New Features & Goodies

[Admin]

Introducing Pet Location Tagging

This is very exciting. We know it's already pretty easy to navigate this website, but we thought we'd make it even easier. We recently activated the "tagging" function and we've been busy applying different tags to as many posts as we can. Eventually, 99 out of 100 posts will have tags on their pages.

What's a tag? Well, it's a keyword. Sort of like a hashtag that people use on Facebook and Twitter. Let's say, for example, that you post an advertisement for a Pomeranian and you live in Ohio. You write your post and submit it for approval. We approve it and then add the tags, "Ohio" and the closest large city (if applicable). Then, when someone is on your page and they click either of these tags (right below the title), they'll land on another page with all the other ads that have similarly been tagged. It's a great way to navigate the website and it's going to help out tremendously as visitors search for pets in their surrounding areas.

The big question is why we're not handing this ability over to users of this website just yet. The answer is because we've tried that in the past and it was a nightmare. We ended up with something like 20,000 meaningless tags that were thrown in haphazardly. They only annoyed people and got in the way. This time around, we're handling it in-house and we're going to keep things very streamlined and organized. And limited. The key word here is limited. Too many tags is never a good thing.

Interested in checking out some of these tags? Go ahead. They're right here.

We hope you enjoy!

 

[Admin]

The Website Software We Use

We've had web properties online since 2004, so we know what we're doing with websites such as the one you're currently browsing. Believe me when I say this, there are many factors one needs to look at when deciding upon which solution one should choose to work with. While there are many free options for scripts and programs out there, those oftentimes miss the mark. Two of the most important factors we looked were longevity and support.

Since installing and setting up this forum, we've experienced nothing but pleasant surprise after pleasant surprise. The software is elegant, extraordinarily smooth and quite rich with its features and options. I actually just sent a support ticket to the software developers indicating such. Their response thanking me arrived in my email box seven minutes after I sent the ticket. Now, I'll tell you, that's attentiveness.

The forum software we're using was created by XenForo and is what I'd like to refer to as wonderful. The reason I mention this is because I want you to have the best experience as possible while browsing the content held here. If you bump into something that's unexpected, such as a bug or malfunction, please let us know immediately. If it's software related, we'll submit a support ticket to get it resolved. If it's related to something else, please still let us know. We'll hopefully find a solution for it as well.

 

[Admin]

Website Upgrade with Push Notifications

We have recently upgraded our website software with a new feature; push notifications. While there are other additional features, such as Font Awesome 5 support, markdown support, enhanced BB code features, editor button management and new inline spoiler and table support, the big exciting feature is to have push notifications sent to your device. This is huge.

If you aren't familiar with what a push notification is, it's basically a message or notification that's sent straight to your mobile device. You've likely seen them before. Instagram, Twitter and Gmail send them, among about a zillions others. Whatever the app, publishers can send these notifications at any time and users don't even need to be logged into the app or need to be using their device to receive them. With the amount and volume of activity that goes on inside discussion forums these days, I'm sure this will be a welcome feature.

To enable push notifications from this website to your device, look for a bar down at the bottom of this screen that says, "PetClassifieds.US would like your permission to enable push notifications. " You'll need to be logged to your account for that message to be visible and for you to take advantage of this awesome feature.

 

[Admin]

New Feature - Filter Your Pet Listings

Hello Everyone,

We've got an exciting new feature to share with you. I love this one because it's going to make your lives so much easier when it comes to you finding the perfect pet the quickest way possible.

Okay, the big challenge for pet classifieds sites like this one (and any ecommerce or classifieds site for that matter) has always been how to get all of the information we have stored in our giant database to you the way you want to see it. So, if you're someone who's looking for a new German Shepherd puppy in the state of California, how would you filter out all of the German Shepherds in all the other states in our great nation, while just leaving the dogs in California to browse through? We do happen to have a robust search feature on this website, but even that can't get you where you need to be as fast as the feature we just set up and are continuing to roll out across our entire site.

I am proud to introduce what's referred to as "Prefixes." Really, these prefixes are simple filters. If you take a look at the German Shepherds for sale category, you'll see a few of them in action right now. We've set up five or six of them to see how they work out. It'll take a few days of testing to make sure we want to roll this out everywhere and even then, it'll take some time. We'll start off with the larger categories first, such as Pitbulls and Yorkies, and then continue on with the smaller categories.

To use these new filters, all you need to do is click on one of them. So if you're looking for a German Shepherd in California, like I mentioned above, simply click on any California icon that sits to the left of any listing in this category. What this will do is filter out all of the German Shepherd ads that aren't from California, leaving behind just the ads you're interested in. This is sort of like the feature Amazon offers when you're searching for shoes. Find the shoe brand you like and then click size 12. All other sizes will disappear, leaving you with just size 12 shoes. It's so handy.

Once you click California, you'll notice that only California ads are showing in the category. If you want to remove that filter, all you need to do is scroll to the top of the listings and click the "X" next to the filter. That will bring you back to the normal view where all the listings show. Then you can click another state if you wish.

Please let me know what you think of this new filter feature and tell me if it helps with your search. I love reading opinions.

Thanks!

Jay