What Shopping Search Engines Can Learn from Etsy
For the record, Etsy is not a comparative shopping search engine and it does not spider the web for results. Etsy is a self-contained shopping site. In fact, it’s a specialty site which explicitly states: “Your place to buy and sell all things handmade”. As such, it’s not a true apples-to-apples competitor with the likes of DealTime and Froogle. As we’ve seen though, that doesn’t stop Etsy from having a lot to offer these larger sites.

You’re in Control
Etsy is all about control and options. They know that you know what you’re looking for so why make it difficult? Despite now apparently becoming the age of Ajax, Etsy goes back to an old school interface: in fact, the only dynamic control on the internet that works the same and looks the same in every browser: flash.

Due to the fact that flash-content is largely uncrawlable, we in the search industry have learned to shudder at the word “flash”. The fact is though, that flash is still a wonderful medium and allows for some amazing visually stimulating tools. Also, in Etsy’s case, it’s only the tools that are made from flash. All of the real content is completely crawlable.

Etsy’s flash interfaces are very controllable and intuitive. In some of them, your scroll-wheel even lets you zoom in and out. (I can’t use my scroll-wheel for anything in any Ajax application I’ve ever tried!) If you have multiple items visible in one of the flash interfaces, you can move the items around by clicking and dragging.

Update: The new Yahoo! maps (beta) also zooms in and out via scroll-wheel. Nevermind. Yahoo! maps are flash also.

Here’s my favorite feature so far: if you want the item out of the way, you can drag it and toss it, and it goes off-screen! Unwanted items don’t stick around hovering in corners and cluttering up the landscape.

You Deserve More Than a White Box
Etsy shows the big-boys what product searching should be like. Not that I have a problem with the ubiquitous white text-based search box, but don’t you also want more from your product searches? Again, you already know what you want. You probably have a clear picture in your head before you even start searching. Why not be able to search by those criteria?

Teal or Aqua-Marine?
If you want something of a hard-to-describe color, wouldn’t you rather point to the color rather than describe it? I’m a guy! I don’t know that what I’m looking for is what Martha Stewart apparently calls “Mauve.” Furthermore, I’ve never found a single use for Crayola’s Burnt Sienna crayon. But if I know I want something to match my couch, just let me point to the part of a color-grid that’s the same color as my couch.

Washington State or Washington, DC?
Likewise, when you’re part of a community, you know where on a map to point. Why play this search guessing game: “Does this engine consider my voting booth to be in the north part of the city, or the north-east part?” Or: “How much information do I have to give before this engine knows which Springfield I mean?” Knowing these locations are visual ideas and Etsy lets you search visually.

But I’m Used to the Other Way
Every internet user is used to structured categories and searching by content and/or meta-data. Why rob us all of what we’re comfortable with? This is a shopping site; why not let the user set min/max price ranges? Search with advanced features. Search only in items’ title and/or description. You’re used to this way and it works. If it ain’t broke...

No worries, Etsy still has all of that and more. They have great categorization and even have an RSS feed for each category. As for traditional white-box text-searching, they have that too. Meta searching, search in title and/or description, set price range, search by seller: it’s all there. Since Etsy specializes in handmade items, it makes sense that it also includes searching by material.

Imagine how much easier it would be to search for products if all searches had Etsy’s benefits. What if you could search Target.com, eBay, or Froogle by color... What if you could find user groups or search MySpace by clicking on a dynamic map...

If you still want nothing more than a white rectangle, you have a thousand generic options on the web. As for me, let me search how I think instead of making me think like a search engine.

If you want to learn more about what Etsy is, read Etsy’s FAQ or check out SEOmoz’s review.
Robert McRackan | permalink | +marktd |