New website to try: www.riverofguns.com

[chuckr]

I've been working on a website that I think is going to be pretty useful to the gun crowd.

Have you ever wanted to search the classified sections of all the gun forums?

Try this:

http://www.riverofguns.com

I created that site as a search engine for gun forum classifieds. It's currently got about 30,000 entries from 107 topics at 40 forums. That's about a month's worth of collected data. I'm working on getting it up to the 175 topics from 105 forums I discovered (with the help of some Calgunners).

Use it to search for the guns and gear you're looking to buy.

There are still some ways to improve it (mainly in search), but it's very usable now.

I need some users to beta test it and provide some feedback. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Feedback to riverofguns@gmail.com would be great - or PM if you're happier with that.

Thanks,

chuckr

[nobs11]

Works well for me. This is useful. Thanks.

[Ironchef]

Wow, excellent! Passed this on to some friends.

[GP3]

So far so good.

I typed in "XD Holster" and got usable search results.

[Can'thavenuthingood]

This is a terrific idea.

Now I can go broker faster without all that clicking noise

It works too well, all that stuff at my fingertips without google.

Vick

[aileron]

Wow, that's impressive. I found two Dillon 650s for sale instantly. I could never find one available. Where were you when I needed you.


Good job!

[Bad Voodoo]

I've been working on a website that I think is going to be pretty useful to the gun crowd.

Have you ever wanted to search the classified sections of all the gun forums?

Try this:

http://www.riverofguns.com

I created that site as a search engine for gun forum classifieds. It's currently got about 30,000 entries from 107 topics at 40 forums. That's about a month's worth of collected data. I'm working on getting it up to the 175 topics from 105 forums I discovered (with the help of some Calgunners).

Use it to search for the guns and gear you're looking to buy.

There are still some ways to improve it (mainly in search), but it's very usable now.

I need some users to beta test it and provide some feedback. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Feedback to riverofguns@gmail.com would be great - or PM if you're happier with that.

Thanks,

chuckr

Now monetize and market that bad boy!

[chuckr]

Glad you guys are using it and finding what you want. You've already found one bug - I'm not handling a search with "&" in it. So searching for

S&W
or
M&P

doesn't work. Will fix that tonight. How did I not test S&W?

Monetization - yeah that's always the challenge. Those Google sponsored ads will be pulled once the Googlebot figures out there are guns and ammo involved on the page.

If any of you know of gun friendly ad networks, please let me know.

[rg_1111@yahoo.com]

Nice site.

[Jon Se]

Very cool site! search works well.

[Dark&Good]

I find the initiative GREAT. Could often be very useful.

If you want to improve something, I've found one thing so far: a search for shotgun 12ga and shotgun 12 ga gives very different results.

[JDay]

If any of you know of gun friendly ad networks, please let me know.

Why don't you put vendor ads on there?

ETA: I doubt Google will pull their ads though since they're offering up firearms ads.

[chuckr]

I've fixed the '&' issue - so you can now search for S&W and M&P and C&R stuff:

S&W:

http://www.riverofguns.com/cb/index.pl?s=S%26W

http://www.riverofguns.com/cb/index.pl?s=s%26w+upper

http://www.riverofguns.com/cb/index.pl?s=s%26w+lower

M&P

http://www.riverofguns.com/cb/index.pl?s=M%26P

C&R

http://www.riverofguns.com/cb/index.pl?s=C%26R

Also, some other useful searches:

Looking for an AR upper of a certain length?

There are lots between 16 and 24 inches:

http://www.riverofguns.com/cb/index.pl?s=16+upper

http://www.riverofguns.com/cb/index.pl?s=18+upper

http://www.riverofguns.com/cb/index.pl?s=20+upper

http://www.riverofguns.com/cb/index.pl?s=22+upper (give .22 cal uppers too)

http://www.riverofguns.com/cb/index.pl?s=24+upper

Seems like 18" and 22" are the least popular.


@Dark&Good - the search basically does an AND on every word, so yes, shotgun 12ga and shotgun 12 ga are treated differently. Sorry that I don't have a solution in mind.

@JDay - Vendor ads are an option, once I can get traffic flowing and can provide stats. Google has definitely loosened up on the gun related advertising now that they realize our money is as green as the ringtone guys. My site is getting ads for Gunsite, AR-15 triggers, and other related items.

But riverofguns.com is ultimately showing guns for sale, and I'm pretty sure they will kill it once someone checks. I still know some people there on the AdWords/AdSense team (I was the release engineer for those products) so I'm hoping they'll let me fly under the radar for as long as possible.

Anyway, keep the feedback coming - it's very useful.

chuckr

[chuckr]

I should also mention - if you're not getting good matches when searching for things with special characters in it (like '/') try quoting the word. For example:

"10/22"

http://www.riverofguns.com/cb/index.pl?s=%2210%2F22%22

[WebMoskal]

I love it. Can you add visited link style.