

Ask HN: Review My Startup - grep42, a freelance job search engine - jagtesh
http://www.grep42.com
Hey guys, I'm the founder of grep42 which is a freelance/contract job search engine. The USP of grep42 is to allow freelancers to spend less time searching for the right job and more time working and earning. As of now one can search from close to about ~40k freelance openings from different job sites almost instantly. The speed is here to stay :)<p>I had been freelancing for a while before working full-time on this, so I've built this to be a product that I would use. I really hope other freelancers feel the same way. ANY feedback and feature suggestions would be HIGHLY appreciated!<p>Eagerly and impatiently waiting till then! :)
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jamesteow
Very cool idea. I'm surprised I haven't seen this done elsewhere.

Suggestions:

Would be cool if there were more options like, specifying a price range.

I'd also prefer more results per page instead of just five. I also think the
results could be designed a little bit more... like having a little more
leading and tweak the positioning of the meta-data so that it's a bit more
readable.

I'd also prefer some information on the job creator.

I love Krop.com because it allows me to scan job titles, company, and
location. I don't bring this up to copy them but rather to show how easy it is
to scan. Same goes with sidestep.com results: many different types of data in
one result but designed with care to scannability and a clear hierarchy.

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jagtesh
Very valuable points, thanks!

Although it's not yet possible to search an exact price range, its possible to
search for all jobs matching a certain criteria with a price >= X.

For example, if you wanted to look for all banner designing jobs worth, say
$500+, you could search the following:

+banner +design minbudget:500

I hadn't though about the job creator until you mentioned it :) Will work on
adding some info about them.

I really see what you mean with Krop.com and sidestep.com. It's a big
challenge, fitting in a lot of data in a meaningful way without overwhelming
the user.

You've given me a few good leads. I really appreciate it. Thanks!

EDIT: Sorry, this is the correct query: +banner +design minbudget:500

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edanm
Quick UI gripe - I'm not crazy about the "text inside the search box" UI
thing. I used it myself in a few places, but found that lots of people
automatically click on the search box, and their text disappears, meaning they
have no idea what they're searching for. Much better to just add a label
before the search box.

Another option is to keep the text until the users actually starts typing, but
I haven't tested that option too much - I'm afraid it might be confusing for
users, who don't realize they can start typing to clear the text.

~~~
jagtesh
Wow. Indeed, it is a bit confusing. A much better way would be adding a small
label at the top. But I'm afraid the whole UI will become cluttered with
several "small labels" creating a WTF UX :(

~~~
Qz
I think it would still look clean if you just move the inside the box text on
top or bottom of the search box.

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wwortiz
Simply adding this: A search engine that helps people find work on the
internet. (From the about page) or something similar right under the title
would make it much easier to get what it is at first glance

Some other feedback: the text descriptions for jobs seems a bit wide and hard
to read for me.

I think it would benefit from better text contrast (I find it hard to read
lighter grays on white.

Otherwise it looks interesting, though I don't see a startup point other than
sponsored listings.

~~~
jagtesh
Thanks for your suggestions! I'll add a sub-title below the logo as you
suggested. That's very good observation with the description text width, it
does seem a bit wide.

I've used dark grays in place of black to balance the contrast. I personally
find it more readable this way, but maybe I'm alone on this.

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rriepe
The name is a bit weird but I'm guessing you're okay with that.

For some reason, the page seems off-center. This might be my tiny resolution
combined with the feedback tab on the right.

Love the results page.

I would love to see some of the advanced search options incorporated into the
UI-- maybe on an advanced search page, though, so you aren't sacrificing any
simplicity.

I would maybe tighten the letter spacing between the g and r, and definitely
between the r and e.

~~~
jagtesh
Thanks :)

Hehe. The name has a story behind it. grep is a UNIX tool used for searching
files for matching text. 42 is the "Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question
of Life, The Universe, and Everything". So grep42 is a search engine for
searching the ultimate answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe
and everything ;) Well, maybe we'll get there someday!

I saw the page just now. It seems centered to me. What resolution are you
running at?

I am working on the advance search options UI atm. It's a tricky one. Cause
there's still some other things I need to figure out which could affect
advanced search. However, some of the capability is already there but it comes
without a UI (more here <http://www.grep42.com/faqs/>)

Thanks for the suggestion with spacings! I wanted to avoid images as much as
possible, but seems like I'll have to settle for a logo image to incorporate
the fine-tuning!

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JimmyL
I wouldn't bank on people getting what the name means, if that's part of your
branding strategy - if you're getting questions about it here (where I think
it's fair to say almost everyone knows what grep is, and most people have
probably read some part of HHGTTG), you can be sure that most people won't get
it.

Personally, I read it as "grep-for-2", which doesn't really mean anything.

~~~
jagtesh
grep-four-two is how I pronounce it too.

I feel its neither cliched nor easily comprehensible yet sort of catchy once
you're used to it. Its not something anyone would relate to at first; but its
an opportunity, a differentiator, an empty cup that could be filled with
anything. Once people start relating to it, they'd never confuse it with
something else :)

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znt
Creating a "telecommute" flag/checkbox would be very useful so people can find
international work easier.

~~~
jagtesh
Thanks, I'll put that on the growing list of enhancements :)

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jagtesh
I should've mentioned this before, it's in pre-beta phase right now. Feature
suggestions are welcome!

~~~
dinkumthinkum
It would be nice to be able to filter out different sources. For instance,
someone may have had a lot of bad experiences with oDesk so would rather not
even see their postings.

~~~
jagtesh
Thanks for the suggestion!

It's possible to do the inverse right now, pick results from a particular
source. Like you could search for "+php +facebook source:elance" (without
quotes) to get php+mysql jobs results from elance.

You can also specify a budget with "minbudget:[number]" shorthand. It will
search for all jobs with budget >= what is specified.

There's a third shorthand that lets you see only fixed-pay jobs or hourly jobs
"type:[hourly OR fixed]".

Its all written down here <http://www.grep42.com/faqs/>. Perhaps I should make
it more obvious?

EDIT: Sorry, the shorthand/filter "budget:[number]" should be
"minbudget:[number]"

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dinkumthinkum
Maybe all that stuff could be put in the UI, perhaps with a javascript popout
that has checkboxes, etc and then when the user enters the data, the code is
injected into the search bar. Just an idea.

~~~
jagtesh
Hmm. One thing's for sure, it's gotta be click friendly. I'm thinking drag and
drop, clicks, minimal typing..

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Qz
Wishing I could see more than 5 listings at a time.

~~~
jagtesh
This seems to be high on everyone's list :) I've made it 10/page. The page has
become much longer now.

Is 10/page enough or do want it to show even more results?

Any suggestions on the job result format?

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Qz
I think 10 is good, but would be nice if the 'more results' button just loaded
more directly into the page, instead of going to a new page. That way you can
keep track of things on one page instead of opening up a bunch of tabs for all
the listings you're interested in.

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suliamansaleh
kool app, do you think you can highlight(or bold) the search terms on your
search results, so users can see where thier keywords appear on the results,
it just makes it easier to look at :))

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jagtesh
Thanks! Great suggestion. I'll work on that :-)

Do you see yourself using it regularly?

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suliamansaleh
yeh defo, instead of me searching all these freelancing websites, i would
rather just have a search engine to do that for me, makes my life so much
easier ;)

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jagtesh
Awesome! Thanks :D

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iamaleksey
This is useful, thanks.

Would be even better with RSS/Atom feed.

~~~
jagtesh
Glad you find it useful :)

