
Hopper: Stop emailing yourself notes, files, and images - endtwist
http://gethopper.com
======
georgemcbay
On the one hand, this is cool... on the other hand, I'll never use it (sorry).

I email stuff to myself on gmail because I can have thousands of things in
there that I can instantly find via powerful search. And I'm fairly confident
that 5 years from now they'll still be in there and just as easily
discoverable.

While Hopper's UI is certainly better than email attachments in gmail
currently are, I suspect Google will rectify that on their side much faster
than Hopper will rectify my previously mentioned primary two concerns about
the data I'm storing.

As others have already mentioned, seamless integration into email would go a
long way toward getting me to use this at all. Augment instead of trying to
replace is a much better strategy here.

~~~
endtwist
No problem, Hopper might not be for you. However, I've gotten a lot of
requests re: emailing updates, so I will consider it!

Let me say, though, that I absolutely respect your privacy and have no
intention of looking at your data. It's as private as you want it to be. I'm
also happy to put this in the TOS.

Exporting is another story as its easier said than done. Emailing you the
pastes periodically (optionally), however, may alleviate that problem.

~~~
llambda
> Let me say, though, that I absolutely respect your privacy and have no
> intention of looking at your data. It's as private as you want it to be. I'm
> also happy to put this in the TOS.

OP's issue wasn't so much privacy as it was permanency, as I read it. So using
Gmail, I can rest assured that in five year's time my documents will still be
around, just as they are today. Whereas with a new service, who's to say what
lies in store for it? What if you pivot? What if you're acquired?
Unfortunately a service like Gmail wins in this context.

~~~
code_duck
I used to think that about email services, too. Then one after another they
changed their terms when I wasn't looking, and deleted data I thought was
safely stored.

What ever happened to 'your own hard drive'? Is there some reason people can't
use that for storage? I have a VPS that I use as a file intermediary. I'm
highly confident that, and my backups, will be there in 5 years.

~~~
emmett
For most users, "your own hard drive" is a terrrible solution. They do not
have a VPS that they use as a file intermediary (they don't even know what a
VPS is), and they don't know how to keep backups, and if they did the backups
would probably be corrupted or out of date.

This is the miracle of web hosted software for most users. It's also what
makes Dropbox so special.

~~~
code_duck
I know plenty of people who use portable hard drives, flash drives and
writable optic media as a backup... I don't see many downsides in that,
barring catastrophic loss (which can happen to second party storage as well,
though they do tend to be more professional about being careful).

Of course, a burned DVD isn't going to let me access my file from the office
and at home unless I take it with me, so there are drawbacks.

------
AceJohnny2
I have DropBox, EverNote, and Springpad, on the multiple devices I use:
work/home PC/laptop and smartphone.

The above tools serve to keep notes and files. Nevertheless I continue to use
e-mail as an archiving tool because: \- it pops up unread in my inbox for
later processing. If I want to use it on a specific device, I can just leave
it unread until I have access to the right device. \- more importantly, email
is ubiquitous, and I can have somebody else email me a file.

I still need convincing on what problem Hopper solves for me that the other
tools don't. That said, trivially easy drag-and-drop file storing is cool, and
I for one welcome our so-simple-my-grandma-can-use-it usability overlords.

~~~
endtwist
I found that I regularly emailed myself notes and files for later processing,
and they'd then get lost in the inbox. I wanted to be able to search my notes
(and only my notes), as well as easily share them with one or several people.

Every other one of those services got me partway there but felt like they were
lacking (no web search, burdensome to use, etc). Paste and forget until later
- no more than 20 seconds to save something.

Notifications and device web apps are coming, too. Does that help?

~~~
icebraining
I just add "note:" to my emails and then I have a gmail filter that tags the
messages based on that and the sender's address.

~~~
dmn001
On a similar note, I have a gmail filter that picks up when the source and
destination email addresses are the same, i.e. when I send an email to myself,
tagged under 'self mail'.

------
statictype
People use email because that's still the only ubiquitous app.

I use Dropbox and Pinboard and Instapaper. I still find myself emailing things
to myself because whatever iPad app I'm using doesn't yet integrate to any of
those but does have email.

Email also exists on all sorts of devices that don't support apps.

That said, nice job - the simplicity and UX is great.

~~~
alphakappa
The reason I (and I suspect, many others) email stuff to themselves is that I
expect my email to be there with me years from now. Websites like these come
and go, and I wouldn't want to build up a collection that might just disappear
a few months (or maybe a few years) down the line.

I remember collecting links for years on del.icio.us before Yahoo decided to
shut it down. Then I moved everything over (though it's nice that del.icio.us
made it convenient to move my data over, it's still a hassle) to trunk.ly, but
now they have been acquired by delicious.com and will be shutting down too. In
the end, I find that email is more reliable and easier to search (searching on
Gmail is pretty easy)

One way such a website could be useful is if it did the job of emailing me the
stuff I collect (or some other similar solution) so that I'm still guaranteed
to have my collection, but it's possible to browse it in a better interface on
this website.

TL;DR - This is a well-done website, but I'll be hard-pressed to use it unless
it also solves the reliability problem.

~~~
eternalban
It should be trivial technically (but not sure about the biz model) to allow
for itemized and tagged export to a designated email address. If they do that,
I will consider using them.

------
mkl
There are some odd things in the Terms and Conditions:

 _"Pasting any of the following is forbidden and a violation of our terms of
service: ... copyrighted works or links to copyrighted works that you do not
own"_ Virtually everything on the internet is under copyright, so this forbids
links, a primary purpose of the site.

 _"Permission is granted to temporarily download one copy of the materials
(information or software) on Hopper's web site for personal, non-commercial
transitory viewing only."_ I don't know if I'm reading that right, but it
sounds like you can't get your stuff off the site :-/

------
Smudge
After an unmanageable number of note-to-self emails — I mean, just _imagine_
having to sort through an inbox of hundreds of things you sent yourself with
the expectation of following-up later — I finally transferred them all to
Evernote and haven't looked back. (Really, I can't recommend using something
like Evernote or OneNote more for the purpose of brain dumps).

The problem I see with solutions like Hopper is that they aren't ubiquitous. I
have to load a website and deal with whatever interface they've decided is the
37signals-esque simple-is-best approach to solving a problem that only matters
because their execution pretty decent and for that reason I come back to it
more than once... At least with Evernote I can throw shit in, in whatever
format I prefer, categorize it, and then come back to it later when I feel
like looking at what I thought was so rad at the time. It's no wonder so many
people do this over email.

Back when I had dial-up and wasn't online all the time, my solution to this
problem was Notepad. Yes, plain old .txt. THAT's how to get shit done. Don't
matter what fancy tools you use.

(No offense, Hopper...)

------
dmn001
The last time I emailed a piece of text to myself was to send an api key from
my computer to my iPhone so it could be used in an app. It is a one time
operation where I can access the data quickly and the text remains
sufficiently private.

With Hopper, I don't know if the text will be shared publicly on the web, and
if I can rely on it, what if the server goes down or the logs are read or
stolen?

------
uiri
I have been thinking about solving this since <https://www.xkcd.com/949/> and
one thing which I think most file services get wrong is that they practically
require you to write down (or email to yourself) the link to the file. I don't
want <http://gethopper.com/$hexadecimalgibberish>. I want
<http://gethopper.com/meaningfulfilename> If I am trying to send the file to
myself because I will be on a different computer, how does this do me any
good? Allowing me to make it <http://gethopper.com/reallyimportantfile> then I
will remember the URL and I can just put it into the URL bar instead of going
to gethopper.com first.

~~~
bcjordan
A nice solution to avoid namespace collisions while allowing users to create
their own shortening URLs is to use their username as a subdomain (e.g.,
bcjordan.gethopper.com/meaningfulname).

Also:

* accept file and submissions by email: subject = optional shortener key, body/attachment = content

* slap a sign up with Facebook button on it

And one more thing... <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEgk2v6KntY>

------
0x0
Haha. I pasted some random text, hit "shorten link", and changed one character
(out of the two-character-long shortlink) ... ended up with
[http://www.wtfeck.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fat-
black-g...](http://www.wtfeck.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fat-black-guy-
taking-a-big-mac-bath.jpg)

------
sachleen
I created a simple notepad for personal use. It's a textbox that syncs to my
server. I have a bookmark to it on my Kindle as well as a notepad widget on
the new tab page of Chrome. It can also be accessed from my phone (any device
with a browser, really).

When I'm on my computer, it's there every time I open my browser. Anywhere
else, It's just a few clicks away.

That seems to be enough for me as I rarely need to sync files, and when I do,
I have dropbox.

Edit: Also thought I should mention that before I created my own solution, I
used Simplenote (<http://simplenoteapp.com/>) for the webapp and iOS app.
Since then they've added an API and have a few other apps I think.

~~~
tealtan
Say more about this, please? Is it a single text box?

~~~
sachleen
Sure, here's the source: <https://gist.github.com/1609919> Also requires
jQuery.

I access it like this: <http://domain.com/notepad?key=yoursecret>

The JS checks to see if the contents of the textbox has changed, and if it
has, it makes a POST request via AJAX to the server that saves it to a text
file.

~~~
hardik988
Thanks so much for that! I also added in a Ctrl+S capture because I have an
irritating habit of pressing it! Kudos!

~~~
sachleen
Mind sharing your code for that? I think I tried implementing that originally
but I could never get it to work.

~~~
hardik988
I just used the shortcut.js library.. You can find it here :
<http://www.openjs.com/scripts/events/keyboard_shortcuts/>

------
Geee
How about sending _also_ an email to my own inbox from every share which links
to the content? Could be a good way to keep users getting back if I could just
enter my email easily when trying it out.

------
BadassFractal
You've certainly identified the problem, but I don't know if your proposed
solution make people like me switch off of spamming one's inbox. I've already
tried to switch off to RememberTheMilk, but email was just too easily
accessible and too ubiquitous, something I look at all the time. I'd need a
whole separate screen just to keep track of what I want to do in RTM.

------
mattmanser
It seems like a cool idea, but as time has gone on with hosted apps I always
find myself now asking this before I sign up:

 _How will you make money to stay in business?_

If you can't answer that, and you don't, I'm extremely hesitant to sign up.
Personal opinion, of course.

------
akg
Great work and a great first start. One thing that I find that is still
missing from file-sharing is to share your stuff with people in your close
vicinity. I often run into cases when I just need to quickly share images,
code fragments, links, etc. with another person sitting in the same room. I
can use chat (but I generally don't like going on chat while working -- too
distracting), I can email (which I often do) or use a service like Dropbox
(but that means you have to upload and download files). An easy clipboard that
can be sharable and accessible quickly would be very useful, at least for me.
Just a thought.

~~~
jmonegro
Try Ge.tt

------
jamesrcole
Is it 'Hopper' or is it 'Get Hopper'?

Ok, so by the title of this post, and the title on the site's front-page, I
can see it's meant to be "Hopper".

But the site's URL is 'gethopper' and if you view one of the links created by
the site there's the red 'Get Hopper' button on the top left.

Both of those things suggest the site is called 'Get Hopper'. To the user,
what else is 'Get Hopper' meant to mean? You don't see "Get Google" or "Get
bit.ly" (along with <http://getbit.ly>) etc. It's a little confusing.

Just thought you might like to know.

------
wtvanhest
If you add a hot key that allows the user to automatically upload the
file/image etc. it would save steps and differentiate you from email.

I'd probably use it, and may even pay for it depending on the price.

EDIT: Just because I am price sensitive doesn't mean others are (don't price
it low on my comment). You also may have some lockin with this since you will
have their files so keep that in mind when pricing.

------
firefoxman1
I made something like this for my friend when I wanted to try out the
drag/drop API. One thing I also did was give him a little bookmarklet with his
hashed password that he could drag into a "login" box so he could quickly log
in without typing his username and password every time. You may want to try
something like that for quicker logins.

It looked something like...

hisusername:19fij12dio7giw3

------
devs1010
I generally am active about keeping my inbox clean so anything in there is
important, if its not then I delete it as I prune it everytime I check so not
sure this would really be all that useful but for some people it may be, if
they're too lazy to categorize / archive emails though I doubt they are going
to want to use an extra app just for this.

------
aaronbrethorst
it doesn't seem to work for me in Safari 5.1.2. Does it require Flash? I very
intentionally do not have Flash installed.

~~~
code_duck
I don't see any Flash. It seems to be implemented in javascript.

------
dustingetz
killer feature for me:

screen capture to clipboard, paste to hopper, and its already uploaded and
shareable. i need this like 4 times a week. i would push to buy it at work if
it was priced right and based on our existing google apps, so safe for
proprietary data.

~~~
vijaykiran
If you use a Mac <http://getcloudapp.com/> does something similar, Clipboard
capture of screenshots and adds the link to clipboard once the upload is done.

~~~
switz
Yeah, CloudApp (Mac), TinyGrab (Universal), and Droplr (Universal) are all
great products that provide this functionality. For example:
<http://d.saew.it/ocSW>

------
cmer
You might want to know that www.hopper.com is very well funded and launching
soon. I think you should rename your project...
<http://www.crunchbase.com/company/hopper>

------
qq66
This needs to email the entire thing to me once per week before I use it,
because I won't start using it if I'm not sure that it will be there in 6
months.

------
sdoowpilihp
A big benefit for a user like me would be how to integrate it into my day to
day workflow. A chrome/firefox extension would really go a long way.

------
Uhhrrr
Does anything in your privacy policy prevent you from looking through user
pastes? It appears to me the answer is no, but IANAL.

------
phodo
You might want to try wishtunes on the appstore for iPhone as a way to capture
snippets of text.

------
Zikes
I really need this for my phone. Having it as a Share option would be great.

~~~
endtwist
A mobile version is coming soon. I'm just as eager as you are to use it on my
phone.

------
mrtron
I like this.

Make items unique per user though to save yourselves a lot of trouble.

------
treenyc
also check out <http://ge.tt>

I met these guys at SeedCamp final round. Looks like a very good file sharing
product

------
vld
And yet another chrome-only website.

------
timanzo
guilty as charged. I do it almost everyday. very simple concept. UX is great.

------
mcteapot
wow this is perfect for me, would be great if there was an iOS app as well!

------
halayli
Or use dropbox

