I've always had a special place in my virtual heart for classifieds. Perhaps it's my frugal nature or how with a caring and careful eye they often reveal many interesting insights into the state of the Web and the world in general.
As the U.S. struggled out of the dire straits it entered starting last September (today is actually the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse), Website Magazine published an article on how to "Roll Your Own Craigslist" - a profile of three exceptional classified software solutions that would enable anyone to start their own targeted classified website.
I had the opportunity to speak with Steve Taylor this week, developer/owner/founder of Noah's Classifieds and one of the software solutions mentioned, about the latest version (4.1.1) of Noah's Classifieds. Some interesting features were added recently but in my opinion they pale in comparison to what's coming up in the future for Noah's Classifieds.
New additions include a WYSIWYG editor (which can be assigned to the admin and the end user), ReCAPTCHA, a PCI-compliant shopping cart in CartManager, and "Send to a friend" capabilities. Taylor also mentioned that Noah's is also more SEO friendly as the titles influence the permalink structure.
Noah's Classifieds has always been on my list of solutions to to watch but its' future enhancement are what will forever separate it from its competitors. Upcoming enhancements include adding Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect and the ability to import classified listings from Oodle through their API. Users will also be able to add new listings from their Noah's installation directly to Oodle - call it "distributed classifieds" if you will. Big things are coming for Noah's and for the $199 perpetual license it's certainly worth considering.
