Just wanted to get some feedback on a new vehicle classifieds website that I built. The site searches for car, truck and motorcycle classifieds from approximately a dozen sources and then presents them in a clean easy to search format. Results can be filtered by year and location. Each vehicle model has its own RSS feed so you can subscribe to many and have them delivered to your browser instantly.

Anyway, the url is: www.ownster.com Please check it out. If you find it worthy, tell a friend. It's a bit rough around the edges and I welcome all of your comments and suggestions!

Sure would be nice to have and advanced search...

example: find all cars in a year range, or find all chryslers within 25 miles of a zip code.

Thanks for the input Peter. I plan on adding a year range type of search in the next few days. As for the zip radius search, it is not possible (at this time) since a good portion of the classifieds don't include a zip code in their RSS feed.

keep us posted.

Hi I did a search for some tires , I tried

525/550-18 and got 21 records found

did 5.25-5.50-18 and got well over the 250 and all over the place on what was for sale every thing but tires .

so I tried

"5.25-5.50-18" and again it was a lot of items well over the 250 but every thing but the tires in that size .

then the search that got 21 finds in
"525/550-18" and that again found the same 21 items , so I added the word tires and then it found 9 items .

So It seams to be all over the place and how would you get to look at all the adds over the 250 limet place just in case I did have some down time .

Then I put in the word Marbles and that should have had way to many hits but only came up with one and it SETOF 4 INDEXED CIRCLE TRACK TIRES (PHX) ,and the add said
THIS SET OF 4 IS COVERED WITH "MARBLES" NEED TO BE CLEANED OFF, LOTS OF RUBBER LEFT GOODYEAR EAGLES 26.5X10X15 .

So this might be some thing with remembering old searches I just had ?? but marbles should have went over the chart . may be I would have to refresh the browser every time ??? Mike

Hello mmuehlba. Thanks for looking and posting feedback. The results returned when searching for parts will only be as good as the titles/descriptions people use when creating their classifieds. If your search is not getting any results or not the results you'd expect, then it is because the sellers are not using 'your' search terms to describe their products. Make sense?

Furthermore, the parts search on Ownster.com is done in real time and takes longer to process than vehicle listings. That is why I only return 250 results. I'm trying to keep page response times to under 5 seconds. If there is need to bump the # of results up, I can do that with no problem.

Hi well it still seams to be missing things
search

"1990 Chevy 350"

84 matches cane up but did not find mine . Mike

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/pts/632335187.html

1990 Chevy 350 was running on Saturday - $400 (Lannon WI 53046 )

OK. I'm with you now. There are over 100 craiglist regions. One of my goals was to limit duplicate content since sometimes sellers post their classifieds in multiple craiglist regions. That said, I was only using the larger cities across the USA for my parts search.

I have since added Milwaukee and Richmond to the searches. If anyone sees a craiglist city that I should add, please let me know.

Thanks!

WOW well that was fast and just to check all I did was type in marbles and it did find my auction that way . Just the only thing I found my Reo in a lot smaller area and that to me was much to my advantage . Is it hard to get all of the areas listed as that would be something better than sliced bread . But so far not bad .

but I also then searched "Chevy 350" in quotes and it posted a lot but any thing with the word chevy or 350

and this is one a set of wheels for a chevy and the 350 was the price .

4 15"x7" alloy rims to fit small chevy truck or astro van excellent shape $350.00 obo call jeff @ 303.378.7234 or e-mail jdtravel46@msn.com


Good luck Mike

I've added a year range search to the site. I can't believe I forgot that. Keep the comments/suggestions coming. Thanks!

Gee, I think one make of car is left out!

how about finding by just "make"?

for example: I want to find all chrysler cars from 1900-1964.

Any chance you'll suppor that?

A few makes have been left out. What kind of car is that?

It is a Studebaker.

Leonard, that ride is cool. Studebaker, AMC, DeSoto and Packard are on my list of makes to add to the site. Should be there in the next few weeks. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

How about Crosley as long as you are adding.

Peter, the way the site works I search for makes and models at the same time. This gives me the most 'specific results' I can get. If I leave it open ended with just the make, you'll get some pertinent and many not-so pertinent results.

Because the titles of the classifieds are inconsistent at best (you can't expect sellers to follow any set rules can ya?), the current incarnation of the site's search capabilities (and retrieval methods) are likely the best way to search.

In the future, I might add "column" based sorting. i.e., sort results by title, source, location or price.

Hope that helps...

Leonard, look for Studebaker's on the site sometime tomorrow. I added AMC and DeSoto to the site yesterday.

interesting really. a good site to visit for anyone who loves cars...

_________________________________________________
bmw z3 oxygen sensor and bmw z3 strut, impressive.

Quick update. I added a 'Specialty Vehicles' section to the site. You now can search for antique/vintage cars, exotics, race/track cars, military cars and much more! I also added a generic 'site search' function.

I'd love to get more feedback on the site. Thanks!

If they are all on eBay why bother listing them on another site?

Because it takes forever to search through Craigslist all states. I wish this would be made a permanent sticky so I wouldn't have to keep scrolling through pages of stuff just to find this search engine to check for cars on a regular basis.

LINC400

Why not just bookmark it?

Peter

1937hd45

Its not just ebay... they also find cars on craigslist and other sites.

I tried it today and found it OUTSTANDING!
Additional tweeks you may add is icing on the cake.
Thanks. Steve

PS: in my one search, I found a part that has eluded me for over a year. (thank You)

Thanks for all of the positive comments!

Quick update: I've added Mitsubishi, Land Rover, Hyundai and Saab to the site. I've also added Kijiji.com as a classifieds source for cars and parts. Finally, I've added a 'Parts Car' section to the site that can be found in the 'Specialty' area of the site.

I tried that, but can't seem to get it to work. It saves the last search, but won't let you do any new ones. I might be doing something wrong, but on the other hand, I can't believe I am the only person interested in this search feature. So I see no reason why it can't be made a permanent sticky. No new members will get to see it if it is constantly buried 10 or more pages back.

LINC400... what browser? Bookmarking should be easy. BTW, I'm all for a "sticky" on this thread.

Another update: I added a "Misspeller" tool. Its a tool that lets you find misspelled auction and classifieds listings. Check it out by clicking the link below and let me know your thoughts.

http://www.ownster.com/index.cfm?type=Misspeller

I haven't been here for a while, but finally figured out how to bookmark on my stupid computer. I still think this should be a sticky.

Can you change the Packard listing so that you can just look up "Packard" instead of always having to choose a model? I am looking for a '56 2 door, and there is no way to look up 400 or Executive. I would think it would be easier to just look at all 1956's rather than make seperate model searches for everything.

Thanks.

Sticky! Sticky! Sticky! Make this post a Sticky...

LINC400, here is how content is created. I have a list of makes and models. Based on those makes and models, I comb the Internet for classifieds and auctions. That is why the pulldowns are set up the way they are. That said, if you can't find something, I would likely need to add a new 'model'.

As I am not that familiar with Packards, is the 'Executive' a model I should add?

Yes, the Executive and the 400 are the two Packard 2 door hardtops for 1956. The current searches do not include them in the results, and I am not interested in 4 doors.

Thanks

add a year range search to the site


http://www.increasingyourgasmileage.blogspot.com/

LINC400, I added the Executive. Give the site a couple of days to populate some results (if there are any).

gassaver1, there is a year range search. select any make and you'll see the year pulldowns.

for example, http://www.ownster.com/index.cfm?type=Car

Quick update... I hope to have Oodle.com classifieds integrated soon.

The Buick section would benefit from adding options for "Century", "Limited", "LaCrosse", and "Estate Wagon".

Thanks!

Thanks Centurion. I added LaCrosse and Century to the list. It will take a few days to populate results. With regards to the other 2 names, I've tried them before. Because the words are too 'generic', I get too many results that are not Buick related or not truly related to the wagon or the Limited and therefore it clouds the vehicle list.

Keep the comments coming.

any way to do a date range search?

Peter, yes there is. See the link below (as an example). See the Year 1 and Year 2 form pulldowns? They act as a filter depending on what make/model you select. As you can also see, you can filter be state as well.

http://www.ownster.com/index.cfm?type=Car&makemodel=101|117

Example need:

How can i search for all chrysler products from 1946 through 1948. Is there a way?

I would still like to see Packard "400" added. It was their top of the line hardtop in 1955 and 1956.

Linc... I added the 400. You should see results in a few days to a week.

Peter, I see what you mean now. I only have a make + model search for the site. You could always try the 'generic' search that appears on the top right corner of every page. Hope that helps...

so what would i type to find a date range?

Can you make the search engine find all Chrysler products between 1946-1948?

Peter, I'll take some time and look into it. Ownster.com was designed to do a 'make and model' search only. I'm not sure how hard it would be to retrofit the site to just do a 'make' search, but I'm sure it is possible.

Thanks for all of your suggestions.

I think with old cars its more common to search for a make by date range. SO it's worth building IMHO.