Comments on: Wundrbar: A Smart Search and Account Management Tool

By: Zeke Sikelianos

Zeke Sikelianos — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:49:51 +0000

I’ve been actively developing a YubNub alternative for a while called Queriac. It’s getting pretty stable now and is ready for a bigger user base. It’s free, open source, and (IMO) far more flexible and socially provocative than WundrBar and YubNub..

Try it at http://queri.ac

By: unitedBIT’s RoundUp » Blog Archive » Wundrbar: A Smart Search and Account Management Tool

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:34:58 +0000

[…] more at TechCrunch Tags: search engine, social command line for the web, wikipedia, wundrbar, ycombinator, […]

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:00:24 +0000

@jojo: Ah, but that search bar didn’t get $15m in “funding”.

By: jojo

jojo — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 05:13:31 +0000

hmm. kinda slick, but it sorta seems one page view more complicated than Dave’s Quick Search Deskbar http://www.dqsd.com, which I’ve been using for about 5 or 6 years, and is easily customized.

By: Derek Scruggs

Derek Scruggs — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:02:48 +0000

This looks pretty cool and I’ll give it whirl. I’ve been using YubNub almost from the time it started and it rocks. I use it at least 100 times per day. ‘Course, I have no idea how they possible monetize it. Maybe that’s why I like it - *because* they aren’t trying to monetize it.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:36:41 +0000

I personally love this service - it saves me time, and I can’t wait for it on my phone.

By: Sneezy Melon

Sneezy Melon — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:02:30 +0000

umm..sorry :O! Bad phrasing!

By: Sneezy Melon

Sneezy Melon — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:01:58 +0000

Sounds good. But somehow the twitter comments doesn’t work somehow.

By: Ashe

Ashe — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:00:38 +0000

To quote Michael Arrington, this is:

“THA HOTNESS”

Okay he really didn’t say that. I think this idea is good for individual web sites where only a limited/defined set of data has to be searched, and perhaps the templates and logic can be uber controlled.

For large and ever-growing pieces of data (ie, the net), this would never work. Unless God did something. But he’s busy helping Bush win the hearts and minds of Iraqis.

2008
Vote John McSame

By: Paged mobile

Paged mobile — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:31:26 +0000

Wundrbar is a nice try, but it’s easy to miss an important point: getting information instantly (without visiting the desired website and find the info) is mostly necessary on the go with mobile devices.
This is where Paged mobile excels. To visit rememberthemilk.com for example, enter remk at pa.gd website. To visit techcrunch.com, enter tech there (tech as a shortcut needs 8 keypresses instead of 31 (!) on a mobile phone with 12 keys). The shortcut comes from the web address, so no need to remember it (more details at pa.gd website). Approximately 120 countries and 11000+ shortcuts included.
Paged mobile supports YubNub commands as well, enter .wp john rawls as an example for wikipedia search. Translate words: .tr it en forza (translating the word forza from Italian to English). Local search: gloc museum miami. Display a location: .gm london. Compare prices for tripods: .froo tripod. And many others.

Paged mobile is web based, no need to install it on the phone. For more details, please visit pa.gd website.

Imre

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:51:59 +0000

I don’t think the general public would be interested in using this at all. Actually, I know for a fact that this will never take off. I always do.

The thing about these new startups nowadays, is that the hype stays within the valley - only geeks use these tools, and rarely do they expand beyond that.

It’s a useless cycle - tech blogs hype these services up, they get a little popularity from that initial push, they raise money because of it, which is then reported on, and they raise more money because of that…until there’s no more money to raise.

You’re left with a “company” that could have been one guy in his bedroom, but instead has 20 developers producing close to nothing over vast periods of time, with no money left, inevitably heading for the deadpool.

It’s getting boring now. Can we start reporting on actual businesses? You’d think the valley had never produced anything good, with the crap that comes out of it. (Not that this service is crap, it’s okay…but certainly not a “company”, certainly not a business, and if they treat it as such, it will fail.)

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:28:30 +0000

This would make more sense as an add-on for the Firefox address or search bar. If it would occupy this area, I could imagine using the service.
Currently they offer this functionality with the toolbar they provide for Firefox, but it would only be useful if I could have this directly in my search box.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:19:30 +0000

I built a similar site, yet without the “predition” mode. link

By: Lame

Lame — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 05:01:16 +0000

TechCrunch = Paul Graham / Y-Combinator Spin Machine.

By: Robert Lancer

Robert Lancer — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 03:36:25 +0000

Andrew agreed, TC has lost their way.

By: Reply

Reply — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:55:47 +0000

Also, the constantly changing XML (or w/e it is) box below the bar keeps changing as i type, I cant stand that.

By: Reply

Reply — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:53:15 +0000

I type in “I want to buy a ferarri” i get back “we cannot find gas prices for that location” Beta version needs the kinks worked out, and then give me a reason to use it over google.

By: Alex P

Alex P — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:05:59 +0000

This solves a problem that does not exist.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:48:36 +0000

this is turning into Ycrunch

By: Xianhong

Xianhong — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:44:57 +0000

great to know Wundrbar, It really give you lots of fine for searching. Google may learn something from it.

By: Huhhhhh?

Huhhhhh? — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:36:28 +0000

Who came up with the name Wundrbar?

By: ZiZi

ZiZi — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:23:38 +0000

everytime i search something it sends me to googls results, whats up?

By: Will Johnson

Will Johnson — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:07:26 +0000

I was working on a project very similar to this for a while, but without the keywords. I found it was next to impossible to determine what a user was looking for when they typed in, say, “lord of the rings”. Are they looking for the books, the movies, games, toys, or what? And for more abstract searches such as “boston to dc”, it’s extremely hard for an algorithm to figure out if you want to fly to DC, see how many miles it is to DC, etc. So, I’m sure wundrbar wishes they could go without keywords, but from my experience it simply isn’t possible, or at least requires the effort of a giant like Google.

By: monkee

monkee — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:49:47 +0000

Do we realy need this?

By: david sl

david sl — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:33:50 +0000

Direct link to article mentioned in my previous post:

http://sent2null.blogspot.com/.....-need.html