WorkGrabber Release for April ‘09

We’re happy to announce the latest release of WorkGrabber with a load of new features and a few bug fixes. Here are some of the most notable changes in this version.

Bid Commenting!

This was the most requested feature since our beta release.  When a contractor bids on your job, the customer often needs some more clarification before he or she feels comfortable accepting the bid.  Sometimes, contractors also need a little more information before they can estimate the job.

Bid comments allow the customer and contractor to interact and have a conversation right from the bid page.  Contractors and customers are notified when a new comment is made.

Allow HTML tags in the “Special Offers” section

Based on how contractors are using some of our features, we decided to expand the “Special Offers” section.  Contractors often want to “spice up” their coupons or even provide a link to an existing coupon image.  To accomplish this, we now allow HTML tags in the special offers page.  In the near future, we’ll be providing a rich client to format your offer without having to know HTML.

Navigation changes

We did some minor changes to the navigation on the top of the site to make it a little big clearer what the goal is.  Some of our users were getting confused with where to go to post a job, find a contractor or view jobs.

Improved validation when submitting bids

We added some client-side validation for when contractors submit bids to make sure all the required fields are inserted.

Improved error handling when uploading images that are too big

Some of our contractors were having issues uploading large images.  We can now handle images up to 4 MB.

There’s quite a few updates on this release and we hope to continue improving our site based on your feedback.  If you have comments or suggestions, let us know.  We are already working on new features for the next release.

New, simplified job posting form

We just deployed the latest version of WorkGrabber with some pretty big changes.  The team has been listening closely to all of your feedback and incorporating new features into our releases.  This time around, the most notable change was in the job posting form.

Several customers had some complaints about the job posting form.  Previously, we had an “autocomplete” input box where, as you typed, suggestions would appear for the category you were looking for.  Although there was a certain “cool factor” about it, it really wasn’t very user friendly.  We’ve changed this to use a neat category navigator that makes finding your category much easier.

Another feature we’re rolling out is the ability to “tag” jobs.  Tagging is a simple concept to help us better categorize customer jobs.  For example, if you have a job under the general category “Plumbing”, you might want to tag it with more specific keywords like “toilet repair” and “drain blockage”.  As you type the tag, you’ll be presented with simliar tags which you can click on to select or just add your own.

We hope you enjoy the new job posting form and, as always, we look forward to your feedback!

Latest WorkGrabber Release Features

Great news!  We’ve just deployed a new version of WorkGrabber.com jam packed with cool new features.  This series of posts will provide you with the most notable features included in each deployment - so here goes.

• Create job alerts - Contractors can now create “job alerts” from their profiles.  Just enter your current location and the radius you want to cover and we’ll send you alerts when new jobs that match you profile are submitted.  You can choose to send these notifications to your email, cell phone or both.
• Unlimited category inclusion - Contractors select the categories of work they can provide.  This lets you customize which jobs your notified about and which sections of the site your profile appears on.
• Create unlimited photo galleries - We know contractors love to show off their work, and customers like to see examples of their handywork.  That’s why we provide our contractors with unlimited photo galleries.  Create a single gallery or create multiple galleries for every job you do.
• Create unlimited special offers - If you have any discounts or special offers for your customers, you can advertise them through your profile.  Offers are completely customizable.
• Submit contractor reviews - Our built in referal and review program allows customers to rate their overall experience working with the contractor.
• Upload project photos - Our goal with WorkGrabber is to bring the project directly to the contractor’s internet browser.  Uploading photos that help describe your project our a great way of doing that.  Give potential contractors a sense for the scope of work before they even need to visit your location.
• Upload project videos - This feature is great for when you need to demonstrate the issue.  Ever tried to describe the sound an appliance is making over the phone or email?  Now you don’t have to, just record and upload it.  We currently intergrate with YouTube as our video provider.
• Interact with job questions & answers - Jobs now have a section for Q&A between the customer and contractors.  Contractors can ask clarification questions to make sure they understand your project.
• Integrated direct website linking - We’ve seen similar sites try to hide the fact that their contractors have a website.  Not us.  We provide redirects to your site directly from your profile page.
• More contractor attributes - Contractors can now specify their payment and language options.

And much more!  Remember, we are always looking for feedback and fresh ideas to add to the site.