BoatCrawler: A new way to search the sailboat market

[Ryban]

Originally Posted by AmericanVagrant

Cool program, I checked it out using the demo login. How often is the database refreshed? I noted that there are currently 12 active listings on SailboatListings and 4 on YachtWorld for the Albin Vega, but only 7 total appeared in your application.

Interesting... I believe this is a result of how the keyword search is done on SailboatListings. That website searches by manufacturer and model separately, and I'm currently using the keyword in the query for "model" only. So, some people will list the model as "Albin Vega", where others will list it as just "Vega".

Thanks for pointing this out, I'll work on something to address it. A work around for the time being is to just use the model of the boat for the query keyword -- when able.

Originally Posted by nematon785

Is the crawler capeable of eliminating sailboatlisting results based on date of post?

Most likely this is data I can easily gather and I can leave it to users to filter by date. I honestly don't know how many of these boats are still available. I've seen boats on the market for years go unsold, and others the owner or broker just never too the ad down.

Originally Posted by brendanwalls

It deletes the password as soon as you press register

Can you elaborate? I sure hope it doesn't! I haven't been able to replicate this behavior, but this doesn't mean I don't believe you.

Originally Posted by hafa

A few suggestions:

1. Make queries user-specific; we do not need to see other's queries.
2. Make terms consistent; you use "Size" in the query, but "Length" in the results.
3. In the Query, for Price, length and year, use drop downs or restrict to integers using regular expressions.
4. Make it clear that the price, year, length and location buttons on the overall listing are for sorting.
5. Differentiate the Yachtworld and SailboatListings buttons from the price, year, length and location buttons, as they filter, rather than sort.
6. Rather than restrict overall results, paginate them.
7. Remove the pulsing number on the query page. Very distracting.

Queries are user-specific. You shouldn't be seeing anyone else's queries. However, when you create a new account, I populate the account with a small amount of real data, just so the user can see examples and results right off the bat. You can delete these queries.

The issue with the overall results isn't so much having them on one page -- though this will probably get addressed with pagination at some point -- the issue is the server load and technical challenges when executing a lot of queries that return a lot of results.

The other suggestions will be taken into consideration as I iterate, thank you!

Originally Posted by DenverSailors

Amazing concept and I'm excited to see it mature. I have the same issue Aruban did. Am I simply too eager to access?

It sounds like the registration process needs a re-work. Make sure you validated your account. Then try the password reset if you are still unable to login. If none of that works, send me a PM and we'll get it straightened out

[ghendoaus]

Nice work very quick registration no issues and works good!

[Ryban]

Originally Posted by ghendoaus

Nice work very quick registration no issues and works good!

Glad to hear that!

[Sailmonkey]

Subbed to try from home!

[Kenatsea]

This is too cool. I wish it was available a couple of months ago when I spent hours and hours over 6 months looking for mine.

Ironically I found mine by word of mouth in the end.

Great job! Good luck evolving it.

Ken

[SV Bacchus]

Registration and login were simple, quick and BAM, I was surfing for our next boat!

Neat concept and works good. I did get more than 50 returns initially so I had to go back and narrow my criteria.

All in all, I like it.

[morrchr1]

Is this site down permanently?

[Ryban]

It's still up, but the domain registration lapsed because I've been too busy sailing. I'll provide a link tomorrow to the current location of the site.