The Roundup

Earlier this year, you met a new search engine that’s challenging Google’s monopoly over search. Neeva wasn’t the first to take on Goliath, but the startup introduced a cohort of newcomers in the space that want to make the competition more… competitive.

You.com is here now too and battle-ready. It just launched the public beta of its new private search engine that summarizes the web.

Co-founders Richard Socher and Bryan McCann are AI experts. Socher is the fifth most-cited Natural Language Processing (NLP) researcher in the world. He was most recently a chief scientist at Salesforce, where he helped build Einstein AI after joining the team when Salesforce acquired his AI company, MetaMind.

Tech experts are pointing out that Google is feeling the heat under antitrust scrutiny — some would like to regulate the company’s monopoly on the market. That might make this a good time for competitors in that space, they say.

While that might be true, Socher is more focused on AI. In an article for Product Hunt, he wrote about how he believes there’s no better time to launch a new search engine:

“Without the surge of deep learning, unsupervised, semi-supervised and transfer learning, it would have been impossible for a small company like ours to build an entirely new search engine experience, from scratch.”

Socher also explained the many reasons why he finds Google’s dominance so concerning, for both users and businesses. One issue points to how Google serves as a gatekeeper to content.

“It keeps the bulk of search traffic to itself — nearly 65% of searches worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2020 were "zero-click," ending without that traffic going to another website… I predict the trend of zero-click searches will only increase, and ads will continue to proliferate in the search results.”

In addition to its web summaries, You.com offers “superior” (and optional) privacy choices, personalization, and 100+ apps that make relevant content readily available. For example, you can search Reddit, Quora, Stack Overflow, and Medium with a single query to explore one topic from different angles.

The startup is backed by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff who’s leading a $20M funding round, and counts support from techies like Justin Kan, who hunted today’s launch.

What do you think of the new Google search competitor?

Every organization and division faces transition. Employees leave, new ones are onboarded, and projects are passed off. For software, the issue to speak of is introducing a new developer to the product’s codebase.

“First, let's level-set: Understanding codebases is hard,” wrote founder Shanea (King-Roberson) Leven with the launch of CodeSee last week.

CodeSee is a new tool to make codebases easier to digest with auto-generated, self-updating diagrams that help makers visualize an entire codebase. Developers and product teams can use CodeSee to create tours/visual walkthroughs of the code, add labels and notes with color-coding, highlight activity across a codebase, and more.

“With Maps, you can… provide context to other devs to support faster onboarding, planning, and code reviews,” Leven explained. Prior to CodeSee, she led product teams at Lob, Google, Docker, eBay, and Cloudfare.

Even if you’re not a developer, the value of a product like CodeSee isn't too difficult to see — even more so in the context of open source projects. Many makers now view open source as the only viable option for building their products, but when makers open up their codebases for modification, codebases can become difficult to navigate. Thousands of developers could be contributing to the project from all over the world.

Codesee is leaning into the inherent fit — the makers have also launched an open-source community called OSS Port to help developers participate in open source projects.

CodeSee is off to a strong launch, with makers of various backgrounds chiming in:

“Not a developer, but I've had to be very aware of our codebase in past projects. Something like this would've saved me so much time then!” Wilhelm Rahn

“It looks this will make my life easier, allowing me to highlight only the important files and tour about a project to get started. Congratulations!” Kristina Anderson

Leven wants to hear about the unique codebase challenges developers in the Product Hunt community face. Add your voice:

You aren’t the only one sick of forms. Autofill and password managers help but forms are so rampant online that they’re still a major pain point for everyone.

We wrote about one-click payments along with Bolt and Fast and even explored using robotic process automation in eCommerce earlier this year, but makers are making headway on form-skipping beyond your shopping cart.

Last week, a new platform for discovering and managing B2B content launched called The Juice. The tool curates and recommends content for marketing and sales professionals and enables users to search and filter by content type (eBooks, reports, podcasts, etc.)

The Juice also gives users the opportunity to speed past gated content, meaning they no longer have to fill out a lead generation form every time want to read an eBook. With a click, they can choose whether or not they want to share their data with the brand, and skip straight ahead to the article or file.

In August, we also saw the launch of Netherlands-based Chiff, a new tool for logging into any website using your phone’s biometric authentication tools. If a user is logging into a website on their desktop, a browser extension can send a notification to their phone, where they can use fingerprint or Face ID to securely log in.

Then there’s Transcend Content Manager. Cookie consent forms may not require much keyboard action but they still often result in a consumer experience nightmare.

Transcend uses a browser-level firewall to convert all tracking info into local, quarantined tracking events. Since data doesn’t leave the users’ devices until they’ve provided consent, Transcend enables makers to ask for consent in a less obtrusive way. They can ask visitors for consent later on in the user journey or embed consent into their existing UI.

Users will still have to click to allow or disallow their data-share somewhere, but that’s one less form to jump through.

Apple had another day of drops from its Unleashed event last week. Let's get right into the new hardware.

First off, Apple presented two more M1 chips, an M1 Pro and M1 Max. That's fast since it released the M1 just last year. The Pro model CPU is up to 70% faster, with a GPU up to 2x faster, and 32GB of unified memory while the Max has unified memory up to 64GB.

Apple made a new home for the chips in a new MacBook Pro, or what some are already dubbing “Notch Book Pro.” The newly-designed MacBook Pros increase screen size at the cost of a “notch” where the camera lives, not unlike the latest iPhones. Apple also brought back an HDMI port, a headphone jack, an SD card slot, and a MagSafe charger along with three Thunderbolt ports. The MagSafe charger can charge up to 50% in 30 minutes.

The new standard Apple Airpods look like the AirPod Pros, without the interchangeable tips. They’ve got spatial audio support and are sweat and water-resistant.

Those that love color may like that the HomePod mini speaker is now available in yellow, orange, and blue. Or maybe you’ll be bummed there's no purple option.

Before you head for the checkout, check out these new tools from the community that can make you an Apple superuser.

Unplug Alarm: This app sounds an alarm if your Mac is unplugged while you’re away
APEnabler: Add an Airplay button to custom online video players
Pareto Security: A checklist app that helps with basic security hygiene on your Mac
Ditto: Save open tabs, documents, and apps to a workspace; switch with a menubar click
Sensei Monitor: Monitor/optimize your Mac’s performance via widgets from the menubar
Almighty: 50+ superuser tweaks/utilities like keeping Mac awake or convert to plain text
AirBuddy2: See the status of your AirPods when you open the case + connect with a click
PairPlay Audio Adventures: Split AirPods with a friend for an “immersive audio AR experience”
Alfred 4.5: The Alfred productivity Mac app launched Universal Actions for performing actions on any text, URLs, or files using a hotkey from anywhere within Alfred or your Mac

You don’t see many companies squaring off to take on Amazon these days, but Bolt has been cooly assuming the position.

The “Amazon-like payments stack for everyone else” first launched on Product Hunt three years ago, after working for almost three years in stealth. Despite entering a very crowded space, it differed from products like Stripe Checkout.

“That's more of a lightweight way of collecting a credit card vs. this which is a robust enterprise-ready platform. Tax/shipping/discounts/platform-integrations… While also built to be super developer-friendly, this is built for retailers / e-comm companies first and foremost,” founder Ryan Breslow wrote back then (to its credit, Stripe has expanded since then).

Then earlier this year, it dropped Bolt One Click, a one-click checkout experience for shoppers, across anywhere where Bolt is used. Shoppers can save their passwords, personal information, and card details and check out instantly if using Bolt — even if they’ve never been to the shop before.

“Bolt One Click gives independent retailers a fighting chance... by enabling them to provide a return-like experience to millions of first-time shoppers. Shoppers get a fast checkout anywhere across the growing Bolt network, and retailers benefit from higher-converting shoppers. Everyone wins!” Breslow wrote on Product Hunt.

While “Buy Now” functionality might duplicate the success of tech goliaths, Breslow has set himself and the company apart from portrayals of Bezos and Amazon. He’s pursued creating a “conscious culture” which drives the way Bolt conducts business (with concepts like “conscious selling”) and manages its team members (Bolt introduced a 4-day workweek last month.)

That might attract burnt-out workers looking for new jobs. Meanwhile, investors note liking Bolt because it's focusing all its efforts on a 10/10 customer experience of the payments solution, rather than trying to do too much at once. The new $393M Series D drives the company's valuation to $6B.

Bolt is planning to use its new funding to expand beyond the US (you can expect to see Bolt debut in Europe in the first half of 2022). It does face competitors, including Fast — a Stripe-backed startup that wants to bring fast login to everything — and UK-based Checkout.com.

The good news: It’s getting easier to build great mobile apps.

Just look at FlutterFlow, a low-code platform created by two ex-Google engineers. The platform enables makers to build mobile apps with Flutter (the Google-made SDK for cross-platform apps) — visually with a drag and drop UI.

A feature that early adopters in our community have enjoyed most in FlutterFlow is the ability “to export code and fine-tune it without limitations.” Now Flutterfly has launched one-click deploy to the App Store and the ability to add Google maps, search (powered by Algolia), push notifications, and more.

If low-code makes you nervous, co-founder Abel Mengistu explained to one commenter, “You don't need to know programming. There's a learning curve that might be a bit steeper, but most of the apps in the showcase were built by our amazing designer who's not a developer.”

Still, no-code launches you can check out for building apps include Bravo Studio, Adalo, and Glide which enable no-code web app development, too. While you're at it, see no-code testing platform Waldo for creating and automating mobile tests.

And back to the bad news: Once your app is built, you still have to learn how to market it amongst the millions of apps in the Google Play and Apple App Stores.

There are resources to help new makers there, too. There are Udemy courses and SplitMetrics’ AppGrowthLab — even MailChimp has app growth courses. Today, a group of makers from Mobile Action have also launched Mobile Growth University, a nonprofit initiative and free resource for learning about mobile growth. Courses cover topics from app store search ads to monetization, and users can earn a certificate to demonstrate their proficiency in mobile app marketing.

“An awesome overview of what is arguably the hardest part of growing any business,” wrote one commenter.

We’ll leave you with one more applicable resource to help with your app marketing – AppLaunchPad. The design tool helps you create marketing assets for the app stores and launched new features in July.

Now, go and see what kind of apps you can build without much code.

Newsletters have done for email what social distancing did for QR codes. Your inbox made a comback from 1990's romcom nostalgia, and is now flexing on Slack and your DMs.

Don’t expect that to change soon. Along with newer tools like the Substacks of the world, Google is the latest big tech player to experiment with newsletters. It's got a new Museletter product in private beta that lets you publish a newsletter or blog from Google Drive (Notion users, try this instead?)

Newsletters aren’t just for niche creators; they’ve changed the way we digest journalism, too. Just look at Morning Brew and Axios, which recently hired 20 new reporters to launch local newsletters in 8 new cities, adding to its 14 existing newsletters.

To be honest, we’re here for it. Newsletters are a great delivery mechanism for the specific information that you care about. They allow for hyper-focus that’s curated by your subscription preferences, which offers a nice alternative to an algorithm.

With that, we bring you these 7 newsletter launches from the last year that our community thinks you should know about:

Unicorner: Up and coming unicorn startups, before they make it big
“Very impressed by the insights and in-depth approach that Unicorner takes”- Audrey Wu

Popcorn: Movie and TV suggestions curated for streaming platforms
“You made a product that can save someone's night!” - Easton Hunter

Munch by Moving: Crypto insights, trends, and analysis
“Robinhood snacks but for crypto, long-awaited!" - Mirza Uddin

Unboxed: Sneakerheads, this is for you
“Amazing newsletter! One of my favorite parts is “best sneakers to buy for retail or less”- Taylor Loren

Every: A writer collective covering productivity, strategy, and more
“Love the writer collective idea… Strength in numbers.”- Nicci Talbot

Tedium: Taking on the questions that “nobody thought to ask”
“It is simply a must-read. The more fascinating bits are his deep dives into the history of things that usually don’t have histories written about them.” - Gregory Bufithis

“This is my life's work and I can't tell you how excited I am to finally be able to talk about it publicly,” Nader Al-Naji, aka Diamondhands, wrote on Product Hunt.

We first wrote about Bitclout in April, a buzzy, fresh product with the goal of putting social media on the blockchain. Last week, Al-Naji revealed himself as its creator along with the blockchain that Bitclout is built upon, DeSo.

DeSo, short for “decentralized social,” is a new blockchain built from the ground up in order to make the concept of decentralized social a reality. As DeSo explains it, social applications generate a lot of data and existing blockchains weren’t equipped to handle it.

Anyone who wants to use the DeSo blockchain, from Bitclout users to makers, has to hold its native cryptocurrency called DESO (a rebrand from the token’s original name, CLOUT). The founding makers raised over $200M in funding by selling $DESO to over 44K users, including big names in VC like a16z.

Besides Bitclout, over 100 apps (NFT platforms, trading tools, etc.) have purchased $DESO and started building on top of the blockchain. Al-Naji partially credits his initial anonymity for that initial success — he believed people felt more empowered to build on top of an ecosystem where they’re weren't relying on a centralized entity to call the shots.

This launch comes after what some had felt was a chaotic entrance earlier in the year. For his part, Al-Naji recognized concerns around Bitclout’s tactic of baiting celebs to the social network with dummy profiles were valid.

Some of the primary concerns from that time have been sorted out, like the ability to exchange your $DESO (formerly $CLOUT) for other cryptocurrencies like BTC or ETH. I.e. You can get your money out of Bitclout if you want to. Others still remain, like environmental impact — Al-Naji says he plans to switch to a more environmentally-friendly mechanism for validating blockchain transactions, proof-of-stake, by the end of the year.

Ready or not, a new wave of social products is coming — what questions do you have for Diamondhands?

We recently wrote about how startups are tackling employee onboarding challenges caused by a remote workforce. There’s another culprit at play here — the fact that we use so many apps.

On average, small to large businesses implement 73-175 apps. As we mentioned, documentation is one solution to helping teams manage buried knowledge among all these tools. Another is search.

A search tool for your work apps might feel like déjà vu if you read our newsletter on Qatalog. The “work hub” pulls together all your tools and has a master search function. Last week we also met Glean.

Glean calls itself a “work assistant.” The hero feature today is the ability to search across all of your work apps, and there are discovery and connection functions for team members, too. This part slightly resembles a social or LinkedIn profile, but Glean says the product reveals insights and helps you find people who can help with whatever it is you need at work.

“Glean can search across the entire breadth of your company... It understands who you are, what you’re working on, and who you’re working with, to deliver highly personalized results,” CEO Arvind Jain wrote.

The makers’ expertise is reflected across Glean. Jain himself founded Rubrik, a cloud data management company, after serving over a decade as an engineer at Google. He’s joined by several other ex-Googlers and Facebook engineers.

Glean and Qatalog are after your holistic workspace, but we’ve seen several other tools launch this year to make information more accessible through search.

Jadoo - Search and manage your mobile screenshots
Findem - Search for the ideal job candidate with the exact attributes you need
Bloop - In-IDE code search engine that retrieves JS and TypeScript code examples
Vehicle Listings API - Programmatically search cars and trucks available for sale
SaveCmd Terminal Search - Search command history from other clients from the command line

Now we just need a product that searches our brains for names we just learned.

Bartering is the comeback kid of twenty-first-century commerce, even without too much help from technology beyond the internet and its forums.

The continuous growth of sharing economy startups has helped re-familiarize people with the idea of not buying new stuff, but trading without money is still largely left to Craigslist, Facebook Groups, Nextdoor comments, and the desert city of Burning Man.

Now that social distancing and tough times have given people extra incentive to swop stuff, there could be enough demand for better tech.

Enter Swop.it, a new app for exchanging items based on location and interest. Is an app dedicated to bartering enough to take people away from the familiarity of apps like Facebook?

Here’s what makes Swop.it interesting. Along with baked-in shipping, audio, and video calls, Swop.it can create a chain of exchanges where the initiator doesn’t have to negotiate along the way.

“We engineered a mechanism in which [the] user chooses desired item, but if he doesn't have a same-value trade for it or interests simply don't match — we find people with goods that can be placed in-between to complete the deal,” maker Julie Bonbina shared.

We’ve all read those articles — the ones where someone swops a bobby pin for bigger and bigger items until they end up with a house. They’re fun, but gimmicky too. Swop.it doesn’t seem to be too interested in gimmicks. Bonbina explained that the service is designed for individuals, not resellers. Also...

​​"The morale [of those stories] is the exact reason why we engineered our product in a way where not only one person can get something valuable from the deal and enjoy it, but many."