Craigslist Search

pmccumber · 09-28-08, 07:47 PM

When I was hunting for my recent purchase ('95 80) I grew weary of searching Craigslist in Denver, Colorado Springs, Ft Collins, and Boulder for 'Land Cruiser' and 'LandCruiser' so I wrote a little web app.

1) If you go to States you'll see a list of states. Pick one. I'll pick Colorado.

2) You'll see a list of the cities that you can list on Craigslist for that state. Check the ones you want to search.

3) If defaults to 'Car' but if you want to search furniture or something, be my guest.

4) I added a limit so it doesn't spit back 100 of them at you every time if you're searching for months like I did. It defaults to 10.

5) There are two Search String fields. I would enter 'Land Cruiser' and 'Landcruiser' in these and hit enter.

The app then issues all these string/city pairs and renders them back on one page. I also change the font and tell you how many it really finds on the header line.

Give it a try. BTW, I haven't tested many (maybe two) of the other fields of merchandise so if they don't work, lemme now in a pm and I'll fix it. If there is a city that Craigs has added, I'll add it to the list too.

I'll leave it up as long as nobody gets annoyed that I'm making Craigs easier to use. I'll attach a screenshot of a local search and another of results with the default of 10.

Paul

Ebag333 · 09-28-08, 07:59 PM

I prefer Google myself. But slick little app.

bpassmore · 09-28-08, 08:00 PM

excellent job. Are you storing these searches and or results?

chtucker · 09-28-08, 08:06 PM

Awesome...

Do you think it would possible to generate average asking prices? I think that would be an awesome buyers tool

pmccumber · 09-28-08, 08:07 PM

No, I'm not storing the results but that would be the next step. Have a nationwide list compiled.

And yes, I google everything. But craigslist is the de facto standard for online classifieds. Google lost that real estate.

And I bought a domain name this weekend too so as soon as I get that registered, I'll change url to reflect that.

Paul

Ebag333 · 09-28-08, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pmccumber

And yes, I google everything. But craigslist is the de facto standard for online classifieds. Google lost that real estate.

Well I meant more of that I use Google to search Craigslist.

rmcmanus8a · 09-28-08, 08:12 PM

I search craigslist alot, thanks for the info. This will make it alot easier for me.

bpassmore · 09-28-08, 08:19 PM

For a feature wish list (i know you dont want this now)

1. Save cities seleted to persist between sessions
2. Create user profile and make a scheduler to alert user
3. tie in google adwords in the results page to help you out with the hosting
4. brand this.
5. open the API for others to embed.

pmccumber · 09-28-08, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bpassmore

For a feature wish list (i know you dont want this now)

1. Save cities seleted to persist between sessions
2. Create user profile and make a scheduler to alert user
3. tie in google adwords in the results page to help you out with the hosting
4. brand this.
5. open the API for others to embed.

1) might have store cookies on the client (y'all) to do that. If so, it would default to previously selected state/cities.
2) it wouldn't be too hard to have someone leave an email address and I could forward links that meet submitted search strings. Then I would just have to run queries at some interval to see if anything is new.
3) craig might not dig it if I tie in adwords but maybe I can. That would be really nice. good idea.
4) another good idea as long as craig doesn't get miffed.
5) this would be pretty easy too. lemme think about how to do this.

I'll post to this thread again when anything breaks on these fronts. I'm glad y'all see some value in it. It was worth the couple hours I spent writing so I didn't have navigate every single night all over craigslist just to search the Front Range.

Paul

NorCalDoug · 09-28-08, 09:39 PM

nice app.

not sure if it qualifies as 80s tech...but nice none the less...

Daisy 53 · 09-28-08, 11:40 PM

Very nice!
Would it be possible to select all the cities in a state to search, versus clicking on all of them?
How about saving the search strings for use in multiple states?
Thanks, this will save me lots of time!

Daisy

SpillmanCruiser · 09-29-08, 06:58 AM

Try Craig's Helper - Search Craigslist Quickly and Easily . You can search multiple states and cities.

pmccumber · 09-29-08, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpillmanCruiser

Try Craig's Helper - Search Craigslist Quickly and Easily . You can search multiple states and cities.

This is encouraging in that I can probably get away with leaving my app running and not getting sued. Furthermore, it looks like some commercial capability is possible.

I like the way they let you build your targets and I'll do something similar but I still like my search, limits, and rendering better. If I improve the selection, retain previous choices, and allow people to register queries to be performed and emailed to them, those would be good near term goals.

Paul

bpassmore · 09-29-08, 10:04 AM

Paul,
you have a great platform to start from.
If you would like any guidance on deploying this wider, please dont hesitate to ask. Feel free to contact me at bpassmore@gmail.com if you feel I can add anything to this.
Brett

scottm · 09-29-08, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ebag333

Well I meant more of that I use Google to search Craigslist.

Yep, Google: +craigslist +"land cruiser", and you'll get 30,000 CraigsList ads to scan through. Some are expired, lots are accessories and such, but they are from everywhere.

Ebag333 · 09-29-08, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottm

Yep, Google: +craigslist +"land cruiser", and you'll get 30,000 CraigsList ads to scan through. Some are expired, lots are accessories and such, but they are from everywhere.

You can also limit it by time. Limiting it to either 24 hours or 1 week will filter out most of the expired ads.