Show HN: pinad.com.au - using structured data in general classifieds
Below I explain my reasons for creating this tool:
There are a lot of websites in the general-classifieds market that don't allow users to describe the objects they want to advertise and this subsequently leads to very poor search capabilities. To search in an efficient manner for an object, the object has to be properly defined/described first, it's characteristics have to be made visible. If no data descriptors are available, the search is transformed in pure full-text search. When data descriptors are available, the search can provide proper filters.
Let's take an example by describing a car...
...in an unstructured manner (this leads to full text search): "I have a blue Ford for sale with a 2.2 liters engine..."
...in an structured manner (this leads to filtered search): Item is: For sale | Manufacturer: Ford | Color: Blue | Engine size: 2.2
In the above example the unstructured data has been transformed in 4 filters which are pretty much impossible to replicate in a full text search.
The website has about 82 categories that provide proper descriptors to enable structured posting and structured search.
If you want to post test classifieds, please mark them as unavailable after you are finished with them (or add a "Test" in description, I will remove them later...) so they will not be indexed by the search engine
The indexing job runs every 15 minutes, you will be able to see your entry in the search results after that interval has elapsed.
The postcodes are available for Australia only, you may use something like "4000" for playing with it.
Please let me know your thoughts on this, I would really appreciate it.
For private feedback, please use the e-mail address available on my profile or the contact form on the website.
Thank you. Adrian