[jammingator]

Love it -- thanks so much!!

Something I found is that search results for Ft. Myers, FL always come up empty. The display I get is:

Results For: ftmeyers

Which is misspelled (no 'e' in Myers). Don't know if it matters or not.

Here's the link to Ft. Myers craigslist craigslist: ft myers / SW florida classifieds for jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events

Thanks again!!

[pmccumber]

Originally Posted by jammingator

Love it -- thanks so much!!

Something I found is that search results for Ft. Myers, FL always come up empty. The display I get is:

Results For: ftmeyers

Which is misspelled (no 'e' in Myers). Don't know if it matters or not.

Here's the link to Ft. Myers craigslist craigslist: ft myers / SW florida classifieds for jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events

Thanks again!!

The craigslist key for Ft Myers is 'fortmyers' and as you pointed out, I had it wrong. Should work now.

Paul

[khoopes]

Thank You for putting this together... and then SHARING it with us. Very Very Helpful.

Kris

[Mtbcoach]

I'm another big fan of this utility. I'm searching for an 80 for my daughter and it is saving me a great deal of time in doing so. Thanks...

[davegonz]

Would it be easy to add a "Select All" radio button if you want to search all of the cities in a given state? I think it would be cool

[pmccumber]

Originally Posted by davegonz

Would it be easy to add a "Select All" radio button if you want to search all of the cities in a given state? I think it would be cool

It would be cool. I'd have to put a javascript script in there to facilitate that but I just googled it and it looks pretty simple. So yeah. Check back end of the week.

Paul

[CaliChaos]

nice little "hack"

I have been using this little gem for a while now:
Search Tempest!

[davegonz]

Thanks Paul. You need a PayPal donations button on there as well

[pmccumber]

Ok y'all got "Check All" buttons. Nice add.

Paul

[davegonz]

Well done Paul. I wonder how much traffic your site is getting now?

[pmccumber]

Originally Posted by davegonz

Well done Paul. I wonder how much traffic your site is getting now?

I log each request and I'm getting approximately 4,000 unique visitors a day. I'm very pleasantly surprised that it hasn't been hacked, I've never rebooted the server. I've rebooted the web server several times but only because I want a new function to take hold.

One of my friends installed an app that allowed him to support some picture sharing utility and a month later some middle east group hacked it and uploaded jihadist propaganda complete with pics of doods with hoods and Ak-47s.

Here, just humming along. I intend to make an option to recieve the data as an excel spreadsheet. That ought to be fun.

Paul

[BMWSTOY]

Paul, great stuff. I have shared this with several family and friends and they love me for it. I of course pass on the KUDOS to the maker

Great, love this thing

[FastCarGuy]

Just one more to say THANKS!!!!!!!

[TexCruiser]

saved this link to my favorites.

[erymer]

Originally Posted by TexCruiser

saved this link to my favorites.

same here. very nice.

[Ronin]

Paul - thanks for the great utility!!!

Considering getting an LC and this has made my searching so much easier.

Thanks again!!

[ARC1]

super app.. love it.

wondering if I'm missing something obvious.. but is there a way to check multiple states?
I'm looking to buy an FJ40, pref from West states, so could I search all of CA, AZ, NV, etc..

THANK YOU!!
-Jay

[pmccumber]

Originally Posted by ARC1

super app.. love it.

wondering if I'm missing something obvious.. but is there a way to check multiple states?
I'm looking to buy an FJ40, pref from West states, so could I search all of CA, AZ, NV, etc..

THANK YOU!!
-Jay

One of the reasons I think Craig lets this thing slide is because I'm not making it mindlessly easy to really bang their server. As it is, one click and a whole state goes off with up to three queries. Even that is hitting them. If I enable, with one click, a couple thousand searches, my IP would be blocked by the end of the week.

I have even resisted putting the thing in a 'robots.txt' file because the search engines would find it then.

Now have y'all seen the Firefox Add-ons? I was thinking of writing one that would make the searches originate with the user. In that case, yeah, I would do it because it would be originating from you guys and from varying IPs and that wouldn't flag anything.

Hope that makes sense.

Paul

[GLTHFJ60]

Originally Posted by pmccumber

One of the reasons I think Craig lets this thing slide is because I'm not making it mindlessly easy to really bang their server. As it is, one click and a whole state goes off with up to three queries. Even that is hitting them. If I enable, with one click, a couple thousand searches, my IP would be blocked by the end of the week.

I have even resisted putting the thing in a 'robots.txt' file because the search engines would find it then.

Now have y'all seen the Firefox Add-ons? I was thinking of writing one that would make the searches originate with the user. In that case, yeah, I would do it because it would be originating from you guys and from varying IPs and that wouldn't flag anything.

Hope that makes sense.

Paul

Makes total sense to me. That would be a sweet plug in! Let us know when you write it.

[ARC1]

makes sense.. didn't think of your exposure or risk..
it's perfect just the way it is. Thanks again for making it.

[yotaforce1]

this is now on my favorites...

i also showed it to my brother he said, and i quote "my life is now complete." its on the favorites.

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by GLTHFJ60

Makes total sense to me. That would be a sweet plug in! Let us know when you write it.

+10,000

Please do let us know when you write it.

[arglebargle]

Nice tool!

A suggestion: can you put the search terms in the URL of the results somehow? So we can bookmark the full search and go straight to the results the next day?

Now, if you could add a filter to remove scammers and morons, I would pay to use it and you would be rich!

[CaliChaos]

firefox plugins:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6288

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3682


various "power user" tips:
Lifehacker - Technophilia: Craigslist for power users - Craigslist

robneb.com - Search Craigslist from Firefox

google + firefox muscle:
How To Search All Craigslist Sites At Once Using Firefox Keywords… the LYNCH report

no need to reinvent the wheel.

[bigjhoov]

did you take this down?

[youmustbecrazy]

Something's up??? Love this thing, have been using it since the get go, but can't get it going right now? Hope to god it is fixable, don't think I could ever go back to the way it was. Thanks Paul, you have saved numeorus hours, much appreciated

[pmccumber]

I came down here just now to print something and one of my kids had powered off the server. I give them so much grief for leaving things on and now they just brought down the server.

Sorry 'bout that. At least it got a reboot ...

[95Rover]

Originally Posted by pmccumber

I wrote a little search utility to make my life easier when I was searching for my 80, shopping for lenses, etc. on Craigslist. I posted this some time ago on the 80 tech page. I waited until I finally got the initiative to get a domain name and get it linked with my server to make the announcement here. And I added a third search field. Anyway, here is the link:

States

There is a writeup on the 80s tech page on how to use it here:
http://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-te...st-search.html

Basically, I got tired of searching "Denver" for "Land Cruiser" and then "Landcruiser" and then "LX450" and then going and doing the same miserable thing for "Boulder" and then "Ft Collins" and then, well you get the idea.

This app lets you say what you want to look for and dispatches the queries and writes them back in one response. You can limit it so you don't have to see 56 when there are only a couple new ones per day. It also condenses the output with smaller font and packs the links a little which I like.

It will also let you search other categories other than cars, just look at the pulldown.

If there are any errors like some city doesn't work or Craigs has added a city since I last updated, go ahead and PM me and I'll fix it. Craigs has also changed the category variables from time to time so I have to tweak it every 6 mos or so.

Paul

Thanks for the help with the programming, it is very useful as I am on the hunt for a used UZJ100, but the Midwest is terrible for finding a used LC. There are hardly any when compared to Colorado, or any western U.S. states. Boring state that Illinois is! Have you thought about a search by region? ie; Midwest, West, East etc... I would love to search Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan at once.

Thanks Again.

[limerence]

Thanks! Added it to my list of craigslist search engines.

[pmccumber]

From Wired this week: Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess

Many have suggested I ad advertising or expand the capability to nationwide or regional. I'm just really scared Craig would banish me as this little story relates:

Buckmaster's dispassionate protest reflects his cast of mind. Emotional appeals are more likely to provoke his skepticism than his sympathy, and when the complaints come from aspiring Internet entrepreneurs he is especially prone to sarcasm. He hears many such complaints, because one of the most curious things about craigslist is that a company designed and run entirely by programmers is so hostile to outsiders who want to pull neat technical tricks to improve the site. A few years ago, independent programmer Jeff Atwood created a service that would allow people to search multiple cities at once or even search craigslist globally. Buckmaster arranged some technical interference to kill it off. Another programmer named Ryan Sit created a service called Listpic, which scraped images from craigslist and dumped them into an interface for browsing: You could scan through all the photos from the apartment listings or see pictures of all the dogs up for adoption. Buckmaster banished Listpic, too.

He had specific objections to both. Listpic ran ads, it put a high burden on craigslist servers, and when he looked at traffic records he noticed that Listpic was being used mainly to enhance enjoyment of the sexy images people posted in their erotic-services ads. Universal search subverts craigslist's mission to enable local, face-to-face transactions; it increases the risk of scams and can be exploited to snatch up bargains, giving technically sophisticated users an advantage over casual browsers. But the very surfeit of these practical objections—many of which probably have technical solutions—hints that the real explanation lies elsewhere, and with a minimum of pressure Buckmaster will state it plainly. It is the same reason that craigslist has never done any of the things that would win approval among Web entrepreneurs, the same reason he has never updated its 1999-era Web design. The reason is that craigslist's users are not asking for such changes.

Paul