For those that are new around here, this is weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Friday! We’re back for another 2024 issue.

In this week’s issue:

After testing dozens of new AI products this week. Here’s my top pick.

This week’s product pick is Browse.AI, a pretty clever platform that's enabling a pretty big part of how scraping (read: performing data collection from various online sources, lists, search results, etc...) can be made that much smoother. A question I found myself with when reviewing this product was pretty simple:

With its AI-powered backend, Browse AI lets you effortlessly create custom automations to extract THEN monitor data from any website, all without a single line of code. Whether you're a market researcher, a startup enthusiast, or a part of a large enterprise, this tool is your gateway to unlocking the web's vast potential. From prebuilt robots that cater to common use cases to the flexibility of crafting your own solution using a browser extension, Browse AI makes it simple, fast, and incredibly effective.

I'm just amazed at how data scraping has evolved into a breeze compared to its complex past. Gone are the days of cumbersome processes and endless coding headaches. Now, with just a few clicks and some savvy tools, I can get just as far with a fraction of the sweat.

To get us started, I’ve added in the 1-minute pitch video in here so check it out:

Browse AI’s offers two main flavors of codeless scraping technology. Firstly, users can statically collect present-day data via a point in time execution of their marked data points (technical term: attributes). Secondly, users can start tracking The evolution of their desired data source over time with gradual monitoring features.

In the field tests, it really did perform as simply as the video shows, demonstrating some robustness to some of the trials I put it through.

Getting started with this tool was as easy as 1-2-3:

The user experience (UX) design overall was easy to navigate throughout, forgiving of user mistakes, and is clearly designed to guide users intuitively through the process. This intent comes through in clear instructions, feedback on actions, and the minimization of user error through thoughtful interface design. It's like having a step-by-step guide to steer you back on track if you stray or make an error, and ensures that you always know what to do next. This type of UX design made me feel supported and confident while interacting with the product.

A Cornerstone Of The Browse.ai Conversation - Pre-builts For Days

The team at Browse.ai went heavy with the pre-builts! I was happily surprised at the sheer volume of well-known sites that were fully ready to go without lifting a finger. The range of pre-builts was also quite exhaustive as there was a range of “templates” ranging from:

For the good sense of making my life easier producing quality content, I thought to myself: “Wait a minute, I can use this to make a raw-but-detailed list of AI-Powered Products, and I can add this list to my others for later review & exploration!” … so I did just that with the Product Hunt pre-built.

As you can see below the templated task results provided a number of useful attributes ready for consumption whether human or robotic consumption - because, yes, this SaaS connects to the near and dear Zapier platform. Default settings everywhere yielded 9 fields like default rankings, Product Titles, descriptions, review scores, product detail URLs, etc.

Trailing thoughts on the long-term

The future of this SaaS product is quite bright, but recent events present a second side of its value proposition: a note of risk due to its role in enabling the wholesale collection of internet data by AI model creators sourcing their training data from private online sources. I’ve personally got a growing curiosity on how this product will evolve, and how its management team will navigate the increasing global pressure around the use (or in this case enablement to programmatic use) of proprietary content. While such content is intended for public consultation, it often ends up being harnessed for training AI models.

This situation underscores the ongoing challenges regulators & industry standard setters have in establishing a generalizable, ethical framework for internet data collection that is at least somewhat deterministic, rather than being so high-level that it would brush near uselessness. As we can see in the news for the week ending January 2024 (read the recap below!), the complexities and debates surrounding the ethical use of internet data for AI development are far from reaching a resolution.

“With a 4-digit platform comes 4-digit responsibilities” - Still relevant

Last week I launched the year’s first community poll! The idea with this was to ask many of you a few questions (7 questions at most) to let me know what sparks your interest, and how I can improve the newsletter.

The Community poll is going to be open until the 8th of February, 2024, so please get in there and submit your opinions!

Thank you for being the best part of this journey. 💌

Some other notable news and product launches from this week

"Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last." - Samuel Johnson

Solving Product by Etienne Garbugli

Shameless confession team: I'm still reading the same book from last week's feature because of just how information-rich it really is. Wrapping my head around its entirety is taking me a bit longer than planned 😅. Solving Product has been a fantastic journey back through the fundamentals, and provoking quite a bit of thoughts on how I can add the most value wherever I’m employed. I do want to impress on you: This book is more than just a one-time read; it's a comprehensive resource that demands a loop of “Reading-> Reflecting-> Mental notes” to truly benefit from its wealth of knowledge.

Stay well, and until next week.

-✌🏽 Sam

P.S. Have tips or suggestions for a future issue? Get involved with the Community Poll

P.P.S. Interested in having me give you private feedback about a product that you are building? Send me an email: [email protected]