Execution is everything and I have found that the ondevice index shipping with pixel devices displaying the title of the currently playing song on the lockscreen was such a better implementation than having to hurry up and remember where the shazam app is, open it, and try to identify the song (optionally having to try several times and store the sample for later when I have more network).
the reason i am being downvoted is because hacker news is fucking garbage now. too many insecure, underqualified jackasses looking for a reason to argue.
saying the algorithm "wouldn't work" without an app is like saying my door doesn't work without a doorknob.
OP made a point: Shazam is not magic, and people have the opportunity to compete or DIY. to me, it seems simple/contrarian/not helpful to respond with "they have an app too"
The point is that saying Shazam is just a button ignores the huge amount of effort that sits behind it. Not just the technology but more importantly the sales and marketing to get to the number of users they have.
Amazon or Youtube are not magic either. But good luck getting to that same scale without significant effort.
and saying "they have an app" is ignoring OP's actual point, which is all i am trying to defend. no one is calling into question the merit it's taken to build Shazam as a company.
how do i find myself defending the most ridiculous shit here?... like an algorithm can't work without a UI.
> guy 1: "index the Fourier Transform of all songs"
> guy 2: "[don't forget about] their huge database[!]"
how is this not contrarian? biz guy spotted? the dude straight up fucking said to build a database of "ALL SONGS". if you think that's simple you're either not thinking hard enough or you have no idea what he's talking about.