While Google and many classifieds sites keep trying to make search easier, search still remains an art as much as a science. With a tight economy many people are job hunting and looking for those affordable items – we’ll show you how, by investing a bit of time, you can be sure to find every single ad that meets your criteria.
But first let me prove to you how many people don’t know how to search. What I need you to do is go to a public library and hang around near the research desk – you will be amazed at the how many of the questions are simple questions – yet the person will note that they could not find this information on the Internet or in the catalog. Okay, so most of you are not going to run out and try that. So try this simpler approach where you don’t even have to leave home. Visit Yahoo Answers and look at what people ask about. There are tens of thousands of questions where the person could have found the exact answer they needed in seconds with a simple search instead of signing up for Yahoo Answers, typing in a question and then waiting for answer.
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No you don’t have to be a search expert for every type of search. If you are searching for used Honda Accords you probably won’t have much trouble finding them. Or maybe you want a job as a sales clerk – again these should be relatively easy to find. But what if you want a 2004 Blue Honda Accord with less than 75,000 miles or maybe you only want a sales job at one really cool “in” clothing store. If you have a very specific interest in a job, a car, a home or that special collectible then you can’t afford to miss even one advertisement. There may only be two opportunities that meet your criteria this month – can you really afford to miss one of them?
I actually stumbled onto this approach awhile back when a friend asked for advice on eBay. This person collects a number of different Disney memorabilia items. She was frustrated because one day she looked at the list of completed sales and found several items that she had desperately wanted. She was searching eBay every day and could not figure out how she was missing these sales!
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I offered to help, but made her promise to give me two hours. We sat down at the computer and went to eBay and went to a category of Disney memorabilia. We did no searching; we spent over an hour and went item by item through the several hundred items listed in that category. As we went along we kept a list of the items that my friend was interested in and we came up with a list of 12 items. It’s not like she was going to buy all 12 – some were priced to high, some had the wrong quality – but would want her search results to tell her about these 12 items so she could make that decision.
So next we went to her saved eBay searches and they only found 5 of these items. 7 of her desired items were not being found by her saved searches. She was indeed missing out on items just as she suspected. So we started tweaking her searches – adding in different keywords, took off some of the eBay search options like only search for ads that take PayPal. After around 20 minutes of tweaking we got her saved search to report 11 of the 12 items. (Stay tuned to a follow-up article on some of the tricks we used).
The last one took a bit longer as we both missed what should have been obvious – the seller misspelled the key word. But once we added the typo to the search, we had all 12 results. The moral of the story, come the holiday season my friend had all the items she wanted for her decorating and for gifts.
Some of you are wondering if the time is worth it and that truly is a judgment call – but if you want that job, that affordable but good quality car, that home in a certain neighborhood the better question is can you afford not to spend the time perfecting your search technique.
By David Silversmith
April 29, 2009
© Daype Inc.
Image credit: Jay Lopez
One Response to “Precision Classified Hunting”
Very interesting article David.
I know eBay spend vast amounts on search and finding and still the experience is far from ideal.
Classifieds are far worse – indeed the term “listing site” is ideal for them; you choose from a list of locations, then a list of categories, then a (huge) list of sub categories until finally you get to search a (huge) list of… listings.
Search really is as you say an art – even on google the first thing you do when someone comes to you and says, “I can’t find it – it’s not on Google!”? You load up Google and look for yourself.
Search on Google and classifieds is a learned skill, something you get from a little knowledge and a lot of experience.
I know there is a better way to search though, one that is intuitive, fast and accurate. Just give us a few more weeks…
