New classifieds site, now in Beta

[Stuart]

We've been working away in the background on the new PistonHeads classifieds site since the New Year, and for the past couple of months testing with a reasonably large group of PHers. All the issues and feedback with the last (admittedly disastrous) launch have been taken on board and acted upon.

The site is now in beta so that we can test performance, flush out any bugs and see how everyone gets on with it.

At present the beta site only lets you browse for things, so there's no ability to upload cars for sale. It takes cars for sale from the old site as its reference point (although there will be a few differences because the old site isn't tremendous at removing stuff which has expired) so you might see a little bit of lag after you upload a car for sale on the current platform.

Anyway, we'd like you to have a play. We're not planning to replace the old site with this one immediately, and hopefully you'll see plenty of improvements over what we launched before Christmas, specifically:

- Nice big images.
- Improvements to look and feel
- Works on iPad
- Performs well with lots of traffic (although this phase is specifically to test this in the real world).

If you notice any bugs it'd be good to have as full as possible a description, ideally with the browser and OS (ie Firefox, PC) mentioned as well.

http://beta.pistonheads.com

Thanks,

Stuart + the team

[Stuart]

DanDC5 said:

Is there a search part ex option on there? Can't seem to find one, and IMO it's the most useful searche on the old site.

yes there is. It is one of the additional filters. This search has it enabled. That is admittedly slightly more fiddly than on the current site, but the actual number of people who use Part Exchange search is very low indeed, and we didn't want it to get in the way of the free text search. Would welcome your thoughts on how well this works.

http://goo.gl/MVq4v

One of the things not on the site yet, but only because it hasn't cleared testing yet, is the equivalent to this page on the old site.

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/index.asp?c=13

That should be live in the next day or so, and it works in exactly the same way.

[Stuart]

kayzee said:

I thought PistonHeads had reconsidered after all this time, the current ones just work perfectly!

Unfortunately my browsing will now go out the window as Javascript and Flash are not installed nor allowed on my computer. For instance I can't even use the beta site as I can't click on the X for 'Close this help screen'

Will there be any alternative to use? For instance when they changed AVForums I could not longer log in, but admin sent me a link to the old style log in screen and it still works fine for me so I was happy with that!

There isn't any flash on the site at all, but you're not allowed Javascript? A lot of people have it disabled because of ad-blockers, but they should be able to add PH to the exception list without any problems. Presumably it must affect a lot of your browsing of other sites too? Just out of interest, what sort of office environment are you in where things are locked down to that extent?

At the moment we've no plans to introduce a site with no javascript, and whilst the old site will still continue for a while, it will ultimately be retired. The only thing I can think is that perhaps the mobile site (which can be accessed easily from a desktop) might work?

[Stuart]

kayzee said:

I work in the NHS. Maybe not the perfect time for browsing PistonHeads but tbh I spend most lunch times on here! Just for reference, Autotrader & Gumtree work fine here, however I have trouble with eBay... most options for selection do not work and I can't enlarge pictures.

I got past the front screen by refreshing. It seems all I cannot do atm is that 'Sort by' & 'Results per page' do not work. And if I select vehicles, I cannot removal individually, nor by clicking on 'Remove all'. Also, when I click on enlarge picture I get re-directed to a site with a 500 Internal Server Error... is this a problem my end or simply a function not yet in use?

The mobile site is indeed an idea, but afaik you can't do 'Advanced' searches is that right? Use it quite a lot!

That first screen is just a temporary thing, and as you say goes away with a refresh. With JS unenabled you should just see everything - so JS just controls how much of all the filters in the background you see.

We'll find a workaround to the picture error - it loads in a JS gallery, so I'm sure we can find a no script fix. The rest of the site has been built with no script in mind, albeit not as the primary target.

The mobile site doesn't let you do advanced searching at present, but it will do.

S

[Stuart]

Vantagefan said:

Stuart, is a mileage filter a possibility? Ranked from high to low?

Mileage is there as a search filter, but I'm sure that we could add it to the sort list, yes. We'll add it to the list.

[Stuart]

rodgling said:

Looks good. The filters would benefit from more flexibility, e.g. I want to be able to select more than one option for number of cylinders. Or maybe specify "at least X cylinders".

Fuel economy seems not quite right, instead of having 20-30, 30-40, etc, I think "Over 20 mpg", "Over 30 mpg", etc would be more use - if you want at least 20 mpg you don't want to exclude 35 mpg. Better still, just have a text box where you can type in a minimum?

More categories would be good. Weight and power-to-weight would be my first choices.

Good feedback, thanks. We'll continue to work on those filter boxes - some (such as colour and the ability to select all/some/all) are evolved significantly, others less so. We'll get there with them though.

[Stuart]

"Also Found" returns up to four results:

1. A similar car from the same category.
2. A car with a similar price and within a certain % on other criteria such as performance.
3. & 4. - Similar performance criteria (I think)

We'll keep tweaking this, and we'll try to keep it PH in focus - there's certainly no nefarious plan to make you look at dealer stock or anything like that. It's supposed to be an entertaining way of suggesting other cars to look at. It also has certain random wonkiness to it which we think is quite PH...

We play "Also Found" bingo in the office. Just keep clicking the car on the far right, and you get taken on a slightly random but usually entertaining journey. Perhaps not so good if you're only looking for a 4 cyl diesel estate in silver with leather, but a nice way of killing a lunch hour in random style...

[Stuart]

Oops, responded at the same time as Pete...

[Stuart]

williamp said:

Looks very smooth, well done.

A little bit of lovelyness which would be nice: on ebay its great to list all "classic cars" and spend a few hours browsing with an imaginary amount of cash.

Is there a chance that those who want to list their car to be automatically listed here if its older then a certain age (good luck agreeing on that!!) or they can click a button to be included in this section??

Nice idea, although from my experience running Classic & Sports Car mag the definition of a classic is such a subjective thing that it'd be hard to decide what qualifies.

You may have noticed a few links to pre-populated searches (such as "fast estates") and this might be something we could do here. So it could be something very simple such as anything pre-1973 (and labelled "Road Tax Free") to classic cars by make ("Classic Mercs" for example).

The next phase of the beta has the ability to save searches and send/share them. We'd like to get people creating searches and then sharing them here in the forums.

One of the things to do first though is fully bottom out the data facets. We're reliant to a large extent on a VRM look up which returns manufacturer specification data against the car. The older the vehicle the less complete this data is, so in the second phase of the beta (which we're working on in the background now that this bit is live) we're working on the ad upload tools. Basically we return all the data we have on the car, and then let the seller modify it/fill in any missing gaps. We'll need to experiment with how much of this we can get away with making compulsory. Clearly the more data the seller can supply, the better their car will perform in search. At the same time, we don't want to put people off by making it too difficult to upload a car.

Very long answer to a simple question, but hopefully it gives you some insight into our thinking.

Right, I'm off to the pub. Long week. needed.

[Stuart]

TheOrangePeril said:

I don't care what SMMT says - "2002 02 Reg FIAT PUNTO 1.2 5DR-LADY OWNER 3 YRS-FULL ELECTRICS-M (2002)" does NOT do 0-62 in under 4 seconds.

Flawed system much?...

It says the same thing about Hyundai Tucson too. As I said above, we need to work through and find these little idiosyncracies and correct them. It does make you wonder how this affects insurance quotes on this sort of thing...

[Stuart]

jpduggan said:

This site is such an improvement over anything else I have seen out there, so well done. I hope it performs this well in production.

One thing I really like about your current classified section is that I can look at all the 997 GT3's my heart desires in one click. i hope that the vastly improved classified site could co-exist with the simple one somehow.

I haven't tried, but is there a way to save search criteria? If I am looking for a 3-series, I would only ever consider an M-Sport with a manual transmission. Can I save that search under my user-id?

Can I save cars that are of interest to me?

Thanks for listening, and keep up the good work.
-Jerry

Jerry,

Welcome to PH. Top lurking!

To answer your questions in turn:

1. Yes you can still deep dive quickly into GT3s. The links are there on the home page just like on the current site.

2. You can save searches, but we haven't switched that on yet. At present this Beta is only about searching, rather than uploading cars or anything which would need a login, and these bits are next. However if you look on the right hand side under the ad you'll see your three most recent searches and you can click on these to perform the search again. When the save functionality stuff is live you'll be able to save any of these, and there'll be a screen to show you all your saved searches. You'll be able to use this to set up email alerts for any new cars matching that criteria, and also email searches to someone.

3. Yes, you can bookmark cars, although again that's not live yet. You'll also be able to leave notes about a car as an aide memoire (these are just for you though and not public). So if you're searching for a particular car you can remind yourself why it might (or might not) be worth looking at.

[Stuart]

Mermaid said:

Stuart, are you not off to the Pub?

Waiting for my daughter to go to sleep.

[Stuart]

thewheelman said:

I like the format, but it seems i can no longer list an advert for free. Odd, as i've held this account for quite some time. I did hold an account previous to this one that has been dormant for 6 years or so.

Send me a PM with any email addresses that might be linked to it and I'll see what I can dig out for you.

[Stuart]

These threads move so fast you've really got to stay on top of them...

Switching off now though - the wife will kill me.

[Stuart]

Jonboy_t said:

Haven't read the whole thread, so these may already have been mentioned:

- Any chance of adding (or letting me know where it is, if I've missed it) a filter to search for just Saloon/Estate/Cab etc?

Already there. Under "Bodystyle" as a more filters option.

Jonboy_t said:

- I keep getting an 'Ah, something odd is happening' error. It may just be the search that I'm doing, but apparently there were 400+ cars available according to the counter.

Other than these, looks like a good improvement!

Could you post a link to the search you're doing?

Thanks for the good feedback.

[Stuart]

Don1 said:

Clicking into a particular car you want to search on, why does it still have the search boxes at the top of the page? Just wastes screen space IMHO.

It is a good point, but if we removed them then the site would end up jumping around all over the place as you were flicking between search results (where you might want to use filters) and the ad detail page. I'm not sure there's a way around that.

[Stuart]

Don1 said:

Could it work like a direct link rather than a filtered search?

It is a direct link, so you can post links to the car elsewhere just as you can now. It's just that the filters are part of the universal navigation around the classified site, along with other elements (some not yet showing) on the right hand side showing your recent searches, ad account etc etc.

[Stuart]

Evo said:

Now that is what i call the PH classifieds. Just had a damn good search which lets face it, I regularly enjoy searching for cars just for the enjoyment of looking lol.

It worked faultlessly,

The operation was logical, quick to respond, and i'm really impressed with that the car information before you click into each advert tells me all i need to know, price, mileage, snapshot description.

I was really disappointed at the first attempt to change over but this time guys (and girls?) you've done yourself proud.

Well done to all involved, just one more thing.

Thank you.

[Stuart]

Jonboy_t said:

Nope! Don't know how to! Is a screen grab any good?

A copy and paste of the URL in your address bar to me via PM would be great.

[Stuart]

dave8 said:

Stuart, As an advertiser and a looker..I dont understand why you would want " Pistonheads also found" at the bottom of the page..as an advertiser I dont want my cars featured and then you offer an alternative and If I ask for a specific make / model why show something completly different..We are a Mustang Specialist and you are saying have a look a these..

The principle of it is not to try to deter people from buying your car, or anyone else's. If that were the idea then we'd be putting these at the top of the search results in an artificial way.

The idea is that we simply give people a little bit of inspiration and keep them looking at cars for a little longer. Nobody is paying to have their stock in those positions and the other way of looking at it is that your stock is as likely to be put in front of people who might otherwise not have seen it.