Cars HotSurf is the car finder software tool

User manual
/
Searching for cars ads

Searching for cars ads

1. Global and local search requests

To start searching vehicle/car sale websites for used car ads with our Program, you must specify your vehicle search criteria.
There are two types of the search criteria:

global search request that enable searching through all vehicle sale websites by using only one search request;
local search request that enable searching on only specified vehicle sale websites.

The advantage of the global search criteria over the local ones is that in the former case, you are able to search on all vehicle sale sites at once with only one search request. The local search criteria yet allow you to configure car searches on a particular site more precisely.

2. Create global search requests

Global requests allow you to search for car ads through all (or specified) sites at once by using only one search request and so obviate the need for the creation of identical search requests for each site separately. To this end in view, when you set up a global search request, you need to perform several steps:

Step 1. Select the Car Search item in the Accordion menu:

Step 2. In the list of sites, select the All vehicles tab and then click the Create new search button in the main program control toolbar:

Step 3. In the appeared window, indicate the vehicle category/type that is of interest to you:

Step 4. In the opened window for the new search, specify your search criteria for cars/ads:

Step 5. In the same window, if necessary, refine settings for your search request. To do this, click the Settings button:

Now you get the further settings to be assigned:

Priority – sets a download priority for this search request against other search requests. This parameter is expressed in percentage terms meaning a period (of time) allocated to this search request as a percent of the total time assigned for monitoring all of the car sale sites.

For example:
Let you have 3 search queries with such priorities: 1st 50%, 2nd and 3rd at 25% each. This means that the 1st query will have twice as high priority as the 2nd and 3rd queries have.
Number of new car offers - sets a maximum number of new car sale ads to be downloaded during monitoring of sites under this search request. The Program takes into account formerly downloaded car ads, so this setting will limit the depth of the initial monitoring/scan of a site.
Monitor with periodicity - sets a time interval for the repeated scans of auto sites for this search request.
Synchronize to mobile agent – sync search requests between the Program desktop version on the computer and the Mobile App on your iOS- or Android-based smartphone. For details, see the Synchronize global search requests to mobile agents section.

Step 6. Choose car sale websites to be searched:

Step 7. Disable the search (request), if there is no need for its immediate processing following activation of the monitoring mode. To this effect, click the search on/off button:

Step 8. Click OK to save the global search, or click Cancel to undo your actions.

3. Create local search requests

To start searching for car ads only on a particular car sale site, do the following:

Step 1. In the accordion menu, click "Car search":

Step 2. In the list of sites, select the site you want to create a search query to. Then click the "Create a new search" icon in the program main toolbar:

Step 3. In the appeared window, select the car category you want to create a search query for:

If the site has only one category you will not see this dialog box, but moved directly to Step 4.

Step 4. In the opened window for the new search, fill in your car search criteria:

Step 5. In the same window, if necessary, refine settings for your search. For this effect, click the search button (see the dialog box below) and get further settings to assign:

"Priority" – sets a download priority for a search query relative to other search queries. This parameter is expressed in percentage terms meaning a percent period of time allocated to this search query relative to the total time assigned for monitoring all car sale sites.

For example:
Let you have 3 search queries with such priorities: 1st 50%, 2nd and 3rd at 25% each. This means that the 1st query will have twice as high priority as the 2nd and 3rd queries have.
"The number of fresh car offers" - sets a maximum number of new car ads to be downloaded during running of this search. The Cars HotSurf software takes into account formerly downloaded car ads, so this setting will limit the site scanning depth during initial monitoring.
"Monitor with a periodicity" - sets a time interval for the repeated car site scannings for this search query.

Step 6. Turn off the search query when there is no need to search immediately. To do this, click the On/Off icon for this search query:

Step 7. Click "OK" if you want to save query, or click "Cancel" to undo your actions.

4. Synchronize global search requests to mobile agents

While creating a global search request, you are provided with the possibility of its syncing with the mobile agent on your smartphone. This will allow you to receive found ads on your cell phone. It is also possible to edit search requests on your smartphone if you are not satisfied with search criteria.

To sync a search request to your smartphone, do the following:

Step 1. Open or create a new global search request.

Step 2. In the global request creation form, click on the Setting button:

Step 3. From the drop-down list in the appeared form, select the mobile agent to which you want to sync the search request:

Step 4. Select Edit on the mobile agent if you want to have the capability to edit this search request on your phone.

Step 5. If the mobile agent is not connected up to the Program, the icon button for the mobile agent addition is to be clicked on:

Then, using the new form opened, download and install the Cars HotSurf mobile agent, and activate it.

After that, the new mobile agent will appear in the drop-down list.

Step 6. Click OK to save the sync settings, otherwise, click Cancel to cancel your changes.

Step 7. The synced search request being saved, its icon will take this form:

5. Edit search requests

To edit a global or local search request, follow these steps:

Step 1. In the accordion menu, open the Car search item:

Step 2. In the section for global searches or in the list of sites, find the search request you want to edit:

Step 3. Right-click this search query. In the shortcut menu, select "Edit search request".

Step 4. Change vehicle search criteria in your search query window:

Step 5. Click "OK" if you want to save the changes in the search request or "Cancel" to cancel your actions.

In addition to changing search criteria through the context menu for each request, you can enable / disable, delete, or copy the search request.

6. Export and import search requests

The export and import of searches will enable you to store formerly created search requests in a separate storage file, and then, when needed, import them back into the program.
To store all search requests formerly created by you, do the following:

Step 1. In the list of sites, select All vehicles or a particular site, for which you have search requests created, and right-click and select Export search requests:

Step 2. In the export window opened, indicate the search requests in the directory tree that you want to store, and click Export:

Step 3. Specify the file name and save path.

To store a search request from the Program into a separate file, do the following: right-click on it, then select Export search request and specify the file storage path.

To load search requests from the export file into the Program, double-click on it. Alternatively, in the File menu, select the Import the search requests function and then indicate which ones of the stored requests you want to load.

User manual

DOWNLOAD Windows version (1.2.0b) setup.exe (4.87 Mb)

Do you have
any questions?

Ask us and we will reply to you.