Only 9.6% of YC News Readers Use IE!!

There were a few heated discussions about Vista on Hacker News yesterday that got me wondering: What operating systems do people in this community use? How about browsers?

As it happened, I had just posted an announcement about my new startup a few days ago and I had Google Analytics installed, so I managed to collect a fair amount of information. Here is what I found most interesting:

1. Internet Explorer accounted for a mere 9.6% of all browsers. And, yes, that includes both IE6 and IE7 combined.

Sure, I did expect more Firefox users than IE given the high-tech nature of the community, but this was unexpected. Only 9.6%!! And, sure enough, Firefox was #1 with 71%, followed by Safari with 11%. Below is a more detailed report. Click to see the larger image.

2. Windows still has the majority with 52.7%, but it’s so close to losing it.

Here I actually expected to see more Mac users because, seemingly, Apple news make up over 90% of all tech news. However, Macs came in second with 28.9% followed by Linux with 18%.

As for Windows itself, XP still accounts for 83.7% compared to 9.9% for Vista.

3. News.YC users came from 66 different countries.

And that’s more interesting when you consider the fact that it’s a niche Web site targeted to startup news, and mostly US startup news. The recent expansion of scope to include more technology news might explain this, though. But, not surprisingly, over 75% of the visitors came from the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom with 63.8%, 7.2%, and 5.6% respectively.

List of Selected Startup Ads

I’m still finalizing my preparations to launch my new startup project. Unfortunately, I had to push the launch date by 3 days to Friday 9/28 because I realized that, even if I skip sleep completely, there is no way I can finish by Tuesday. If you’ve ever been involved in a software project, I’m sure you’ll understand.

In my previous post I offered free ad space to early stage startups on my new startup home page. Most of the ad submissions I received were professional and the startups, themselves, were very good. Here is the list of companies I selected:

• Adpinion
• BandsInTown
• ClutterMe
• Devshop
• FanPop
• Group-o-matic
• Micropledge
• Ongopongo
• TallStreet

You’ll probably notice that there is only 9 in the list. One of the applicants didn’t send the ad as promised, so now there is one empty spot available if I receive a submission by Wednesday. Otherwise, I’ll use the space for one of my own other projects.

Adpinion is an odd one in the list. They’re actually an ad serving company. Originally, I thought I’d use their code to serve the other ads, but then realized that it might not be doable yet. So, instead, I’m using their code to serve whatever ads they send me, and I’m not planning on taking the proceeds that come from it. They have a nice way to let people vote on the ads they see. It’ll be interesting to see how that works. And, I’m yet to arrange with them how to get the $40 of free advertising they offered to the other companies.

Free Ad Space for Your Startup

Update: The ad space is now fully booked, and I notified the 10 selected companies. Thanks everyone.

So I’m about to release a beta version of my new startup project and I’m planning a marketing campaign to get the word out [can't tell you much about it yet, and if you're one of the few friends I've demoed it to, please don't reveal it until Tuesday]. And since I learned from previous lessons and made sure that my new web site is very simple, now I have some empty space on my home page that I want to fill rather than leaving a big empty spot. So I thought I’d give out free ad space to fellow entrepreneurs who could use the free marketing. I’m doing this to help new startups, like mine, get some needed visibility. So, here is what you get:

1. A totally free, no-strings-attached, ad spot. I want to help; I’m not looking for anything in return.

2. The ads will be on the home page. And they’ll be rotated with other ads.

3. Each ad is 125×125 pixels; GIF, JPG, or PNG. Animated gifs are okay as long as they’re not too flashy.

4. I’ll keep the ads for about 2 to 3 weeks. Although I reserve the right to remove any ad earlier for any reason.

5. I’ll accept up to 10 ads max.

And this is how I plan to choose what to display:

1. I intend this to help new startups, so my preference will be for early stage startups. Especially those with no marketing budgets. If you’re still not released, that’s okay; as long as the link points to a demo of some sort, or at least a page with a screen cast or screen shots.

2. Preference will be for ads I receive first; but I will skip ads that don’t look professional, don’t match the above criteria, link to pages that are ugly or lame, compete with my own startup, or any other reason that make it inappropriate for me to put that ad.

I’m planning to announce my beta release on Tuesday, the 25th, and hope to have it covered by as many bloggers and media as possible. Of course I can’t guarantee that anyone would cover it, but if they do, you’ll hopefully get some exposure as well.

So, if you’re interested, send your images to: waleed-at-ninua-dot-com by Sunday 9/23, along with the target URL and the image alternate text. I’ll email those who are accepted on Monday. Best of luck.

Update: I just received a generous offer from Adpinion (a YC company). If your ad is selected then, in addition to the 2-to-3 week period your ad will show on my web site, you’ll also get a $40 worth of free advertising on Adpinion’s network at large. I think this is a great opportunity to get publicity for free. Don’t delay.

Online Bookmarking Survey Results

As you know, it helps a lot to know what others think of a project you’re working on. So I set out to talk to people and gather feedback and opinions about existing online bookmarking tools since I’m building one. I focused on two groups of users: the average Web users, and the Web 2.0 crowd.

To get feedback from the average users, I asked my family, friends, and anyone who’d listen. The responses were, pretty much, like: online book… what? Nobody has even heard of the term. Of course, I expected something like that, but to actually see it and hear it brought the point home. I think it’s important to keep reminding ourselves that there is life outside the Web 2.0 bubble. And that’s where most people live.

To get feedback from the technical users group, I used a technical solution: I created a form using Wufoo’s free service, and then asked for help from the readers of Y-Combinator Startup News, which is frequented by highly technical people. I received a lot of comments, and 27 people filled my simple survey form (thanks, everyone). Here is a compilation of the data I managed to collect. Of course, this is a small sample, but we can still learn a lot from it:

Do you use an online bookmarking tool?

Out of the 27 answers to my survey, 66% of users indicated that they used an online bookmarking tool. This is not surprising given that the group consists of technical users who follow the latest Web trends.

66%	Yes
19%	I used to, but not anymore
4%	I tried, but didn’t like it
11%	Never

What tools?

I didn’t ask specifically what each participant used, but I collected a rough estimate from the comments:

40%	Delicious
20%	Google Bookmarks
20%	Browser Bookmarks & auto-complete
20%	Google Search

Not a scientific study, by any means, but it’s clear that del.icio.us is still the leader in this group. The interesting thing to notice here is that, even among technical users, many liked Google’s bookmarking tool even though it didn’t provide many of the features assumed, by many, to be critical to the success of any new Web site such as RSS feeds, tag clouds, social interactions, and aggregation of users data. People who liked it did so because it was simple and fast.

Any Requests or Complaints?

There were many requests for new features or fixes to existing ones. The top 4 that were echoed by many users are:

1. Make it fast: This was, by far, the most common complaint about online bookmarking tools.

2. A better way to organize information: Specifically, a hierarchical way was mentioned a few times. It seems that tags alone are not enough, or not the best option, for many users.

3. Synchronization between browsers. Users who preferred to use the browser bookmarks still wanted a way to have them synchronized across all the computers they use.

4. Tags are lame: Obviously not everyone likes tags. As mentioned in point 2 above, some users preferred a hierarchical approach (folders?), and others complained that it’s too hard to manage hundreds of tags.

Other Comments?
I also received some comments questioning the wisdom of building another online bookmarking tool:

New online bookmarking is a HUGE waste of time unless you have something VERY valuable to add. But I don’t think it doesn’t already exists.

Don’t waste your time, there is nothing wrong with the browsers inbuilt capability, how about doing something more productive.

I do agree that it’s a crowded market, and had I been just about to start now, I might’ve chosen something else; who knows. Maybe a Facebook App!!! But I’m close to a beta release, so I’m going to go ahead and finish it. Plus, I do believe that I’m building something different.

So, what did I learn from this exercise?

• Most people have no idea what online bookmarking is. So there is a huge market opportunity for the first one who creates a bookmarking product that the average users like. Of course, this is easier said than done because of the next point.
• The browser bookmarks, auto complete, and Google search are good enough for most users. So if you’re creating something new, it’ll have to be compelling and exciting. Or, target users who need more than the basics.
• Make it fast. Really fast. This is the most common complaint I heard about existing online bookmarking tools.
• Tags, feeds, and social aspects are good features to have, but they’re not essential for success. If your product doesn’t need them, don’t add them just because everyone else does.

Hello

Do you know that we run simulations of the real world inside our heads? We do; and it’s similar to computer simulations used in games or to analyze the impact of accidents on cars. Think about it; if you see someone about to step on a banana peel you know right away what’s going to happen next: they might slip and fall. In fact, you’ll probably even have a mental image of their struggle to keep their balance while holding on to their things and making strange facial expressions all at the same time. This simulation that you run in your head is your perception of reality. It’s an essential component of intelligence, and it’s what allows you to anticipate things before they happen and to consider different scenarios and make decisions now based on what you think the consequences will be later. You want your perception of reality to be as close to reality as possible so you can analyze and predict things more accurately and make better decisions. And the best way to do that, in addition to reading and thinking about things, is to bounce your ideas by others to learn and consider other points of view.

So I’m starting this blog to verbalize my own thoughts and perceptions in the hope of having you correct me or teach me something new. And hopefully you get to learn something new as well. I’ll write about my own interests in technology and its future and running an Internet start-up. Welcome.