It’s been a couple of months since Gumtree released the beta version of their new site, Today they’re ready to unveil the 2nd version of the beta for with enhancements based on feedback from Gumtree users.
One of the key changes is the ability to drill down into local areas. For example rather than searching “London” for a flat, you can drill down into the specific part of London you wish to live in.
If you prefer to start with a localised search you can now either enter your full or partial Post Code, or by typing in your area name. Previously there was a drop down with a fixed set of major cities, but now if you live in Shoreditch, and want to find an item close by, you can simply type “Shoreditch” into the location search.
I live 25 miles from Reading and Oxford – my two nearest Gumtree sites, so the ability to search the RG18 Post Code where I live is brilliant. Instead of having to search either Gumtree Reading or Gumtree Oxford I can now search my local area. I have to say that for the long term success of Gumtree outside London Post Code search is key.
A common complaint was that pricing wasn’t visible from the Gumtree search results page – you had to click into an ad to discover it was out of your price range. An extra column has been added to the search results to display pricing. Also to help buyers and sellers the category structure has been tweaked.
Finally Gumtree have been fiddling around with their code to make pages load faster. Even with broadband I’m incredibly impatient when surfing the web and getting results faster is a sure fire winner in my book.
If you’ve not checked out the Gumtree beta site it’s well worth a browse, especially if you’re based in the City.
