Here’s a quick and painless way to search CraigsList. Some of you guys already use RSS readers. I kinda like Google’s. It’s web based and I can check from anywhere, duh. It’s right there so, I also check it after I check my email.
Here’s a quick and dirty example of how I set up a search.
1) Go to [url=http://www.crazedlist.org]crazedlist.org[/url]. If you don’t know what crazedlist is, shame on you. For you morons, it lets you search multiple CraigsList regions at once.
2) Learn how to use keywords. For example, if you wanna find images of cute dogs just like yours on Google Images, don’t search for “doggie”. If you then think that because you dog is black, and that narrowing your search down to “black doggie” will help, it won’t.
I’m going to search for mopeds. So, my keywords will be “moped”. But I don’t want scooters. So now it’s “moped -scooter”. I also don’t want a moped that needs work or engine or paint. Now I’m at “moped -scooter -needs”. Nothing should be stuck, “moped -scooter -needs -stuck”. And I want it to be 49cc or 50cc not 100cc or 110cc. “moped -scooter -needs -stuck -100cc -110cc”. A listing might not mention the cc’s but if it does, I don’t want 100cc or 110cc, that’s why I excluded those.
Now we have our keywords…
3) Select you category and sub category if you so wish. Mine is “sale/wanted” and “motercycle/scooter”. Add your min and max also if you want. I didn’t. I also left “pics” and “titles only” unchecked.
4) Select the regions you wish to search. I figured a search of the surrounding states would be OK. To quick select those, in the “select…” dropdown I selected “north east”. Then unchecked CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI and VT. I find it easier to spot and remove the highlighted and selected items that it is to hunt and check all the unselected states. Clicking the states link itself checks/unchecks the whole state. I then added NC for the hell of it, since it’s close by, sorta.
5) Click the orange “Get RSS Feed” button.
6) You then should see a “To get the OPML file right-click on [u]this link[/u][color=blue][/color] to [b]Save Link As…[/b]“. Do that. I’m saving mine as “moped.opml”. Like the directions say, it might default to something like “index.cgi”. Change it to “whatever.opml”.
7) Now go over to [url=http://www.google.com/reader/]Google Reader[/url]. Log in if needed. Create an account if needed.
In the upper right hand corner click “Settings”. Then click the “Import/Export” tab.
9) Select your “.opml” file and upload.
10) Now that your subscriptions are all imported. Go to the “Subscriptions” tab.
11) In the top right hand corner there is a text box that helps you filter the subscriptions listed. Filter your list by entering the a keyword you just looked up. Mine being “moped”. I now have 52 subscriptions listed.
12) Along the right hand side on ever listing there’s a dropdown labled “Add to a folder…”. Click on that and choose “New Folder…”. Call it whatever. Mine is “Mopeds”.
13) Under the tabs there are a couple links. Click “All ?? subscriptions” to select all the listed subscriptions.
14) After all your subscriptions are checked, in the “More actions…” dropdown, select the folder name you just created under “Add tag…”. To the right, under each “Add to a folder…”, you should see the folder/tag name in grey.
Now if you go back to the reader home page, you’ll see your folder with all the different subscriptions listed. And your done.