Browsing & Search
How to find what you are looking for — search, filters, categories, and the main feed.
Last updated: 2026-03-12
The main feed
The home page shows a real-time activity feed of the latest listings from every seller on GrowLab Market. As you scroll down, more listings load automatically — no need to click a "next page" button. The feed uses infinite scroll, so you can keep going until you have seen everything.
Each listing card in the feed shows a thumbnail, title, price, seller name, and location at a glance. Tap or click any card to open the full listing detail page.
Real-time updates
When a new listing is published while you are browsing, a green banner slides in at the top of the feed telling you how many new listings are available. Tap the banner to load them into your feed without losing your scroll position. This is powered by Supabase Realtime, so you never need to refresh the page to see what is new.
Search
GrowLab Market has a fast search palette that you can open from anywhere on the site.
Opening search
- Keyboard shortcut: Press
Cmd + K(Mac) orCtrl + K(Windows/Linux) to open the search palette instantly. - Search icon: Tap the search icon in the header on any page.
How search works
Start typing and results appear as you type — no need to press Enter. The palette searches across three dimensions at once:
- Listings — matches against titles, descriptions, and tags using full-text search.
- Sellers — finds seller profiles by display name or location.
- Categories — if your query matches a category name (like "aquatic" or "equipment"), the matching category appears as a quick shortcut.
Results show thumbnail previews, prices, seller names, and verification badges so you can identify the right result quickly. Matched text is highlighted in green.
Keyboard navigation
The search palette is fully keyboard-accessible. Use the up/down arrow keys to move through results, press Enter to select, and Esc to close.
Recent and trending searches
When you open search with an empty query, you will see:
- Recent searches — your last few searches, stored locally. You can remove individual items or clear the entire history.
- Browse categories — quick links to all seven categories.
- Trending — popular search terms like "Bucephalandra", "Anubias Nana", "CO2 setup", "Cherry shrimp", and "Dragon stone."
Categories
All listings are organized into seven categories:
| Category | What it covers | |---|---| | Aquatic Plants | Stem plants, mosses, ferns, carpeting plants, floaters | | Terrestrial Plants | Houseplants, garden plants, succulents | | Fish & Shrimp | Freshwater fish, shrimp, snails, other livestock | | Equipment | Filters, lights, CO2 systems, tanks, tools | | Hardscape | Rocks, driftwood, dragon stone, substrates | | Supplies | Fertilizers, food, water conditioners, accessories | | Others | Anything that does not fit the categories above |
Browsing by category
You can reach a category page in several ways:
- Categories page — visit the dedicated
/categoriespage to see all seven categories with their current listing counts. - Category chips on the feed — the home feed has a horizontal row of category pills at the top. Tap one to filter the feed instantly without a page reload. The active chip turns green. Tap "All" to go back to the full feed.
- Search palette — type a category name in search and pick the category shortcut from the results.
- Browse page sidebar — the listings browse page includes a category dropdown in the filter bar.
Each category page shows a header with the category icon and listing count, popular tags and locations that are active within that category, and the full filter bar for further narrowing.
Filters
The filter bar appears on the browse page (/listings) and on each category page. On desktop it displays all filters in a single row. On mobile, the search field, category, and sort are shown upfront, with a collapsible "More filters" section for the rest.
Available filters
- Search — free-text keyword search across titles, descriptions, and tags. Type "anubias nana petite" or "CO2 regulator" and the full-text engine will find matches.
- Category — pick a specific category from the dropdown, or leave it on "All categories."
- Condition — filter by item condition. Options are: New, Used, Grown (propagated by the seller), Tissue Culture, and Seed. Select "Any condition" to see everything.
- Location — type a city or province name (e.g., "Quezon City", "Cebu") to find sellers near you.
- Price range — use the dual-handle slider or type exact PHP amounts into the min/max fields. The slider adjusts its ceiling dynamically based on your input. Prices are shown in Philippine Pesos.
After setting your filters, tap Apply (or Apply filters on desktop) to update results. Use the Reset button to clear everything and start fresh. The results bar shows how many listings match and lets you clear individual filters.
Sorting
Sort controls appear in the filter bar alongside the other filters. The four options are:
- Newest (default) — most recently posted listings first.
- Most viewed — listings with the highest view counts, useful for finding popular items.
- Price: Low to High — cheapest first, helpful when you are on a budget.
- Price: High to Low — most expensive first, useful for browsing premium items.
Recently viewed
GrowLab Market tracks the listings you have opened recently and shows them in a "Recently viewed" section. This appears at the bottom of category pages and listing detail pages.
The section displays a horizontally scrollable row of cards showing the thumbnail, title, price, location, and seller name of each listing you visited. It automatically excludes the listing you are currently viewing.
Your viewing history is stored locally in your browser — it is not sent to the server and is not visible to anyone else. You can clear it at any time by tapping the Clear button next to the section header.
Trending searches on the home page
The home page features a "Trending searches" section powered by the most-used tags across the marketplace. These are one-tap shortcuts — click any tag to jump straight to search results for that term. The trending list updates as the community posts and tags new listings, so it reflects what is actively being bought and sold right now.
On the browse page, trending tags also appear in the header area, prefixed with a # symbol. Tapping one runs a search filtered to that tag.
Tips for finding what you need
- Start broad, then narrow. Open a category first, then add filters for condition or location.
- Use the search palette for speed.
Cmd + Kis the fastest way to get anywhere — it searches listings, sellers, and categories in one place. - Check trending tags. They surface what the community is actively trading.
- Combine filters. You can search for "bucephalandra" within the Aquatic Plants category, limited to "Grown" condition and a max price of 500 PHP, all at once.
- Browse by seller location. If you prefer meetups or local shipping, filter by your city or province.