Search by radius and post with approximate location on Colombia Move

Searching for local ads just got more precise: you can now search by radius and post with an approximate location. This helps when the entire city is too big, but a specific neighborhood still has few ads.

The idea is simple: if you are looking for a room near Laureles, a farm at a reasonable distance from Cali, a motorcycle in your area, or an in-person service near your home, you shouldn't have to rely only on a city-wide list. Now you can go to search ads and filter by a point and a radius in kilometers.

What you can do now

• Search near you. Use your location and choose a radius like 5, 10, 25, or 50 km.
• Search from a city. Type Medellin, Bogota, Cali, Barranquilla, or another municipality and use the center as a reference.
• Combine filters. You can use radius along with category, price, ad type, and search text.
• Post better. In the posting flow, sellers can add an approximate location so the ad appears in nearby searches.

Why we don't ask for the exact address

Colombia does have addresses and postal codes, but digital coverage doesn't work the same way as in the United States. In many municipalities, rural areas (veredas), and neighborhoods, an address might not appear perfectly on open maps, or it might have several ways of being written. That is why we don't want to force anyone to write a full address to be able to post.

Our approach is more Colombian and safer: city or municipality is mandatory, neighborhood/vereda when it makes sense, and an optional approximate location for cases where distance matters. For housing, farms, vehicles, local services, and in-person jobs, that approximation greatly improves the quality of contact without turning the ad into a display of a private address.

How to use radius search

On the homepage: open the side filters on desktop or the filter sheet on mobile. In the distance section, you can use your location, search for a city as a reference point, or clear the radius to return to a national or city-wide search.

In /search: use the location block to activate the radius. If you already entered with a URL that includes latitude, longitude, and radius, the page keeps that context and sorts nearby results first.

In /post: when the ad type benefits from location, you can search for an address or place, click on the map, drag the pin, or use your location. If the place doesn't appear, we don't block the post: you can choose the approximate point manually.

What if the place doesn't exist on the map

This will happen sometimes, especially with rural areas (veredas), new housing complexes, informal neighborhood names, or locally written addresses. That is why the flow doesn't rely only on the geocoder. If a search finds no results, the seller can move the map and choose an approximate point. For buyers, searching by city and neighborhood continues to work as a backup.

We are also using location carefully: rounded coordinates, radius in kilometers, and public labels that don't need to reveal the exact door. The goal is trust and liquidity, not invasive precision.

Why this matters for Colombia

Marketplaces fail when the location is too broad or too strict. If everything lives only at the city level, Bogota, Medellin, or Cali feel huge. If we push everyone to neighborhoods with little inventory, the user finds empty pages. Radius search gives us a middle ground: city first, neighborhood as a refinement, and proximity when the user really needs it.

This change also strengthens our use of OpenStreetMap. We remain OSM-first for maps and geocoding, but with cache, limits, explicit search, and an experience that doesn't treat Colombia as if it were a clone of United States ZIP codes.

If you are going to post for the first time, also check out the step-by-step guide on how to post a free ad. For housing, this improvement works very well together with the guide on affordable renting in Colombia, because it allows you to go from a broad search to a realistic area.

What's coming

• More city and category pages that use real counts to avoid empty experiences.
• Better suggestions for neighborhoods, rural areas (veredas), and municipalities with active inventory.
• Alerts with backup: exact neighborhood when there is enough supply, city or nearby when not.
• More map context for housing, farms, services, and in-person jobs.

We want this marketplace to be the most useful in the country, not just another list of ads. Location is a central part of that: better contacts, fewer lost searches, fewer dead pages, and more trust for those who post.

Frequently asked questions about location

How much does it cost to use approximate location?

We don't add a charge for using this field. The approximate location is part of the posting flow and helps the ad appear when distance matters.

Where do I activate the location when posting?

In /post, after choosing the main ad details, you will see the location block when it applies to the post type. You can search for a place, use the map, or leave only the city if you don't want to add a pin.

Do I need to put my exact address?

No. You can post with a city or municipality, and add an approximate location if it helps the ad type. For housing, local services, vehicles, and in-person jobs, it is usually more useful than for products that are shipped nationwide.

What do I do if my address or rural area (vereda) doesn't appear?

Use the map manually. You can move the point to the correct area even if the search engine doesn't find the exact name. This helps with local names, recent housing complexes, or rural areas that are not yet complete on open maps.

Is it safe to use approximate location?

Choose an approximate point and avoid writing sensitive data in the title or description. The feature is intended to show area and proximity, not to turn the ad into an exact address record.

Can I combine radius with price or category?

Yes. The radius works in conjunction with category, ad type, budget, search text, and other filters. This helps find nearby results without losing the rest of the important criteria.

Why use kilometers and not just neighborhoods?

Because many neighborhoods still have little inventory. The radius allows for showing nearby options without sending the user to an empty page. When a neighborhood has enough ads, the neighborhood filter remains useful.