Russell Ballestrini
776a4a07f4
- Setup virtual environment management in Makefile - Fix broken linkpeek RST directives in 2011 posts - Add missing image alt attributes for accessibility - Fix RST syntax errors and title hierarchy - Add markdown package for proper .md support - Update CLAUDE.md with testing workflow and critical issues - Rename code golf post to match slug - Clean build: 182 articles, 4 pages, zero errors
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LinkPeek.com, webpage to image, was a by-product
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:date: 2011-12-19 00:23
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:author: Russell Ballestrini
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:tags: LinkPeek, Opinion
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:slug: linkpeek-com-webpage-to-image-was-a-by-product
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:status: published
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**tldr;** When faced with pivoting or killing a project, take a good
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look at all possible by-products. Don't miss the hidden gem in a
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project's slag!
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Last year I built yoursitemakesmebarf.com, a novelty web application
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which allowed anonymous link submission. The software would
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automatically take
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`screenshots <https://russell.ballestrini.net/linkpeek-com-web-address-thumbnail-api-alpha-release/>`_
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of submitted links and curate a blog. I enjoyed building the site and
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the project served as my first Pyramid application.
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The project's original intent was to jokingly poke fun at ugly design.
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The idea never caught on. Instead the application angered website owners
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and attracted undesirable people. Eventually, I decided to take it down
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and come up with less combative idea.
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After witnessing the Goog release of "instant previews", I knew there
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was a market for a fast and reliable web screen shot service.
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https://linkpeek.com
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So I decided to bring instant previews to anyone who needed them. I
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wanted to build a fast, flexible, and easy to use screenshot API. After
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a few months I had a working prototype. I named the product LinkPeek
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because it described what the service was, and the domain was available.
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Next I built a website thumbnail generator to show off the software. The
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generator application helped reinforce the simplicity of the underlying
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LinkPeek API. It didn't require any downloading, installation, or
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waiting.
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About a week later on a whim I posted the generator to hacker news with an honest title (`Convert Any Webpage to an Image <https://linkpeek.com/website-thumbnail-generator>`__) and in about 30 minutes it reached the number 1 spot.
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**Remember, when faced with pivoting or killing a project, take a good
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look at all possible by-products. Don't miss the hidden gem in a
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project's slag!**
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