Mountain-Op.com is a newly launched search engine designed to help us find the best deals possible on new gear while simultaneously raising funds for charity and environmental causes. The site lets you search by the type of equipment you’re looking for (backpack, boots, etc.), specific models or even brands, and then crawls the web looking for the best bargains for the criteria that you input. You can also simply browse the best deals of the day or by various categories as well.
When you make a purchase through Mountain-Op 25% of the profits go directly to a charity that the site has elected to help fund. Currently their proceeds are being given to an organization called Endless Abilities, which works allow able-bodied and disabled athletes compete with one another on a level playing field.
I took the new search in for a spin earlier and found that the actual search algorithm could use some work. I typed in a number of common search terms and didn’t exactly get the results I was looking for. For instance, I searched for both “backpack” and “North Face” and the returned results offered a few items in those categories, they were far from the most prominent. Changing the display options to show the most “relevant” didn’t really help clear that up either.
Questionable search results aside, the site did find some good bargains although I had to mostly browse for them on my own. Perhaps the search function is still being fine tuned and it will improve over time, but so far I’ve been unimpressed with that aspect of Mountain-Op.
I do however appreciate their approach of sharing the wealth with charitable or environmental organizations. If they get their search formula figured out it could be a good way to buy new gear while also contributing to a good cause at the same time.
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This is Dave from mountain-op. Thanks for the great write up! I think one of the biggest problems yesterday with finding relevant gear was that I was adding a bunch of new products and the search index needed to be updated.. unfortunately it didn't get done until around midnight last night. Hope you will find it useful enough to try again sometime, and perhaps it will work better! thanks again!
Dave
Thanks Dave! I'll definitely give it a go. As someone who has a background in IT, I understand how that can happen and when the best time to optimize the search engine is.
Good luck with the project!
Thanks Kraig. If you ever come across a great cause we could support, please let us know 🙂
You put out a lot of great content here, stoked to be a subscriber now.
One of these days if mtn-op grows enough, I'd love to try to partner up with some writers, i'll ping you when/if the time comes and see if you would be interested in writing some articles here and there.
Dave
Wonderful idea Dave and thanks for posting Kraig. Visit my site too Dave for ideas about who might be good causes for your project.
Just search by Summit Stones by DSD…
SummitStones,
Thanks, i subscribed to your blog also.