Kroobe – Social Classifieds

14 thoughts on “Kroobe – Social Classifieds”

1. I like the fact that it is very colorful and simplistic. The only thing that I do not like is the fact that I feel like everything on the page is trying to fight for my attention. Slightly too many icons on the same page. The search is extremely simplistic and very easy to use. I searched for a few different items and was brought straight to what I would have been looking for had I been using this site. I believe that this site, given enough time and marketing, could take down sites like craigslist.org. It is just very appealing in the fact that its so simplistic and not crowded. Although, until I started searching I thought that it was a social networking site based off of the Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn logos so you might want to partially rethink the homepage. Other than that I do believe if I had anything to sell I would use this site. Very nicely done.

2. 1)  What is your initial impression of what you see?Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?

   My initial impression is that this is a legitimate site. The familiar icons of Facebook, twitter and linked in help to give further credibility to the site. The site has a very simplistic feel and is not overly cluttered with text. The rounded edges of the search bar add to the friendliness and security i felt when first viewing the home page.
   I am straight away drawn to the “click to browse” tab because browsing an index is the first thing i do when visiting a website to get a feel for what information the website contains. If anything, this button could be a bit bigger/ more obvious as I believe browsing is a good way to get a scope for what they can expect from the website. I might also add that i found the information architecture in the “browse” drop down tab intuitive and straight forward.

   2) Search for a any keywords. Did you find what you were looking for?Was the process straightforward?
   I searched for “T-shirt” and got 2 results, neither of them actual T-shirts for sale but thats to be expected if the site hasn’t been around for long and is still building a client base. The process was straight forward and i could always find my way back to the original search list after clicking through a few options that came up.

   3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free trial/free account? If not, why?
   As an Australian, it does not seem practical for me to sign up at this stage as most results that yeild tangible goods (i assume) are from the U.S.

   4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like craigslist.org and oodle.com?
   Craigslist is definitely a little cluttered with text but its widely acclaimed and is generally well received without marketing or advertising to raise awareness. As a competitor for a service that is already available, marketing and advertising may be the decider as to whether Kroobe surpasses its competitors 

   5) Did the language pre selection made the site more welcoming ( if not using english)
   I used English but found the language  dropdown menu easy to find. The flag of the chosen language adds a nice visual to the selection and makes is easy to quickly identify what language the website is currently in.

   5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.

   The colour scheme suits the simplistic nature of the website and the variations of blue help create a relaxed online atmosphere.

3. What a fun looking site! My initial impression is it looks like craigslist, but not as drab. The first button I was drawn to was the jobs button! The descriptions were a little hard to read.

   I was surprised that my location was already filled in! Nice feature. I searched for car and the first  listing was for somebody selling a car! It looked really nice and I could see a picture of the car and short description. This setup is way better than craigslist. But the rest of the listings had nothing to do with cars.

   I would sign up for a free account. I like setup it is user friendly. Once more people start posting content this site could be great.
   Craigslist site is not as nice as this site. This is more appealing than oodle also.

   I easily found the language selection.

   The site is great it just needs content!

4. My initial impression was that it is not appealing. It was drab. I immediately clicked on a button that stated click here. It was a list-like craigslist. The process was somewhat straight forward. I would not sign up for a free trail. I prefer eye popping colors and print. The whole website is not at all appealing.

   The website compares with craigslist (which I do not like). 
   I would rate this website 3 stars.

   The only reason I would use it would is for the traffic in Facebook.

5. 1) Visit https://kroobe.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?

   Looks very professional and well organized.  I was not sure what all was listed on the site, but I was immediately drawn to the “click to browse option”.  This was VERY helpful!

   2) Search for any keywords. Did you find what you were looking for? Was the process straightforward?
   I searched on tennis and noticed that it showed me tennis lessons offered in California and a basement apt for rent in Atlanta and a condo for rent in Florida.   Very fast and I was amazed that it listed anything with the word “tennis” in the ad.

   3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free trial/free account? If not, why?
   Sure, why not…it is free and I love free stuff.  Also, I have a hobby business and so I could list some of my products for free which is great!!   I do not remember how long the trial was for.  If that is stated somewhere then maybe it needs to be in bold or something to help folks like me that read fast.

   4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like craigslist.org and oodle.com?
   I noticed is that I was not sure where to enter the price.  However, I was happy that I was able to enter a website address.   This site seems better organized for international listing and not just US.

   5) Did the language pre selection make the site more welcoming ( if not using english).
   I am using English, but I think that is a great idea and I would certainly appreciate it if I were in another country with a different language.

   6) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
   I placed a free ad and tried to upload several pictures but got and error.  Not sure why.  I am on a HP Pavilion I bought this year and using IE.  The files were all less that 1.5 MB and were JPEG files.

   I think a link on the site to allow customers to easily bookmark would be a good idea.
   I hope my feedback was helpful.  I bookmarked the site and plan to come back to post some more ads.  THANKS!!
    
   

6. 1) Visit https://kroobe.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?
   It reminded me of a bulletin board you see in a store. I think it is a neat approach. I was drawn to click on one of the papers on the board. I find it fairly user friendly.

   2) Search for a any keywords. Did you find what you were looking for?Was the process straightforward?
   I typed in music and had a bunch of results but none of them were any where near my local area. It seems pretty staright forward. It seems like it is set up mainly for the Georgia and Florida area.

   3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free trial/free account? If not, why?
   Not really. No postings for my area. All of it is the East Coast. Plus I don’t particularly like having to link my Facebook account to anything to log in.

   4) How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like craigslist.org and oodle.com?
   I love Craigslist. I would keep using it over this one for 2 reasons. Both of which I mentioned in the last question. Have to use Facebook to login and no local postings.

   5) Did the language pre selection made the site more welcoming ( if not using english)
   I use English only.

   5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
   This seems more like a college board with all the links to them. Doesn’t seem like an adult used website.
   

7. Thank you very much for the positive feedback. You make a great point about the front page being a little busy. We worked hard on trying to say more with graphics and less with words while trying still to be fairly easily understandable.
   The Facebook, twitter and linked in logos are there to indicate that site is accessible through those networks. Perhaps what is missing ( and we should work on adding that ) is something to say that the site is also accessible for people outside those networks ( via Kroobe Signup)
   Thank you very much for taking time to give us your feedback.

8. Thank you very much for your insightful feedback. You made various very valid points.
   The site is open to usage worldwide of course but you guessed right, we are based in the US but we do have listings around the world.
   The idea is that we want to eventually grow to become an international hub for classifieds. We want to make the site accessible for people from various social networks as well as outside any social network ( if they choose so)
   Users can post something to Kroobe, and of course share it to their networks ( even if they are not logged in through them) 
   Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin do not offer a solution that is as flexible and we hope people will find Kroobe’s ease of use enticing.
   Thanks again!

9. Thank you very much for the great compliment. We are happy to hear such positive feedback!
   We are working very hard on generating even more content and our user base is thankfully growing fast. Please keep an eye out for us. We hope you can find plenty of quality listings in your area very soon!

10. We are sorry you feel that way. We did try hard to make the site more lively and colorful yet maintain a look that appeals to a broader public.
    We hope that the quality of our listings and the functionality of the site entices you to use it more.

11. Thank you very much for such great feedback. It is definitely very helpful.
    We would very curious to get more details about the error you encountered. The error you mentioned does not sound like it is particularly linked to browser or operating system. It is possible that it was due to network issues. Did you try it again at another time?
    About the bookmarks, Kroobe does offer an option bookmark listings, once you are logged in, when you view the details of a listings you can click on the bookmark icon on the top right corner of the listing. the icon changes into a red bookmark. You can find all your bookmarks through the sidebar “bookmark” button. This feature, should be handy if you are going through many listings and wanna save some of later viewing.
    Thank you again for your feedback.

12. Thank you very much for your feedback. We are sorry you could not find many listings in your area. As you can imagine, we are not yet as widely used as other pages but we have growing regions of users in the US ( East cost , west cost and across the country) as well as globally. These area are growing fast and starting overlap particularly in the US. We hope to reach your area soon and provide plenty of quality content.
    Kroobe does NOT force you to use any of your social networks. Of course you can also sign up directly through us. Social network connections are just a convenience we provide our user for a 1-click signup. 
    The advantage of Kroobe is that you create clean , and beautiful listings which you can share across any network ( including other classified sites if you so wish). Unlike other classified sites, Kroobe listings are also indexed by google and other search engines which makes finding them easier for search users.
    The last point you brought up is a good one also, Kroobe does offer closed group listings for Colleges and Companies. Those are only accessible to members of those groups. Kroobe offers also an open board to the general public. This is quite handy since users who belong to groups can with one click post a listing to the public and to the group at once or if they choose, they keep their listing private and share them only with select groups they belong to.
    The group feature ads more to the site’s listing quality but of course Kroobe is not limited to groups.
    Thank you very much again for your feedback

13. Yes I would probably use it for the purpose it was intended. I just like bright colors and eye catching art.

    Thanks

14. 1) Visit https://kroobe.com/. What is your initial impression of what you see? Are you immediately drawn to click any of the buttons? Why or why not?
    The website is very clean and straightforward. Very easy to understand. I clicked on the Community button to see what is going on in the community.

    2) Search for a any keywords. Did you find what you were looking for?Was the process straightforward?
    I did do a keyword search and found nothing in my area. But it did bring up other suggestions for areas close to me.

    3) Are you encouraged to sign up for a free trial/free account? If not, why?
    I am definetely encouraged to sign up for a free account. I think this website can be useful.

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