Why not a simple imagemap ? no javascript involved ... and onto it you can add some nice javascript features so it degrades gracefully ... maintains functionality .. and has that bit of extra oompf

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Forbairt Media | Web Design & Development Galway / Dublin, Ireland - coming soon ... ( vague but descriptive isn't it )
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Ah i see how your doing it, its very confusing though, you should hav ethe markers on the map once you click into the category instead of having to select("Search") and area first! I found it a bit strange/hard to use so imagin other people that aren't as well up on the net as most of us here trying to use it!

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Irish Gaming Network | Stolen Car Listings

Yeah, I'll obviously need to put some work into simplifying it ... thanks. First off, when someone clicks on a category on the home page, I'll do a search directly instead of asking someone to click 'Search'. Same for the 'Places' page itself, whenever someone selects a category, a search will automatically ensue ... one-click search :0).

Some other feedback I'm getting is suggesting that I should go along the lines of free format 'google-like' search bar ?. Problem I see with that is the search terms are too hit-and-miss ... but I know it's what people these days seem to expect. I'm just not sure we need to be so Lemming-like ?. It makes much more sense (to me anyway) to pick a category, pick an area and select from a list of keywords .. no ?. As long as the concept is 'obvious', and the page isn't too busy, it's a much more accurate approach ?. Am I off the wall here ?.

Thanks,
Attila

Try and implement some of the suggestions people have been making and see how you get on from there ...

Why doesn't the logo link back to the main page?

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Thanks for the feedback. Once mods are made, I'll come back for another round.

Cheers,
Attila

I'm not exactly the voice of experianced web design but I personally don't see the point of this site at all really.

I get what your trying to do, but people could get these directions for free without using your site by using google maps and google search with relative ease.

Sorry if i'm being harsh but alot of people will probably think this when looking at your site.

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nuDesignz.net | web, graphic and corporate design Ireland

First, I've added some more JSP goodness, and reckon it's a little more obvious re: going from home page to search (place) page, and then selecting categories now does an AJAX search without having to hit the search button.

Also ... thanks Davthalus for the comment. Let me clarify. Ireland has no postcodes, and google's or anybody elses geocoding of street addresses simply isn't anywhere near accurate, especially outside of Dublin (and I'd hazard a guess it's not very accurate even in Dublin ?). The fact is until postcodes come into this country there's no easy way to 'guess' accurately where a particular place actually is, unless you have recorded with it a GPS coord.

But thanks ... as I said ... I'm looking for peoples opinions :0). I suppose the point isn't that people couldn't get directions in other ways ... it's just that google has no need or want to do any heavy lifting in Ireland (no point we're too small a population), so google won't really find a small boutique or hairdresser or chemist in a small village, it can't, since most small shops don't have web presence of any kind and auto-geocoding of addresses in those very same areas is almost useless. Can you imagine getting google to "find the chemist next to the pub with the green door, up the hill on the right ?".

Onthemap - the feedback you get here may not always be gentle, but it's usually honest

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As I always say ... its better we say what ever criticism than a customer. Its not always the easiest thing to deal with being told something doesn't look good / work in the way people expect.

Thanks folks. I would much rather be told that what I'm trying to do is daft, BEFORE I go and spend a billion bucks marketing it, than after :0)).

The website itself being a factor, but not the most important one, since ultimately if the idea is attractive enough, I can always get help on that side of things. However, opinions I gather here and elsewhere about the website is very useful feedback ... appreciated.

If the idea though really isn't going to solve a burning issue, then it'll be plan 'B' ... "anyone looking for a Ruby on Rails practitioner ?" ... ;0)

I suppose I need a little more evidence that I'm swimming against the tide though, both from the likes of here and my own door-to-door market research, before I contemplate plan 'B' exclusively.

Cheers,
Attila