Coming soon: Daveaceae PlantScouticus pdb X gwd

Thanks Dave. That sounds great to me!

I just found Plantscout. I think that is so fabulous for all involved, we as consumers and the companies selling and of course to make Dave's Garden so totally Unique and more Superb. I just didn't think it could get any better. You are amazing. I guess that is why they say, You Da Man, Dave

Eh, Dave...you numbah one akamai Dude!

Your idea/plan/concept/energy is right on...you have mail! Can't wait to participate. Hope it will be as easy to edit as it seems.

Aloha,

Carol

Feebay...now THAT's good.

Dave, I just checked out the PlantScout...and MAN have you done some WORK there! WOW! Now *this* is fone eature we're ALL going to love. I really like that we can click on the plant name and see thte entries in the PDB...I like that we can go directly to the merchant site...what I don't like is having the site open in the same window :-( I lose my place! :-D (And to think I "grumbled" when I used up all my "guest" searches...and *had* to subscribe and pay *money* to get in at DG. ;-) NOW, where do I sign up to send you MORE money so I can feel like I'm *really* contributing to this phenomenal growth??? :-)

Dave, and his team...HORRAH!!! You're doing a fine job! (I rate you right up there with my two favorite gardening Magazines...Fine Gardening and Garden Gate! That puts you in some pretty fine company in my book! THANKS!!!

~julie~
Edited cause I tend to leave out important words. :-D

This message was edited Sep 9, 2004 9:48 AM

Thanks for the kind words, julie88. Did you know that you can always open any link in a new window by simply holding down your shift key while you click!

best,
dave

"MORE money." Julie, Julie, Julie! LOL

By the way, one of the big benefits of PlantScout is that now companies are supporting us, and my hope is that one day we get more support from companies than we do the subscribed members!

dave

Oooh that's a really cool tip Dave!! I didn't know that, what a help......and I bet julie's going to love it
Thanks :)

hehehe Dave...I already knew that. I just got used to using the links in forum threads and having that *wonderful* new window open up. Okay! philomel, So I'm too lazy to use TWO fingers while I'm surfing. :-D

Iw2d...giggle...does sound a little odd doesn't it, I mean me *wanting* to give away money? :-) But, to tell the truth, I'm one who even pays for *shareware* (can you believe that??? ;-))

~julie~

I was being facetious (as I'm sure you know). This site is well worth the price of admission!

iw2d...boy howdy, do I agree with you on that one! (and, yes...I knew you were joking with me. ;-) That's another reason I LOVE Dave's...people tend to be really GREAT!)

~julie~

Dave - I'm really enjoying the new PlantScout tool and think it will be a HUGE asset as more and more companies sign up. A couple of thoughts/suggestions....

1. Any way to add a "member since" or "date joined" next to each companies name in the PlantScout listing? I see the list is getting longer and I have to kind of do a little checking to see who is new since I last looked at the participating companies. (Thrilled to see BloomingBulb by the way).

2. Any plans to provide companies with a direct URL on their websites for each plant they list? When I click on "Buy this plant from ....." it takes me to their home page. It would be a HUGE asset to be taken directly to their web page on the plant I was interested in.

Thanks for listening! Brenda

Brenda, I agree it would be nice to somehow indicate the newest signups to PlantScout. I'm guessing that as the list grows, Dave will add a browse feature, and maybe instead of a "top twenty" list, he can list the newest additions????

As to your second request, I agree it would be the "pièce de resistance" to connect directly to that item in their online catalog, but I just don't see how we could. The plant name is linked into the PDB entry, and related to the company name (as found in the Watchdog's data.) The hyperlink to their website homepage is also stored in their GWD data. Nowhere do we actually record the URL to where each item resides on their website.

For a company of ANY size (anything more than a dozen or so items), creating separate URLs for each item to the specific catalog page would take an enormous amount of work to set up, not to mention maintain (if you've ever crawled the web looking for a plant, you know that Google's cached page is frequently outdated, so clicking on it takes you to a different page of their catalog. If Google can't keep up, we sure can't.)

And the companies that use a .pdf format for their catalogs wouldn't be able to handle that type of specific linking. It would be wonderful, but it's simply not feasible, I'm afraid...

Thanks, Terry for your response. I understand the complexities. Realistically as the number of companies increases it would be silly to show the newest companies. It's while it is such a new feature that knowing the new additions would be nice.

Terry,

For those with hundreds or thousands of items it would be tough, but it could be at least an option for each vendor on the Plant Scout. I do it with my ad campaigns on Google, Overture (Yahoo), and even on the DG ads I run. You could just give the option of chosing the URL that you want the PDB listing to point to. It would be handled more on the vendor side than the DG side.

Chris