[jeffmould]

Looks interesting, but a couple of things that jump out at me. First, the drop down "About/Guidelines" section at the top is a little crazy. Personally I would go with a landing page that describes the app, let the person enter their username on the landing page, and then move to the search feature. If I had not been forced to read the about section drop down I would not know what it was at first glance.

Second gripe is that drop down area has a horizontal scroll bar on it and I have a 27" monitor. It makes it seem as if there is content if I scroll to the right, but there is nothing there.

Finally, I am going to assume the results are tags with the various usernames underneath the tags. Personally I would prefer to tag specific posts within HN and then be able to search that. If I am searching for a similar interest I want to be directed to the specific post(s) that relate to what I am searching for. I don't want to get a username and then have to sort through their posts to find one that may relate to what I am searching for.

Overall I like the idea of being able to tag keywords within HN.

[vargas84]

Haha I was going for compact but I understand that frustration. I'll think a little bit more about your suggestion. My reservation is that I generally hate having to sign up for stuff before seeing the actual app. This way you can experiment and click stuff right off the bat. I'm sure there is a happy middle ground in there somewhere.

I'll fix the scroll issue now, thanks!

This third idea is awesome - something I hadn't even considered. If I am able to generate enough interest, I'd love to open source this and build out something more robust. This would be a pretty cool feature to add that I would personally get a lot of use from.

[jeffmould]

Completely understand your thought process. Simple is most often better, but at the same time too simple will leave users scratching their heads.

I don't know about others, but if you could figure out a way to tag specific posts as well as users, to me that would be a valuable tool for searching for past posts or things that have fallen from the first couple pages.