Ask HN: How do you find out if your idea is new?

7 points by yjm 11 years ago | 14 comments

I sometimes have some very specific optimizations in mind and I find it difficult to google for them.

One example is the idea of an image gallery that will only keep thumbnails (or the smallest size possible of the image in order for it to look just as good on your phone screen ) for you to be able to show your friends your travels but not eat up huge amounts of disk space.

I usually learn by example and I'm sure other people do too so given this idea how would you go about searching the world wide web for a product which features it?

EnderMB 11 years ago |

You don't. In the grand scheme of things, it's probably a small minority of people that go public (i.e. publicly posting on the Internet) with their ideas for an app or business.

To answer your question in terms of code projects, I tend to turn to GitHub. More often than not, if I'm trying to build something and I've hit a problem a few selective searches through the code section will bring up something similar. It might be in a different language, but it's helpful nonetheless.

yjm 11 years ago | |

What I really don't want to do is lose a month implementing something and then realize that there was already something fairly popular out there that solved it.

I would rather not get too attached to my own ideas and tunnel vision implement them and ignore the reality that if there's already a good app for that I shouldn't bother.

shivang 11 years ago | | |

You should have this in mind: Facebook was not the first social network, google was not the first search engine, amazon was not the first marketplace. So think of the market whether there is room for some more improvements and/or the market is huge enough to have more than one similar products. How can you solve the shortcomings of the similar product and be different.

EnderMB 11 years ago | | |

Echoing the other comments, think of it not as a missed opportunity, but as a challenge to build something better than what already exists. The odds are that anything you've worked on has (probably) already been done.

chatmasta 11 years ago |

If you can't find a solution, potential customers can't find one either.

Even if you do find one, competition is validation of the idea. A common misconception in "startups" is that an idea has to be new to be valid. In fact some of the best startups applied new models to existing ideas with very competitive markets.

davismwfl 11 years ago |

I'd argue that it doesn't matter if your idea is new or not. It only matters if it is executed better. Think of some of the battery tech that is happening now, they are literally taking battery tech invented in the 1800's and adding today's technology and chemistry knowledge to make it better and more cost effective. So their idea isn't new, but hopefully their ability to execute is superior.

So in the end, I'd worry less about if your idea is new, and more about can you do it so that you have a market wanting to pay you for it. Somehow you have to monetize, so if you can answer how it makes money and have validated that with real people willing to pay for it, then just do it and screw whether its new or not.

h_o 11 years ago |

How do you find out if your idea is new?

Ask me, I'll tell you it's not.

gesman 11 years ago |

Easy: It's not.

Having said that - there are billions of dollars to be made in simplifying existing implementations of existing ideas.

kleine2 11 years ago |

Ask a few people that you would expect to know about something like this and if none of them have heard of it then practically speaking it doesn't exist. The added bonus is you can see if these people think it would be useful.

cturhan 11 years ago |

Search on product hunt, here, designer news according to your field.

yjm 11 years ago | |

how exactly would you search for the specific feature I proposed? There's hundreds of image apps out there, I doubt there's one that specifically says it does that in the headline.

xerophyte12932 11 years ago | | |

How would you want people to find YOUR app? You must have thought of some keywords or phrases that when googled, should bring up your app. Try using those and see what occupies the territory as of now.

Another approach is to discuss your idea with as many people as possible. Maybe you haven't heard of such an app but someone else has. This should be most fruitful if you do this with your target audience. Even if there is such an app out there but your target audience hasn't heard of it, then that's a good enough reason to try building it.