The Leaderboard
Our ultra-fast Daily: Three takes on new products. Yesterday’s top ten launches. That’s it.
The 60 marketing tools used at Buffer 📈
Today's Product Hunt Digest is by Ash Read, social blog editor at Buffer. Ash surveyed his team to find the 60 most-used marketing tools at Buffer.
As a marketing team spread around the world, we always keep an eye on the latest marketing and productivity tools to help us stay connected and doing our best work.
Here are five tools we’ve been enjoying lately:
Trello is indispensable for our team. It’s the home to all of our editorial boards and content planning.
Grammarly takes spell-checkers to the next level. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t use Grammarly multiple times. A simple, effective way to ensure our writing is mistake free.
Discourse is essential for us as a remote team. It's the place for all our most important updates and discussions.
Zoom is what we use for all our team video calls. It’s super-fast, reliable and can smoothly handle our full team All-Hands meetings (70+ people).
Refind is our go-to content discovery tool. It's a great place to discover and curate the best content. Sidenote: We enjoy Zest a lot, too.
There are tons of other handy tools used by the Buffer team, including a timezone tracker for distributed teams, Dropbox’s Google Docs competitor, and an ambient sound generator. Check out the full collection: The 60 Marketing Tools We Use at Buffer. 🙌
As a marketing team spread around the world, we always keep an eye on the latest marketing and productivity tools to help us stay connected and doing our best work.
Here are five tools we’ve been enjoying lately:
Trello is indispensable for our team. It’s the home to all of our editorial boards and content planning.
Grammarly takes spell-checkers to the next level. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t use Grammarly multiple times. A simple, effective way to ensure our writing is mistake free.
Discourse is essential for us as a remote team. It's the place for all our most important updates and discussions.
Zoom is what we use for all our team video calls. It’s super-fast, reliable and can smoothly handle our full team All-Hands meetings (70+ people).
Refind is our go-to content discovery tool. It's a great place to discover and curate the best content. Sidenote: We enjoy Zest a lot, too.
There are tons of other handy tools used by the Buffer team, including a timezone tracker for distributed teams, Dropbox’s Google Docs competitor, and an ambient sound generator. Check out the full collection: The 60 Marketing Tools We Use at Buffer. 🙌
GIPHY's revolutionary new camera app 😮
Innovation is often found at the intersection of two distinct industries. Today, the leader in GIF-based communication combined animated photos with voice-based technology, popularized by Alexa and Google Home.
The Result: A new camera app that turns your words into GIFs.
There’s a trend here. Snapchat was built around the premise of camera-first messaging, augmented with filters, stickers, and dog-licking lenses. Now, companies like Facebook are adding these smart-camera features into the camera, while others are launching standalone smart-camera experiences (see: Microsoft Sprinkles).
The Result: A new camera app that turns your words into GIFs.
There’s a trend here. Snapchat was built around the premise of camera-first messaging, augmented with filters, stickers, and dog-licking lenses. Now, companies like Facebook are adding these smart-camera features into the camera, while others are launching standalone smart-camera experiences (see: Microsoft Sprinkles).
Introducing: Product Hunt Stories
Today we're excited to launch Product Hunt Stories, an innovative new story telling format on the web. Credit goes to Stories as a Service, which lets you add Stories to your website with one line of code.
April Fools is an opportunity for companies to test out features 'as a joke' that they may actually want to do. So lets take a moment to run through some of the best April Fools/potential product launches from over the weekend, and announce the winner of April Fools:
• Google Maps lets you play Ms. Pac-Man right inside Maps
• Yo came back from the dead to launch Yo Stories
• Duolingo created the first ever emoji language course
• PitchFriendly announced Pitch Drone (pitch reporters via drone)
• Google launched Gnome, the Google Home for your yard
The winner of April Fools 2017 goes to Snapchat. Their 1-day only Instagram filter clone set a new standard for well-played April Fools jokes that actually work.
April Fools is an opportunity for companies to test out features 'as a joke' that they may actually want to do. So lets take a moment to run through some of the best April Fools/potential product launches from over the weekend, and announce the winner of April Fools:
• Google Maps lets you play Ms. Pac-Man right inside Maps
• Yo came back from the dead to launch Yo Stories
• Duolingo created the first ever emoji language course
• PitchFriendly announced Pitch Drone (pitch reporters via drone)
• Google launched Gnome, the Google Home for your yard
The winner of April Fools 2017 goes to Snapchat. Their 1-day only Instagram filter clone set a new standard for well-played April Fools jokes that actually work.
Introducing: Ask Product Hunt 🚀
Today, we’re introducing Ask Product Hunt, a new community-powered product search engine.
As with many things we build, the idea was inspired by you. 🤗 Every day, people ask for product recommendations, often cc'ing @ProductHunt on Twitter. Now you can ask the community directly.
For the past 4 weeks, we've been sharing recommendations with a small group of beta testers in response to questions like:
📱 What's one app you use a lot, that most people don't know about?
✏️ What's the best app for writing on MacOS?
✈️ What's the easiest way to create GIFs for the web?
Check it out! We'll be featuring some of the most popular questions and recommendations throughout the month.
As with many things we build, the idea was inspired by you. 🤗 Every day, people ask for product recommendations, often cc'ing @ProductHunt on Twitter. Now you can ask the community directly.
For the past 4 weeks, we've been sharing recommendations with a small group of beta testers in response to questions like:
📱 What's one app you use a lot, that most people don't know about?
✏️ What's the best app for writing on MacOS?
✈️ What's the easiest way to create GIFs for the web?
Check it out! We'll be featuring some of the most popular questions and recommendations throughout the month.
Revealing our secret.
Product Product Hunt started around a simple idea: to help people discover and share awesome new products. Today, we're a global community of tech enthusiasts, emoji lovers, and makers. Without you, we would not be where we are today.
That is why you deserve to know the truth about the early days.
We wrote a book about the true story of Product Hunt, the details of which are being revealed for the first time ever. It's told in a short, coffee table book style format, through a series of images, and explores how parking garages around the world inspired what Product Hunt is today.
You can get the book on Amazon, and we thank BuzzFeed for kindly offering to help publish The Parking Book in print.
That is why you deserve to know the truth about the early days.
We wrote a book about the true story of Product Hunt, the details of which are being revealed for the first time ever. It's told in a short, coffee table book style format, through a series of images, and explores how parking garages around the world inspired what Product Hunt is today.
You can get the book on Amazon, and we thank BuzzFeed for kindly offering to help publish The Parking Book in print.
Siri has a new competitor!
Samsung just showed the world what the future of smartphones will look like. The Galaxy S8 has no physical home button, headphone jack tech, and a stunning new infinity display that stretches edge to edge.
The Galaxy S8 also includes advanced selfie technology for unlocking your phone (i.e. an iris scanner), a fingerprint scanner on the back, a software-based home button under the screen, and a dedicated side button for Bixby — Samsung's new Siri competitor.
Bixby is better than Siri. It understands context, so you can say "capture this" to take a screenshot, or ask it to show you all your photos taken in London. It also uses Pinterest's visual search to recognize objects around you. Simply point your camera at a nearby monument or restaurant to learn more.
For iPhone users this means one of two things: 1) Time to switch to Android, or 2) The next iPhone will look radically different than what it is today (and likely similar to what Samsung showed at their event).
The Galaxy S8 also includes advanced selfie technology for unlocking your phone (i.e. an iris scanner), a fingerprint scanner on the back, a software-based home button under the screen, and a dedicated side button for Bixby — Samsung's new Siri competitor.
Bixby is better than Siri. It understands context, so you can say "capture this" to take a screenshot, or ask it to show you all your photos taken in London. It also uses Pinterest's visual search to recognize objects around you. Simply point your camera at a nearby monument or restaurant to learn more.
For iPhone users this means one of two things: 1) Time to switch to Android, or 2) The next iPhone will look radically different than what it is today (and likely similar to what Samsung showed at their event).
Free Tickets to Coachella! 🎵🎉
Wanna see Lady Gaga, Radiohead, Kendrick Lamar, Lorde, and dozens of the biggest musical artists in the world perform? There are many apps for that… but seeing them live is so much better. 😊 We're giving away two free tickets for you and a friend to go to the Coachella Music Festival. 🙌
Enter to win the ultimate VIP experience for Coachella, including:
• 2 VIP tickets for you and a friend ($1,000 value) 🎟
• $1,000 gift card towards transportation & accommodations ✈️
• 2 EAROS Festival Hearing Protection Kits ($200 value) 🎧
• 2 Misfit Fitness Wearables (to track your dance steps) 👯
• Exclusive access to celebrity-studded parties all weekend 🎉
Enter to win the ultimate VIP experience for Coachella, including:
• 2 VIP tickets for you and a friend ($1,000 value) 🎟
• $1,000 gift card towards transportation & accommodations ✈️
• 2 EAROS Festival Hearing Protection Kits ($200 value) 🎧
• 2 Misfit Fitness Wearables (to track your dance steps) 👯
• Exclusive access to celebrity-studded parties all weekend 🎉
Elon Musk launched a new company 🚀
"Soon I'll be able to think 'I want to have the robot change the cat's litter' and it won't be just wishful thinking." —@jollymonatx
The Wall Street Journal broke the news that Elon Musk started a new company that will merge your brain directly with the artificial intelligence.
Context: Elon believes that our (human) "input" is actually quite high (our eyes can see a lot of things in super HD) but our "output" is very limited, by what he calls "meat sticks" (our fingers). The solution: to connect the AI directly to our brain so we can have our input/output for information closer to that of a machine.
Our Take: Eventually we all become cyborgs (many of us already are, depending on your definition), and if you want job security for the future, the brain-computer interface space looks promising.
The Wall Street Journal broke the news that Elon Musk started a new company that will merge your brain directly with the artificial intelligence.
Context: Elon believes that our (human) "input" is actually quite high (our eyes can see a lot of things in super HD) but our "output" is very limited, by what he calls "meat sticks" (our fingers). The solution: to connect the AI directly to our brain so we can have our input/output for information closer to that of a machine.
Our Take: Eventually we all become cyborgs (many of us already are, depending on your definition), and if you want job security for the future, the brain-computer interface space looks promising.
BuzzFeed takes on Amazon… sort of 🚚
Last week, the President was in a truck. An hour later BuzzFeed wrote an article. It went viral. A day later they turned it into a children's book: The President and the Big Boy Truck Book.
But this isn’t the first product from the cat listicle website. BuzzFeed also sells hot glue cheese guns, viral cookbooks, and even political garbage cans. 😳
Their movement toward commerce demonstrates a growing trend as advertising-driven businesses diversify and explore new revenue streams. Medium’s trying it with subscriptions. Twitch is starting to sell games. Facebook launched a Craigslist competitor.
We can’t wait to see what happens next.
But this isn’t the first product from the cat listicle website. BuzzFeed also sells hot glue cheese guns, viral cookbooks, and even political garbage cans. 😳
Their movement toward commerce demonstrates a growing trend as advertising-driven businesses diversify and explore new revenue streams. Medium’s trying it with subscriptions. Twitch is starting to sell games. Facebook launched a Craigslist competitor.
We can’t wait to see what happens next.
RIP Internet Privacy: How To Protect Yourself 🌐🔓
Yesterday wasn't a good day for internet privacy regulation. The Senate voted to make it easier for ISPs like Verizon, Comcast and AT&T to track and share sensitive information about their customers without permission. This puts people at risk of increased identity theft, data breach, and financial fraud. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Here's what you can do to protect yourself:
Step 1: Use a VPN like TunnelBear or Cloak. VPNs hide your IP address and encrypt your traffic across the web to keep you safe.
Step 2: Use HTTPS everywhere (as opposed to regular HTTP).
Step 3: Use a tool like Micro Snitch to protect your private data from being sent out, and Snoopie, which shows you who's watching you across the web. 🐶
Step 4: Use secure mail clients like Hop Encrypted Email or ProtonMail.
Step 5: Use a password manager, enable two-factor authentication, and share with a friend the Don't Get Hacked collection.
Here's what you can do to protect yourself:
Step 1: Use a VPN like TunnelBear or Cloak. VPNs hide your IP address and encrypt your traffic across the web to keep you safe.
Step 2: Use HTTPS everywhere (as opposed to regular HTTP).
Step 3: Use a tool like Micro Snitch to protect your private data from being sent out, and Snoopie, which shows you who's watching you across the web. 🐶
Step 4: Use secure mail clients like Hop Encrypted Email or ProtonMail.
Step 5: Use a password manager, enable two-factor authentication, and share with a friend the Don't Get Hacked collection.
