(Update at end of post)

Check this great site out right now:

http://labs.ideeinc.com/multicolour/

Sweet, right?

After I discovered it, I started changing code on http://www.colr.org to link from colors and schemes to the multicolour search.

(Click on a color or scheme, then click the "more" button).

Awesome. Took about 20 minutes total.

You know who else has color searching? Istockphoto.com does. I hooked up colr.org to their site last year.

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&color=227,1,99

You know who else has color searching? Etsy.com does:

http://www.etsy.com/color.php

And theirs is awesome and fun.

But you know what sucks? I can't link to etsy's color search with colors passed as arguments.

Several months ago, I emailed the etsy folks, suggesting they add the ability to supply colors as arguments (like a search query).

On Feb 2, 2007, Lloyd Dalton <daltonlp@gmail.com> wrote: Hello,

Your search-by-colors interface is very fun to play with. Kudos to the folks who created it :)

I run http://www.colr.org. It would be neat to be able to link from a color swatch on colr.org to a page on etsy.com showing stuff of that color.

Basically, the same exact thing as the existing istockphoto.com links (the little camera icons under each color swatch).

To make this work, you'd need a way to make color queries as GET requests like istockphoto.com's:

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&color=255,211,154

Please let me know if you make this happen (or if it already exists). I'll be happy to hook up colr.org to it.

Best regards,

Lloyd Dalton

A reply came back:

Hi there,

Sorry, Etsy doesn't do linking.

Best, Emily

Er...ok...really? No linking at all? Maybe there's a misunderstanding.

Hi Emily,

Just to be clear, that was an offer to link into Etsy. No expectation of reciprocity, no relationship of any type.

Cheers,

• Lloyd

No response.

Ok, I get it, fine. Not interested. I can take a hint.

Wait, no, I can't take a hint. I mean, come on.

On Feb 6, 2007, Lloyd Dalton <daltonlp@gmail.com> wrote: Hello,

I've been entertained by your color search since I first saw it. It's a really nice piece of work.

I was hoping to link to it. A hobby site of mine is http://www.colr.org. It is kind of an experimental hodgepodge of color stuff. I've been keeping an eye out for other sites with the ability to search things by color, so colors could be linked to them.

Anyway, I sent an email to support@etsy.com to let you know if you ever add the ability to supply a hex color as a search query, I'll be sure to send traffic your way.

The response that came back was a little surprising:

"Sorry, Etsy doesn't do linking."

I dunno, maybe the idea came across like some kind of lowbrow tit-for-tat link exchange offer. It wasn't. So this email is basically a repeat, on the off chance the first email wasn't understood.

Or it could be that Etsy truly "doesn't do linking" in any shape or form. In which case I'm the one who misunderstood, and sorry for bothering you :)

Best regards,

Lloyd Dalton

No response. Sigh.

Update - A response!

Hey, sorry, but somehow I just stumbled upon you post: http://www.daltonlp.com/view/510 on Reddit.

I'm a dev over at Etsy, and this is actually a pretty good idea.

Either way, I wonder, what exactly would you do with such a feature?

Thanks, and sorry about that.

-Jorge

Much appreciated, thanks.