Search engine a better way to look for used cars

Cargrabber is a search engine specifically for used cars, providing users the opportunity to find car according to make, model, color, price and other features that matter to someone buying a car. Although the search engine has only been in a soft launch since November, the original idea started nearly two years ago.

Co-founder Claude Morello got the idea for the search engine when he was always on the look out for second-hand delivery vans as the Director of FNET. Thinking there just had to be a better way to find used vehicles than to look at multiple websites individually, Morello and co-founder Chris Noone came up with the concept to simplify the process of finding used cars online.

“It fills the massive gap between Google and individual car websites,” Noone said. “It’s an opportunity to provide search engines specific to product categories.”

Noone said that the feedback from users has been great, and that Cargrabber has eased “the pain of searching a number of websites.” This feedback, Noone believes, demonstrates that people are engaged with Cargrabber and what it can offer.

One of these improvements that Noone and Morello are working on in this soft launch is to amending the categorisation of cars “priced on application,” or POA, so they appear in the appropriate searches.

“They currently come up in the $0-$5000 category,” Noone said. “But these are often new cars that are worth much more than $5000.”

Cargrabber currently provides results from six individual car websites, and impressions of the new service are across the board. Noone said that some have come to them asking to be a part of Cargrabber, but others are merely neutral or see the search engine as a threat.

Speaking of threats, what’s this mean for Google?

Noone emphasised that there’s a lot of development happening outside of the Google, and though the search engine giant is very good at what it does, it can’t be counted on to be good at everything.

“Google shut down its real estate search in Australia,” he said, referring to the property search tool that stopped in January. Google said in the Financial Times that it blamed “low usage” and the “proliferation of excellent property-search tools on real estate websites” for the service’s closure.

Noone said that the minimal knowledge he and Morello had prior to developing Cargrabber was helpful to its success, as they were able to develop the engine with “no preconceptions” and to assume “we could do everything.” This mindset provided the necessary open-mindedness and finesse to do the proper research about the “dynamics of the car classifieds business.”

The Universality of search engines lies in the specifics

“The development of this site shows the potential in search engines,” Noone said. “Specific product categories can’t have big machines.” Noone also emphasised that Cargrabber really focuses on the way people buy cars.

“The individual market landscapes are very different,” he said. “It’s not just about the technology but overlaying that with how markets work.”

Noone makes an excellent point, as the idea of search engines is more than just what people are searching for, but how they are searching for that information. Cargrabber also illustrates the importance of providing good information when a person utilizes a search engine. This extends past consumers looking for the right information to purchase a good, but in an academic context as well. Empirical research shows that search engines are becoming more and more ubiquitous for students searching for scholarly articles. So, the innovation behind Cargrabber is very much needed and applicable to other markets and uses as well.