[storborg]

I love Octopart and wish it would become even more wildly successful. However...

The problem I have with Octopart and other "better search" engines (like Hipmunk, Padmapper, et al) is that the coverage is not 100%--not every item in inventory is shown on the search engine site.

The lack of complete coverage kills me when I'm looking for a very specific edge case, which are exactly the sorts of cases that would most benefit from a better search experience. When I really want that one 10uF/6.3V X7R ceramic capacitor made by TDK, and I can't find it on Octopart, it renders the whole of Octopart useless.

Until these sorts of frontend sites get better adoption from the people who actually supply the inventory (e.g. Octopart -> Digikey, Hipmunk -> Expedia, Padmapper -> Craigslist), they cease to be useful in all the cases where they would provide major benefit.

[sam]

You raise a valid point. While we don't have every part, we're constantly increasing the number of distributors and manufacturers who send us data. We have about 60 distributors on the site now which is about double what we had this time last year. We're always going to be getting better.

As for the part you mentioned, I didn't find a capacitor with those specs from TDK, but there are 12 alternatives here: http://bit.ly/hWnqhP

If you know of a supplier of the TDK part, let me know and I'll contact them.

[storborg]

That was just an example I pulled from nowhere, not something specific. I don't think TDK makes a 10uF/6.3V X7R cap (although I did notice the Octopart interface doesn't show temp spec/dielectric material as one of the specs that I can filter on... that's disappointing).

My point is just that in the course of normal use I want each one of these searches, be it for a capacitor or an apartment or a flight, to be very thorough. If I can't guarantee to myself that the search will cover 100% of the available inventory. I can guarantee that if I skip the nice frontend and go directly to the supplier.

FWIW, I picked the wrong one to pick on--Octopart has way better coverage than Hipmunk, Padmapper, or a multitude of other sites.

[ericd]

Hey, Eric from PadMapper here. Thanks for the callout :-) I agree that if you're looking for something very specific, it sucks to not be able to rely on a site showing you everything that's available.

Mind sending email to [e-mail] about any obvious omissions?

Edit: you can also uncheck the "accurately located" filter and it should show more of the missing Craigslist posts.

[nickpinkston]

I found my apartment through PadMapper! Great app - I'd encourage anyone to use it - makes life quite simple. Great job Eric.

[ericd]

Thanks Nick! Great to hear :-)

[storborg]

The biggest issue I've noticed is when listings use a local reference for the location instead of a street address or intersection: for example, a Cambridge, MA listing might refer to "Kendall", a Portland, OR listing might refer to "alphabet district".

I do think Padmapper is great, though. It's still a huge improvement over the Craigslist interface.

[ericd]

Ahh, gotcha. Yeah, that kind of thing is hard to do reliably, though those should show up when one removes the accuracy filter (not necessarily in the right place).

And thanks! I really do like hearing criticisms, though, since it helps me figure out where to focus next.

[pdx]

I disagree. I use Octopart regularly. If something's hard to find, at least Octopart tells me where it's NOT at. One query, and I know 1/2 a dozen of the usual suspects that I don't need to bother searching. That's a big win for me. Now that they have Digikey, that's also a big win.

I have no idea where you're finding parts at, that they don't have in their database, besides the sleezy feeling parts brokers that tell you they have everything, even if they don't, so you'll contact them and they can try to locate the part for you at $5.00 per IC for a $0.35 part. I have no interest in these people. If I have to resort to them, than I won't be able to find production quantities anyway.

[tmcneal]

FYI, Octopart recently announced that they are indexing Digikey products. See relevant blog post: http://octopart.com/blog/archives/2011/1/digi%252Dkey-produc...