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Would you ever use an online list cleaning tool?

by splitTest
6 replies
I whipped up a basic free javascript-based list-cleaning tool as link-bait for my site and as something that might appeal to existing customers.

It basically lets you paste your list into one column, paste unwanted items into another column, and cleans your list of the unwanted items. You go away with a copy of your nice clean list.

I'm thinking some visitors might find it useful.

Others might think that the site will somehow steal their list -- especially if it's an email list.

Similar tools exist online -- list dedupers and such. I'm considering creating a suite of free list manipulation tools like this.

My question: Would you trust a tool like this that you found online?

And if not, what tool do you currently use to clean your lists (presuming you manage your lists yourself...)
#cleaning #list #online #tool
  • Profile picture of the author jamesfreddyc
    What's wrong with Excel? It's not all that difficult to clean a list.

    Also --- I'd never trust you with my list.
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    • Profile picture of the author splitTest
      Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc View Post

      What's wrong with Excel? It's not all that difficult to clean a list.

      Also --- I'd never trust you with my list.
      Well, thanks for your comment, but there are tools on the web, both paid and free, which clean and dedupe lists for visitors. Since they've been around for a while (the free ones are ad supported), I presume someone is using them.

      That's why I posted the question.

      I haven't used Excel in a long time. Does it let you clean a list in one fell swoop? For example, will Excel purge a list of unwanted items at the press of a button?

      I'm not sure, so I'm asking. Since I do a little javascript (and "actionscript") programming (mainly for fun and learning), I'm weighing ideas for handy free software tools for marketers.
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      • Profile picture of the author jamesfreddyc
        Originally Posted by splitTest View Post

        Well, thanks for your comment, but there are tools on the web, both paid and free, which clean and dedupe lists for visitors. Since they've been around for a while (the free ones are ad supported), I presume someone is using them.

        That's why I posted the question.

        I haven't used Excel in a long time. Does it let you clean a list in one fell swoop? For example, will Excel purge a list of unwanted items at the press of a button?

        I'm not sure, so I'm asking. Since I do a little javascript (and "actionscript") programming (mainly for fun and learning), I'm weighing ideas for handy free software tools for marketers.
        For press of a button type things there is a remove duplicates for the entire dataset. That's pretty handy.

        There's also simple conditional formatting too. Again, really basic stuff that streamlines my list cleaning.

        But I was thinking of just some very basic filtering. It's not very difficult to do and once it's setup, yes you can paste in your new data and you don't really even have to press any button --- it just filters as desired.
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        • Profile picture of the author splitTest
          Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc View Post

          For press of a button type things there is a remove duplicates for the entire dataset. That's pretty handy.

          There's also simple conditional formatting too. Again, really basic stuff that streamlines my list cleaning.

          But I was thinking of just some very basic filtering. It's not very difficult to do and once it's setup, yes you can paste in your new data and you don't really even have to press any button --- it just filters as desired.
          Fair enough.

          So you're saying if you have a list of bad items you can paste them into excel and excel will remove your bad items from your list of good items?

          I didn't know excel could do that. Then again, back when I was using excel, even deduping wasn't simple.

          Well if excel can do list cleaning as described above, you gotta wonder what use people are getting out of the free web tools out there.
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          • Profile picture of the author jamesfreddyc
            Originally Posted by splitTest View Post

            Fair enough.

            So you're saying if you have a list of bad items you can paste them into excel and excel will remove your bad items from your list of good items?
            Yeah. But you need to define "bad".
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            • Profile picture of the author splitTest
              Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc View Post

              Yeah. But you need to define "bad".
              Let's say you have an email list, you do a mailing, and some come back as "remove requests." Back when I was on the cubicle farm, this was a regular scenario.

              Those are the bad addresses. You want to remove them from the list for next month's mailing. Is there a way in excel to have the program purge those addresses in one click? Or would you have to prune your list by hand?

              Of course if you're using something like mailchimp, all that is automated. But some people manage their own lists...
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