Presentation of my little new project: Slidoo.com
I have the pleasure to introduce you to a little new project I created with a group of friends and that I am sure some of you will find useful to use. The name is Slidoo.com and it’s an eBay search and notification service that will be soon expanded and include Amazon results too.
Why I create this:
I guess most of you use eBay (or Amazon) to find stuff. But it’s quite difficult to find some real deals on eBay. I will make you an example. Back in 2011 I noticed that every couple of months a polish store sold new Nokton 25mm f/0.95 lenses for 250 Euro less than the regular price you pay in the rest of Europe. I wished to have a tool where I could easily get notified when the auction is up. eBay gives you a service like that but it’s not nicely done and a bit annoying to use and customize. That is why I created Slidoo with a group of programmers that are actually close friends of mine.
How it works:
(Note: Slidoo is an officially approved eBay APP and we have access to their full database.)
First you have to login. Actually you can easily login by using your facebook or twitter account so that you don’t have to waste time on a new user name and password creation. On the notification settings page you can set your Location so that you can optimize the search based on where you live and buy stuff (like for example US or Germany and so on).
Coming back to my Nokton 25mm lens notification example I set my search here (Click this link). I want a lens in “new” condition, from “Europe” and “Buy it now” option only. The regular price in Germany is 950 Euro (too expensive for me). That’s why I want to get notified when the lens will be in Stock for le’ts say less than 820 Euro. As a registered user I can save this search and get notified when some new auction will be online within the parameters I set. I set a price range of 600-820 Euro because I wanted to cut out all the accessory stuff for the lens that usually sells for 150 or less Euro.
For USA friends I will make an example with the superb Olympus 75 f/1.8 lens. The lens sells for a regular price of $899. But two times I found them for sale for $100 or even $150 less and I set this search (Click here) to get notified when this happens.
Within the notification settings you can set how to get notified (via email, facebook, twitter or zero notifications). Important: You can also mark single products to get notified about price changes of the specific item.
The real time feeling:
I also wanted to create a search that works in real time. It means that you can use the sliders and results will change almost instantaneously! I found this very useful for example to compare the price of used and new stuff or to order the results by different options (for example price).
The future features:
This is a Beta version. Within one month we will add Amazon results too (used and new stuff). Within 3 months an iPad and iPhone and Android APP will be created. Along that stuff many little new features and small design changes will appear every week.
How you can help us:
I would be immensely grateful if you could try the website for a short period to see if that is actually a service you find useful or not. Of course it is useful for all stuff you search…not only for cameras and lenses! And please don’t forget that you can change the location search settings on that notification settings page. We worked hard on it and invested a lot of time to make it. You can also send your suggestions for new features and bugfixes at contact.slidoo@gmail.com.
So join and try out Slidoo.com! Oh…one more thing…can you spread the word to people you know that may be interested in using this? We don’t have money for advertising so we rely on your help to spread the news
Thanks a lot from Ale and his friends Andrea-Richard-Melle-Elena-Mate
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You can also join the Slidoo Facebook group and Twitter stream.
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eBay vs Slidoo
Some asked me to explain the difference between eBay notification service and the Slidoo notification service:
1) On Slidoo while you set the search parameters the page doesn’t get reloaded…you just slide. Try to set price and item status (like new or auction) on eBay. It’s a long time to set them forward and backwards!
2) on eBay you have to click through two times to reach your saved search list. On Slidoo you just hover your saved search item list and you have them all.
3) Notification is also customizable. For example you can set email or facebook notification or have no notifications at all (if you prefer to check the saved searches for yourself on web).
4) On Slidoo the frequency of the notification can be set too. On eBay you get notified once per day. Here you can get notified multiple times.





St.
6 months ago |It looks good, I’ll sure give it a try.
admin
6 months ago |Thanks a lot!!!
sedodon
6 months ago |That’s a very nice service. I think it will be useful for those who use eBay a lot. Too bad I can’t use eBay, haha.
Good job!
admin
6 months ago |You cna’t use why?
Miroslav
6 months ago |Don’t know about him/her, but in some countries it is impossible to pay via Paypal, while in others high customs or delivery problems make online purchases from abroad expensive or risky.
Good luck with Slidoo!
truc
6 months ago |I don’t use Ebay anymore. Too complicated.
admin
6 months ago |lol
Marco
6 months ago |registered! I’ll try it! Thanks!
admin
6 months ago |Grazie Marco!
Ego0
6 months ago |very interesting! waiting the Amazon integration!
i just have found an interesting offer on ebay ahahha!
regards from Italy
admin
6 months ago |Grazie anche a te Matteo
Ahem
6 months ago |Very clean interface. Not sure what it does other than eBay’s search already does – eBay already has a notification service with good filtering which I’ve used very successfully for years.
Some warnings:
Unfortunately you’re possibly breaking eBay’s (and Amazon’s) TOS in crawling and displaying their results on your website. If you haven’t run your site concept through a very good IP and contract lawyer, be prepared for a cease and desist.
Finally, your income from this site is entirely dependent upon the whims of one or two sites’ policies allowing your existence, and their success as platforms for your revenue. Putting all your eggs in one basket and all that.
admin
6 months ago |Hi!
We have an official partnerhsip with eBay and it’s an approved eBay APP.
admin
6 months ago |P:S.: THis notification service is easier because 1) to set parmaters page doens’t get reloaded…you just slide. 2) on eBay you have to click through two times to reach your saved search list. here you just hover your saved search item list and you have them all. 3) Notification is also customizeable. For exmaple you can set email or facebook notification or have no notifications at all (if you prefer to check the saved searches for yourself on web). 4) and the frequency of the notification cna be set too. On eBay you get notified once per day. Here you can get notified multiple times.
Ahem
6 months ago |Nice, good luck with the site!
Milan
6 months ago |It looks useful for people in US, but what about Europeans?
For example I want to search for stuff in EU based sellers (I don’t want to deal with paying import taxes and possible warranty issues). And in EUR currency (dollar can go up and down). Is this possible/planned?
Good luck with the project!
admin
6 months ago |You can go in your notification settings and set your country!
Check here: https://www.slidoo.com/user/notification-settings
Duarte Bruno
6 months ago |@Admin
What Milan is pointing is that we (people in the EU) shop eBay INSIDE the EU, not only in our country’s eBay.
I live in Portugal and I rarely ever log into ebay.com, I log instead to ebay.co.uk just because they have an “European Union” location filter.
Now let me tell you, your site’s interface is great and it works nice but for most of us Europeans that have had Customs issues it’s mostly useless until you include an EU option alongside USA.
I’m sure it’s much more relevant than the distinction between US and North America that you’ve implemented already.
BTW your notification has only 8 EU countries, mine’s not included.
admin
6 months ago |Hi Duarte! I will add more countries soon! Sorry if you have to wait a bit. It’s still Beta and we are working fast to improve it!
MK
6 months ago |Hi,
I really like the design and ease of use of the site — at first glance what is missing for me (but is available in the “default” ebay search functionality) is the option to limit the search by product area. I am more interested in new auctions for used products, especially for some of the rarer stuff that does not come up that often — if I can’t limit this search by product area I get a lot of filters/lens pouches etc. if I am really only looking for the lens….
(sorry if I just missed the functionality — I only tested it for a couple of minutes)
admin
6 months ago |Hi!
We plan to introduce a category filter in future
Duarte Bruno
6 months ago |I don’t need my country added. What I need is an EU option please.
Thanks! ! !
admin
6 months ago |Eu option is given! Just select Germany and than slide to Europe. Or is this not the same?
Duarte Bruno
6 months ago |Perhaps I’m not being totally clear.
We need an EU option on the Location filter on the Main Page.
Otherwise as I said before the search is useless for most Europeans who want to avoid import taxes.
admin
6 months ago |DIdn’t get that. May I can contact you via email to ask you what you mean? Because when you login you can set an European country and after that set an EU filter.
Duarte Bruno
6 months ago |I’m sorry. My bad.
Since my country wasn’t available and since I didn’t have great interest in the notification system, (I didn’t go there for notifications, I went there for pure search) I didn’t see any point in setting my country.
Now I tried choosing Spain and voilá! EU filter immediately available.
Sorry again for the deaf conversation.
Perhaps the country option would make more sense not under the Notifications Settings but under My Account. Or perhaps an auto-detect location for those who haven’t set location might be useful.
Thanks again. Great site.
Christian G
6 months ago |Great work, Ale!
LTH
6 months ago |already tested and adopted, great tool, thanks
would be even better with shipping costs displayed
admin
6 months ago |We may add this soon!
Andy Bryant (@andybryant)
6 months ago |Indeed… 2nd vote for shipping costs
Don Wiss
6 months ago |Camelizer at: http://us.camelcamelcamel.com/camelizer
Already has price notifications for Amazon.
admin
6 months ago |Yep thee are similar websites. But put our focus on easy clean display of results and easy real time slider search. Also Notification service works differently.
indieVISUAL
6 months ago |Congrats!
Have never used eBay myself, but I’ll give a try
John
6 months ago |Here is another idea for a filter:
- free shipping (yes/no)
Especially when ordering from HongKong, etc. it changes the price dramatically (in case shipping is not included)
admin
6 months ago |Ok, will put this on the list of next features! Thanks!
Anonymous
6 months ago |The main issue I have is that I can’t pick a category to search in. So auctions with $0.99 start points go missing because they are in between super cheap items.
admin
6 months ago |Yep. Category should be addedd soon. Anyway, auctions only become interetsing when they go in a certain price range. Before you won’t make an offer on it anyway.
vincas
6 months ago |looks very promising! just one note – price range slider becomes wery small at low price range. Price range could be true logaritmic or something like that
vincas
6 months ago |price + shipping would be nice to see also:) and sorting by that!
admin
6 months ago |Ok will add that to the features list! Thanks again guys for all feedbacks.
admin
6 months ago |Yep, we have to fix that. Still dont’ know how…
Theeky
6 months ago |Very good page! I’m been using it for a wile now..
Just add Portugal to the countries plz!
Duarte Bruno
6 months ago |@Admin
Yes, Portugal is missing but a LOT MORE relevant EU is also missing. See my post above about EU.
Andy Bryant
6 months ago |Would be good to get the max length search string increased. Looks like about 350 chars before it starts to crap out. I have a search that I’m trying to run for BOA hiking boots – but most of the time the lister doesn’t list hiking… so I have to search for BOA and then -exclude all of the equine and snowboarding hits manually – making the search string rather lengthy.
512 chars should do it
admin
6 months ago |Thanks! Forwarded this to the Programers!
Anonymous
6 months ago |Great idea, but I cannot save any of my searches or click into ‘Notifiction settings’ for some reason.
It keeps saying I must be logged in (I am already logged in).
Please advise…………….
admin
6 months ago |Hi! May I ask where you logged in from?
Rsilva
6 months ago |what a great idea! I search ebay a lot and always set a maximum price limit! This will be a helpful tool.
Nuno Cruz
6 months ago |Great project! Thanks
metalaryeh
6 months ago |@ admin
Very useful site/app. Well done. One thing I would like is a slider to control the auction time. For instance, I might want to have it only show auctions that are ending within an hour but also have it sorted by price.
Very impressive,
Thanks
admin
6 months ago |ok!!! We can do that!
mw
6 months ago |Really excited for amazon to be added to this!
Techfreak
6 months ago |Wow, that’s a nice tool. I was just looking for new lens and manual search each day takes a lot of time.
Will mention it in my tech blog, a very useful tool.
CL
6 months ago |I’ve signed up and passed along the word to several friends across the US. EXCELLENT job and really helpful and cool program. Amazing! Thanks for making it!
Ego0
6 months ago |Ok, thank to Slidoo i’ve succesfully completed an auction at incredibile price on Olympus XZ-1 here in Italy! I didn’t know about the notifications on Ebay, but the slidoo’s one are very easy to use, and i think it’s even easier to browse and search products than ebay itself! what is missig: Category!!!!
admin
6 months ago |Yuhuuu! Grazie!!!!
admin
6 months ago |We will add category soon!
bilgy_no1
6 months ago |Well done! Congrats on another great idea. If you apply the same dedication as on 43rumors, it will surely be a success! You deserve it…
eyal flantsreich
6 months ago |using and loving it….
thank you!
ps.any chance of iPhone app?
Spencer Salva
6 months ago |This looks nice, but I still find myself preferring to use http://www.browsepic.com because of the continuous page and higher density of results.
Hendrik Demey
6 months ago |Have been using Slidoo daily, great search engine!!!!
Two remarks:
- Can You put shipping options in the small results window? That way, we could eliminate results where the seller refuses to send the goods to other countries than those specified.
- Same thing for Paypal accepted or not: payment by Paypal gives the buyer some extra security. When Paypal is not offered, we could eliminate those items from the search results.
OMega
6 months ago |I do not see the point in including Amazon, I’m sure there are good dealers among them but from first hand experience there are far too many bad ones. These dealers show items as in stock, which encourages you to purchase (If the price is right), then you discover they do not have stock but have accepted your payment One case, I purchased (or thought I had) a 45mm Zuiko lens, once my money had been expected I was informed that there would be a delay, this delay went on for over four months, complaints to Amazon went without response, and due to Amazons set up you are unable to contact the dealer direct, everything has to go through Amazon. So please, please don’t let Amazon in on Slidoo.