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Show HN: I made a Chrome extension that can automate any website

(browserflow.app)
707 points namukang | 5 comments | 17 Nov 21 15:16 UTC | HN request time: 0.896s | source
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cxr ◴[17 Nov 21 22:51 UTC] No.29259897[source]▶
Some prior art:

"CoScripter" (2007) <https://blog.mozilla.org/labs/2007/09/coscripter/>

"IBM Automates Firefox With CoScripter" (2007) <https://www.informationweek.com/software/ibm-automates-firef...>

"Your personal assistant on the Web" (2010) <https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2010/10/your-personal-ass...>

"Koala: Capture, Share, Automate, Personalize Business Processes on the Web" (2007) <https://ofb.net/~tlau/research/papers/koala-chi07.pdf>

"CoScripter: Sharing ‘How-to’ Knowledge in the Enterprise" (2007) <https://ofb.net/~tlau/research/papers/leshed-group07.pdf>

"Here’s What I Did: Sharing and Reusing Web Activity with ActionShot" (2010) <https://ofb.net/~tlau/research/papers/p723-li.pdf>

Demo: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKIex_XAxWw>

Source code (bitrotted, of course): <https://github.com/jeffnichols-ibm/coscripter-extension>

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adamrezich ◴[18 Nov 21 00:04 UTC] No.29260548[source]▶
aside from Browserflow are there really no similar contemporary projects/products? seems insane to me
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yaseer ◴[18 Nov 21 01:02 UTC] No.29260931[source]▶
There are many. A sample in alphabetical order - and by no means exhaustive:

https://apify.com/ (YC F1)

https://automatio.co/

https://axiom.ai/ (YC W21)

https://extension.dev/

https://www.progress.com/imacros

https://trysmartcuts.com (YC W21)

https://ui.vision/

https://wildfire.ai/

3 of these are YC companies. Reminds me of mixpanel vs segment vs amplitude, where YC are backing all the horses.

Each company is different in its particular approach and niche, though. This is inevitable with any large, or potentially large market.

Disclaimer: Co-founder of axiom.ai

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1. p0larboy ◴[18 Nov 21 01:43 UTC] No.29261154[source]▶
Your website (axiom) needs to be better mobile-optimized. Elements be cut off by other elements. Irregular spacing, etc.

Doesn't look like a VC-backed app right now.

Compared to DK website, his looks way way more polished.

Just my two cents.

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2. weird-eye-issue ◴[18 Nov 21 02:25 UTC] No.29261382[source]▶
Yeah I'd ditch the cheesy animation and just work on getting the basics down.
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3. unobatbayar ◴[18 Nov 21 04:03 UTC] No.29261849[source]▶
I'm working on a site right now. Can you tell me what would be the basics?
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4. weird-eye-issue ◴[18 Nov 21 09:56 UTC] No.29263825{3}[source]▶
Find an existing theme or template that is popular and covers the main type of content you need. Then just change the content as needed. Don't build something from scratch just to be special
5. yaseer ◴[18 Nov 21 11:47 UTC] No.29264406[source]▶
Agreed - we're running an experiment on Zapier integration and the callout mucked up the header. It's since been amended.

The homepage bears the scars of a lot of experiments. In pitches, I have had VCs complain about the website. I explain that we optimised for fast, messy iteration and learning. Then I explain what we've learned over X iterations. They've gone onto write cheques.

Still - it's messy and could do with a blank-slate refresh soon. We have new messaging to test.