Ask HN: Review our app, Boomtango

Hi,<p>For a long time, I've griped that the browser history system is old and neglected, but given some love, could potentially be a powerful tool. A lot of my web searches are for content that I have seen in the past, and while browser history is great for the back button (and the awesome bar), the ability to re-find old content has been sub par.<p>My friend, Alan and I, prompted by the Mozilla Firefox Extend Contest, decided to write a firefox extension that took a fresh look at the browser history system, trying to get past some of the current deficiencies like the lack of integration of multiple tabs being open, the inability to monitor ajaxy sites, etc, and being able to do more than search by hostname and date.<p>Boomtango is our rough attempt to put together a system that allows you to search by the content of your page or see your history automatically categorized by it's content. It's all stored locally in a sqlite db, so your web browsing never hits our server.<p>Let us know what you think. We're not awesome ui designers or expert marketers, so any feedback you have, regardless how harsh, would be very enlightening and helpful.<p>Thanks!

You mentioned "Data is stored on your local computer so your history remains private" what about giving the possibility to upload to the web, then I can get my browser history whenever I am. Maybe a possibility to merge browser histories would be cool also ;)<p>But even with this, it stills very COOL!.<p>Congrats

A side note: this product, like many others, hosts its video walkthrough on Vimeo. But, Vimeo clearly says on their upload page: "You may not upload commercials, infomercials, or demos that actively sell or promote a product or service."<p>So, does Vimeo just not enforce this rule, or what?

I installed this. I have two comments:<p>The first time I launch Firefox after installing, the interfaces asks if I want to import my history or "cancel." I'd like to recommend changing the wording to "Do not import" or something. Did I just cancel out of a larger startup process? I assume not, but I don't think "cancel" is the logical opposite of "import history."<p>For the screencast, this is my recommendation: 1) write your script 2) record the video portion 3) narrate the video as a separate stage<p>I've made a few videos this way, and this is the best way I've found to make it fast and error-free. It's hard to multitask, and performing a task while vocalizing it at the same time is <i>really</i> hard.<p>Anyway, I'm really interested in this project...

Opening the boomtango page takes a long time on my machine, mostly because it's trying to download an image from PayPal.<p>I hope you guys can make all the images local, so it loads instantly.

Sweet work, and congrats! I wrote and maintain archivd.com and before that dowser.sf.net. Anyone who helps users archive and search is good people.<p>I suggest working on the visualization design, ie find better ways to compactly represent the important information inside arbitrary webpages. Also think about inferring structure, for example, if a user searches Google for "foo bar" and clicks on a result, that result should automatically get a "foo bar" tag.<p>Good luck!

Excellent, I think I will use this nearly every day. Found a small bug - Tools-&#62;Boomtango-&#62;Open Settings-&#62;Categories-&#62;Click the Visit Boomtango for plugins link<p>Get a 404 trying to reach page: <a href="http://www.boomtango.com/trackers/" rel="nofollow">http://www.boomtango.com/trackers/</a>

Sounds like what I was looking for. Looks good.<p>The interface is too bright IMO (just checked the screenshots).

I remember there was a similar add-on for firefox. It stored the entire content of pages you visited on your local hard drive and you could search through it. It's called breadcrumbs. How is boomtango different from breadcrumbs???

Hey Will, this is very well done. It's clear you put a lot of hard work and thought into every aspect of Boomtango and it shows in the quality of your product. Kudos.

Looks cool - consider me a new user! Two suggestions for the FAQ: 1. How much space will this use up on my machine? 2. Will this slow my browsing experience?

Wasn't there an YC company some time ago doing something similar? What was their name, and what happened to them?

Friggin genius.

Great idea for a plugin.<p>One feature I'd really like to see, is the ability to selectively delete history entries, both in Firefox's regular history database and Boomtango's enhanced database.