I like the simple home page with just a search box, and the idea of a
way to find similar companies seems really useful.<p>1.) The site does not function without javascript. In most cases, this
won't matter, but in some cases it will be a non-starter. This often
causes significant accessibility problems for the blind.<p>1.1) I realize you're doing just about everything in javascript, but
this means there is no way to share a link to a particular search. Using
url parameters like most other search engines solves this issue.<p>2.) The modal and forced email entry when trying to "view more" and
"view details" is unexpected and unpleasant. Though you certainly want
to get email addresses from users, you're violating the principle of
least surprise here, and many users will be uncomfortable with handing
out their email address.<p>3.) The text/copy shown when forcing email entry is coarse and
uninformative:<p>><i>"Great! We're happy you're enjoying our product. Please enter your
email address to continue using Nova."</i><p>Is there a reason why a user would want to give you their email address?
If you can communicate a reason, it's a better approach.<p>BTW, you might want to remove the "no@example.org" address I entered for
testing, and you might want to do some verification of entered
addresses (not easy, but doable).<p>4.) After getting the "Thanks!" on email entry, the "view more" and
"view details" links still don't work.<p>5.) Your database of businesses is too incomplete, and your similarity
algorithm needs improvement. (Note: a small number of database entries
may be entirely forgivable if you're just starting out and are looking
at your lengthy todo list with lots of data you need to import ;-). I
tried searching on two company names, [Rocket EMS] and [Information
Handling Services] as well as the common abbreviation for the later
[IHS]. The first (rocketems.com) is a newer and specialized local
company, and the second (www.ihs.com) is very well known and has been in
business for more than 50 years. You returned no results for the two
company names, and mostly incorrect results for [IHS].<p>(sorry, reading Matt Cutts of Google and similar search related sites
has me in the habit of using square brackets [] around queries)<p>You did locate one of the many subsidiary sites (brand names basically)
of IHS, namely "IHS Engineering360 Media Solutions", but not the parent
company. Though the subsidiary site does earn some of its living through
"Marketing & Advertising" (this tag is most likely derived from SIC
codes), it's not exactly correct or complete. Since you seem to be
basing your "similarity" measure on SIC codes, the "similar" companies
listed are very dissimilar.<p>I'm not entirely certain what I should have expected from the phrase,
"find similar companies" so maybe my expectations were too high?<p>Well, it may be a little rough in a few places at present, but a company
similarity search engine seems really useful to me, and I wish you luck
with it.