Bazooo is a social market platform designed to help users easily browse and interact with local demand and supply across various categories. Initially focused on local markets, the platform takes users' locations into account, enabling better connections between local sellers and buyers. Users can engage with each other through features commonly found in social media, such as likes, comments, bookmarks, and a built-in messaging system.
What sets Bazooo apart from other platforms is its user-friendly design, combining a social media-like interface with advanced search capabilities. Instead of requiring users to fill out complicated filters or forms, Bazooo makes searching effortless and intuitive. For example, a user can simply type, "Looking for an eBike near Bratislava," and the platform will use smart search technology to show the most relevant results. While basic search by title, description, and location is always available, Bazooo also offers a more advanced semantic search that automatically activates as soon as you start typing, with a subtle glowing 🫢 effect to highlight the intelligent search in action.
Key Features:
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Intuitive Search Experience:
Bazooo offers a powerful yet simple search experience that lets users search for listings without dealing with complicated filters. Just type what you need and let the smart search technology handle the rest. You can easily find what you're looking for, whether it's a product, service, or job listing.
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Local Community Focus:
The platform is designed to help connect local buyers and sellers. By using location-based filtering, Bazooo ensures that users find relevant results in their area, fostering stronger connections and building community relationships.
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Social Media-Like Interaction:
Engage with other users in a way that's familiar and intuitive. Like, comment, share, and message directly through Bazooo's built-in social media-style features. This makes interacting with the platform enjoyable and seamless.
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Ad Import & Conversion:
Bazooo allows users to easily import ads from other platforms using a simple URL, transforming them into fully interactive listings. With a streamlined process that involves minimal effort from users, ads can be imported, edited, and published quickly.
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Advanced Search Functionality:
Powered by semantic and vector-based search technology, Bazooo delivers highly relevant results based on natural language queries. Whether it's finding a specific item or service nearby or looking for something specific, Bazooo's search makes the experience effortless.
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Ad Management:
Create, edit, delete, or unpublish your ads with ease. Plus, if you want to upgrade your listing, there's the option to choose a Premium ad for better visibility.
As a developer, launching the product posed unique challenges beyond just coding. The question wasn't just about building the platform, but how to go from zero users and ads to thousands. Here's my strategy for addressing this challenge:
Strategy for Growth:
- Scraping Existing Ad Platforms – I started by scraping ads from existing platforms (such as Bazoš, popular in our region). All external content is transparently acknowledged, and users know where the posts originate.
- Email Campaigns – I send targeted emails to users with publicly available contact info. These emails showcase how their posts could look on Bazooo with a preview and a CTA to create an account and import their ad with minimal steps.
Technical Breakdown:
⚡ Ad Import to Platform:
- ⤴️ Find New Ads – I've created a script that collects URLs for new ads posted each day. This script runs every midnight, finding the ads posted the previous day and storing their URLs for the extraction step.
- ✅ Extraction Script – For each URL, the script extracts necessary data, categorizing it (e.g., purpose, type, section, category). If the ad includes an email address, it is added to a "Send Invitation" table.
- ⤴️ Create Ad – Once all data is gathered, a payload is created and sent to a server function to generate the ad on Bazooo. If the ad contains an email address, a preview is sent to the user's inbox.
- ⤴️ Ad Conversion – The user clicks "Publish" on the email preview, which redirects them to registration. Upon successful registration, the imported ad is transferred to their account and removed from the import table.
What's the scraper in action like?
Try the Demo and Join the Journey with Me
I invite you to be part of Bazooo's exciting journey from the ground up. The platform is in its alpha phase, and while there's plenty more to come, it's already offering a unique way for local communities to connect and interact. Try out the demo to experience the innovative search, simple navigation, and engaging social features that Bazooo has to offer.
Join me in shaping the future of local online marketplaces. Your feedback, ideas, and participation will help refine and improve Bazooo as we move toward a more dynamic and interactive experience. Let's build something amazing together.