Inspiration
The pain of trying to remember something but being unable to google it.
What it does
Corpus is a new approach to search engines: it pulls in all of your data through plugins, allowing you to recall information with only the faintest query. It brings far more context to your searching experience.
How I built it
Corpus is a mac app written in Objective-C which subprocesses plugins (currently written in node.js but language agnostic in design) to query your data based on natural language input.
Challenges I ran into
- Listing and making sense of the sqlite databases full of text messages from iPhone backups.
- Designing plugins to be versatile.
- Interfacing with GroupMe and searching efficiently.
- Making such an unusual interface for a mac app, with a nonstandard interface and a global hotkey.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
Getting past all of the above challenges to make a working product in only 36 hours.
What I learned
About various APIs, node.js, and mac apps.
What's next for Corpus
More plugins, UI refinements, the Mac AppStore, and profitability.
