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Bobby Travis

This is a post by Bobby Travis, who wrote with me at 40Tech from 2009 through 2012. Bobby has since moved on to bigger and better things, but I've left all of his great contributions up on the site. - Evan

Latest posts by Bobby Travis (see all)

• Easy Access to US, UK Streaming Services From Anywhere - August 18, 2012
• 5 Fresh Android Games Released in 2012 - July 5, 2012
• Google Chrome Explodes On To iOS, Puts Desktop Experience In Your Pocket - June 30, 2012

I don’t know about you, but I rarely even look at a Craigslist post that doesn’t have a photo of the product attached to it. I don’t see the point. If someone doesn’t take the time to take a photo of what they’re selling, I simply don’t trust it — and I really don’t want to drive to wherever that person lives for a first look at my potential purchase, you know? Spotli has made my life easier by providing a visual search tool for Craigslist and other places to buy online.

I know that you can already filter Craigslist to only show items with photos, but searching Craigslist is not a pretty experience. At all. It’s uglier than Google — and that’s saying something. Spotli will take your search, even narrowed down to city-level, and display an eye-pleasing grid of images, complete with title and pricing information. Hover over the image that catches your eye and it will expand to a slightly larger size for easier viewing. Click on the image and you will go directly to the listing.

You might wonder what the point is of some of the other online shops (Ebay, Amazon, Best Buy, Buy.com, Overstock.com, Discount School Supply) — after all, they are already visual sites. I find that I like the interface of Spotli much better, however, and highly recommend that you give it a try. I would actually like to see even more stores added, as well as a Canadian option.

Spotli is fully usable without registration, even the Coupons & Deals section, but registering does give a little back, such as saved searches, minor Facebook Connect (to invite friends), and the possibility of more tools in future — maybe sharing functionality for found items?

My only wish for Spotli would be the ability to have my search term be persistent across all stores, so that I don’t need to type it in repeatedly when price-matching. If that were also integrated into the saved search functionality, Spotli could become the perfect shopping companion for me. How about you? What are your thoughts on Spotli? Know of any similar services?

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