker Cephas on the FOMO and disappointment of missing out on a conference because of astronomical ticket prices. Newcon's goal is to democratize access to that content, allowing anyone to partake regardless of place, time, or financial situation.

For today’s launch, Newcon has curated a shortlist of keynotes from favorite experts in the tech and startup spaces: Chris Dixon, Brian Armstrong, Li Jin, and more.

Accessing expertise is a common problem for founders and creators to tackle. These days, the more on-demand and personalized the solution, the better. Here are 7 more products offering modern solutions to mentorship:

Mentorcam - 1:1 Cameo-like marketplace for advice from inaccessible mentors
Pillar - 1:1 mental and physical health coaching from accredited (National Board of Medical Examiners) providers
Senpai - Database of experts providing on-the-job experience for startup questions
BoldVoice - Accent lessons from Hollywood coaches for non-native speakers
Mentor Me Good: 1:1 coaching and bootcamps for landing a dream job in tech
System2 - An app that enables 1:1 fitness coaching from elite trainers
Chapter - Chapter invites thought leaders to curate the best content in their fields, bundling it into courses and adding time for your questions

We’ll take a salty Spam musubi any day.

It’s the robocalls on the rise that send us spiraling — is this the future?

In the US, the FCC’s Consumer Complaint Center reported that robocalls comprised 55 percent of all complaints in 2020. So last summer, while the FCC was really feeling that new James Bond movie, it implemented new standards for phone service providers called STIR/SHAKEN. Long story short, STIR/SHAKEN is supposed to help weed out the bad guys from the good guys (like when Walgreens is just calling to let you know that your prescription is ready). But some experts have called out giant loopholes in how the standards are implemented.

Other countries aren’t faring much better with their spam intake. In the UK, automated messages started accounting for half of all nuisance-call complaints received at the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Another report identified India is the fourth worst country to be affected by spam calls and messages. Brazil is first.

Unlined launched today with a simple but lofty promise: no more unwanted phone calls. Unlined filters your incoming calls, checking who the caller is and your calendar before routing the call. That means it can be handy for blocking spammers and eliminating distractions while you’re preoccupied.

Unlined is new (in beta) from the Seedcamp-backed, Austrian-founded startup, Yodel, which launched its digital receptionist software back in 2016. The software routes calls to the right people in your company and lets those people manage the call in chat applications like Slack (Google had a competitor called CallJoy, but it shut it down in 2020).

If you want to take spam prevention a step further, you can also check out Removaly. While Unlined may help you stop unwanted calls at your phone, unfortunately, your personal information is likely already all over the internet for anyone to Google. “People search sites,” or data brokers, compile your information and sell it for profit. You can request that these sites remove your info, but doing so from each and every site out there is time manual and time-consuming. Removaly submits these requests for you.

Today, we present the most polarizing and least polarizing new apps you’ll read about all week.

Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s social media app, made its debut in the App Store this Monday, on President’s Day in the United States. The app marks the return of the former US President to social media after being banned from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

The New York Times reported that the official launch of the app has been pushed back to March, while Reuters reported that it may launch today after all. We were able to download the app but ran into an error message when trying to validate an email address so it appears the makers aren't quite ready yet. Regardless, you can see screenshots of the app from beta testing on the launch page.

Looking for a social app that's not so politically-charged? We’ve seen quite a few recently, like Happyō and Alms, which add a positive and IRL spin to social interactions.

And have you met Gabby? The new social media app for dog people got a friendly response from the community over the weekend. Gabby lets you set up doggy dates with other dog people.

“The game-changing feature in this app is the algorithm, which finds you a perfect match for your pup. It not only introduces you to a completely new network, but helps you keep track of everything about your beloved doggy,” wrote Savian Boroancă, who hunted the product.

Gabby also has health features for your best furry friend so you can track things like daily calories intake, weight, calorie burn, vaccinations, and behavioral patterns.

Now, you could say Gabby is polarizing in its own right.

"Do the same about cats"
"Can I add my cat also?"
“Wow I'm going to need this for parrots!!!"
...wrote some contributors.

We’re kitten you, of course. Gabby is new so be sure to share with your dog-loving friends — it's currently available in the US and Armenia. The makers would also “love to hear suggestions, and why not even some constructive criticism, :),” so don't forget to leave your thoughts, too.

What’s up with the browser extension with 1,500+ upvotes that had people saying this yesterday:

“Trust me on this...Bardeen is the #nocode tool of the year 💥.”

Bardeen is an automation tool to replace your repetitive tasks in just a click. These days, a lot of startups like Bardeen are working on solutions for context switching and SaaS sprawl. One way companies tackle the problem is through internal hubs. Another is search. There’s automation, too.

Robotic process automation goes further. RPA uses AI to program software to do basic, repetitive tasks across applications. While a tool like Zapier lets you connect apps to automate your workflows, Bardeen is working to use RPA. RPA for personal use is still very new. As Matt Turck, Managing Partner at FirstMark Capital and Bardeen investor, put it:

“Over the last few years, enterprises have poured billions of dollars into Robotic Processing Automation (RPA) to automate their backend systems. But, if you look at what we all do at work every day, we’re all badly in need of our own RPA. We spend so much time and mental energy on simple tasks that could be automated.”

With Bardeen, users can deploy an automation workflow, right in their browser with a click. Two hundred “playbooks” give users pre-built automation, or they can create their own (similar to Zapier). Machine learning helps users identify which tasks can be automated and recommends playbooks. Founder Pascal Weinberger also shared with one commenter that Bardeen runs “entirely on the edge (so in your browser). That comes with all sorts of privacy, security, and cost advantages...”

Yesterday’s launch was Bardeen’s public debut from stealth and came with an announcement of its $3.5M seed fundraise. Weinberger and co-founder Artem Harutyunyan are accomplished engineers. In a limited snapshot: Harutyunyan spent 8 years as lead developer at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), and Weinberger worked at Google Brain on various ML projects and led the AI team at Europe’s first moonshot factory.

Harutyunyan shared on the launch page:

“I started moonlighting on.. a slack bot that would… take away most mind-numbing and repetitive tasks… A while after, I talked to Pascal. I was really surprised when he literally pitched me my own idea! 🤯… Fast forward a few months and a bunch of us quit our jobs and we're working on Bardeen with some old friends.”

Sounds fun!

As you may have heard, Neil Young plans to leave this world with no regrets. He removed his music from Spotify in protest of its continued stance on letting Joe Rogan do Joe Rogan (with the exception of adding a warning message about Covid misinformation to the platform).

If you’re a podcast listener who, like Neil, thinks Spotify is really “F*!#in’ Up” (okay, last lyrical reference), you’ve got new options.

Today Callin launched, a social podcasting app from David Sacks and Axel Ericsson. Sacks, the founding COO of PayPal and Yammer founder, teamed up with Ericsson to bring his vision of an all-in-one social creation and listening platform to the people. Sacks really got into podcasting over the pandemic when he started his “All In” podcast. Like many creators who want to give podcasting a shot, he was amazed to find that the process required six hours of post-production.

Callin combines multiple audio experiences into one. Creators can open up a public or private room, start recording, and immediately start editing audio as a podcast after completion with AI-powered tools. Podcasts can be found on the app, or exported for sharing on other platforms. Within the app, the playbacks maintain their interactivity meaning users can click on avatars to browse profiles.

Callin’s community guidelines indicate that it will “host any user-generated content that won’t get booted off of Apple and Google stores,” explains Amanda Silberling for TechCrunch. So, to be clear, we’re not saying we know how Callin would approach Rogan, but as it so happens, you can listen to more of Sack’s view on the matter in the latest “All In” episode.

Meanwhile, Mark Cuban has been working on his own app called Fireside which emphasizes interactivity. The app has been discussed as a “next-gen podcast platform” and “hybrid between Spotify’s Anchor and Clubhouse.” Fireside targets both listeners and creators with a hub for creating and monetizing their work.

Despite their founder celebrity, Callin and Fireside will go up against tough competition and Spotify isn’t the only giant to face. Amazon owns 13% of the music-streaming market and wants to bolster that with podcasts. It’s been making deals to bring shows, like Guy Raz’s “How I Build This,” to the platform. With Audible and Alexa speakers under Amazon’s wings, Protocol’s David Pierce speculates that Amazon may be the company to watch in this space.

Before we go, we wrote yesterday about preference for all-in-one products versus those that focus on doing one thing really well. If you generally sit in the latter camp, podcast creators can check out Golden Kitty winner, Podcastle, while listeners can check out popular new products, Podopolo and Moonbeam.

Yesterday, the Invision team launched The New Invision, a collaborative workspace where you can unite your team and tools into one location. It sparked an interesting conversation: Do we need more tools that do it all?

“Why would a tradesperson use a hammer that’s tethered by string to a saw when there may be a better hammer out there?” posed commenter Simon Gabriel. Chris Messina also questioned the product thinking: “[H]ow do you avoid bloat while encouraging the production of best-in-breed product experiences?”

“Best-in-breed” is one cause for questioning. Invision is a popular tool used by independent designers and global corps alike, with 9 million users including 100% of Fortune 100 companies. The startup is a unicorn with $100 million in annual recurring revenue. No doubt: people may feel protective of what might be their favorite prototyping tool.

Another catalyst for debate – we’ve seen this a lot lately. Google, Monday.com, and Zoho are some of those consistently branching out to offer all-in-one collaboration. Is this update from Invision a moat to try and keep customers locked into one ecosystem, or something else?

Invision’s Chief of Staff, Stephen Olmstead, responded to ponderings (we’ve piece parts of responses together for a concise read):

“...I think we actually agree with you on this front. We see this more as a platform that brings unity to best-of-breed tools, not drives them apart. The key is for the system to get out of the way of [these] tools, not to try and eat them. That's our goal here.”

He also notes: “The paradigm shift here (for me at least) is the infinite canvas.” That infinite canvas is Freehand, working together with the new Spaces hub. Freehand is an Invision feature that has evolved from collaborative commenting to a robust whiteboarding tool over the last few years. Invision reported a 130% increase in Freehand’s weekly active users towards the start of the pandemic. It built out and improved on Freehand in response to a surge in new non-designer users.

Spaces adds a secure, single source of truth for projects, enabling teammates to easily organize and locate documents. Olmstead illustrated: “What would it do to my workflow if, instead of having a Google Doc, Google Sheet, design file, etc in separate tabs that I can only view one at a time, I had them in all in one place (one tab) as editable docs to work with lots of different types of stakeholders.”

The New Invision also introduces smart widgets (e.g. convert a sticky note into a live Jira ticket), deeper meeting integrations with Microsoft (Zoom on the way), collaborative presentations, and over 100 new templates.

All in all, we think the new features seem to match up with Olmstead’s perspective on bringing out the best of tools, versus certain tech giants that want to eat them all.

Are you team all-in-one?

Who doesn’t love to choose their own adventure? The genre became a hit when the first interactive book launched in 1979 and continues to be popular as it stretches its leg in modern entertainment, like when Netflix's “Bandersnatch” was the talk of the internet in 2018.

While media companies were pouring millions of dollars into creating interactive content for themselves, Devo Harris says he was quietly creating a low-cost, cross-platform solution for everyone. It’s called Adventr.

Harris isn't your average indie maker or tech founder. He’s a “serial media executive” whose resume includes co-founding GOOD Music with Kanye West, discovering and signing John Legend, and winning a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song (Ye’s “Diamonds (from Sierra Leone)”).

“I taught myself a few lines of basic code, then created and released an interactive music video on the web,” wrote Harris in today’s launch. Adventr “lets anyone easily create fully interactive, actionable videos and share them practically anywhere — we don’t believe this capability should be reserved for deep-pocketed companies.”

The browser-based, no-code platform lets users storytell with features like drag-and-drop elements, branching narratives, and integrations with text messaging, email, and phone calls. Harris and team have also been working on a feature called SmartListen that lets creators build media content that can change based on voice commands.

Adventr’s had a solid start in tech startup world. It was one of five finalists in Tech Crunch’s 2021 startup competition, Startup Battlefield, and went on to raise $5M in seed funding. The company said then it planned to use the funding to grow its team.

New hires will also join Peter Gerard, the product lead. Gerard is a former Vimeo GM and VP of Entertainment. It wasn't long ago that we saw the maker launch another one of his products, Welcome, an AI-powered travel app for discovering “the best places from your favorite people.”

All of Adventr's tools can be leveraged by creators of all kinds, from social media teams to filmmakers, and the Product Hunt community has started taking note. Give Adventr a try, drop Harris a question, and share your thoughts: