In this economy, everyone is looking for a good deal. Startup TinkOmatic (currently in private beta) allows deal-hunting consumers to search and track classifieds or auction sites for multiple items at once, all in one location. Tracking classifieds on Craigslist or deals on Ebay can be overwhelming and tedious to consumers and TinkOmatic is hoping to provide an easier way to view these listings (The first 500 readers to enter the code “techcrunch” will get access to the beta).
The search aggregator application allows users to find items on Oodle, Kijiji, Ebay and Craigslist (Which opens in a new window). TinkOmatic also allows users to add RSS feeds from Trulia, Google Base and others to track items, jobs, apartments and cars. The results from each site are displayed in separate panes, a.ka. TinkBoxes, within the page. The user can access the site-specific searches (on Ebay or Craigslist) by clicking on the corresponding TinkBox. Searches can be limited by both location (TinkOmatic offers over 20 geographic locations) and by type of item. All searches can be saved and refreshed whenever the user accesses TinkOmatic. The site also enables people to create advanced search filters within their RSS readers and TinkOmatic searches featured on the site.
Here’s a instructional video about the site:
One economy-relevant feature is the ability to hunt for jobs, track listings and have the job searches updated each time a user logs in to the site. And of course, it’s a useful tool to organize updated multiple classified and auction searches in one area. In theory, it’s sort of similar to Trackle, NotifyMe and Yotify, except devoted to a concentrated area. On the downside, TinkOmatic’s interface is fairly basic and could be spruced up to offer more features like email alerts. But it’s certainly a good start.
simple interface, but I like that too. Looks like something I will use.
tinkomatic has been awesome helping me hunt for a scooter… another one of those sites that had me thinking, ‘why hadn’t this been done earlier?!’
nifty site but i think the best alerts are still the ones native to the search site itself. so if i’m searching for a deal on a house, i think the native search funcs on trulia would do a better job given the domain understanding. likewise, if you look at iseecars.com which searches car classifieds, it applies domain specific factors to look for car deals.
TinkOmatic is loading suuuppperrrr slowwwww….
Maybe that’s just a side-effect of getting techcrunched!
Not sure what happened to my earlier comment, oh, well… I was trying to say:
I wonder how long until Craigslist blocks their IP address or domain as a referrer. Craigslist hates sites like this, not sure why, but they do.
The dutch are the worst. If you’re going to create a tutorial video in English, it would be much better delivered by an American or Brit. YUCK!!
web30: We’re targetting heavy classifieds/auctions users who search for a lot of items on a lot of sites – alerts can be overwhelming/inefficient when you’re getting so many of them.
These users are able to import searches from sites such as trulia, indeed, or simplyHired – and leverage tinkomatic’s dashboard-style presentation and advanced filters.
If you’re looking for just one item that can be well-defined and that is in no short supply; then specialized sites might be the way to go for you.
B. Ackles: sorry about that – the initial load can sometimes be slow (we’re working on that); subsequent access should be fast.
Ian Drake: we took a very close look at CL’s TOU and we’ve had discussions with them. We believe we’re in compliance. We should basically be an RSS reader as far as they’re concerned.
Sam: if you had said that my voice irks you, I would have understood… But having a problem with foreign accents, I’m not sure what you’re doing in the tech world.
David
TinkOMatic
I thought that, from the title, “job hunt more organized” meant that TC was finally going to write about a job search organizational tool….
My site, JibberJobber.com, is a job search org tool to replace the job search spreadsheet. There are a few others out there, I think mine is the oldest (updated frequently, of course
).
Experiencing Tink-O-Matic makes you wonder in amazement at the limitations of popular search engines. A great start.
How can we get an invite code for the private beta?