How to Search Multiple Locations on Craigslist

According to Hitwise, a company which tracks internet search terms and trends, Craigslist is now a #1 search term. If you use Craigslist then you know that it has a wealth of information. While it's fairly easy to search through listings within a specific city or town, how do you search listings posted throughout an entire country, or even the entire world?

This is where the Craigslist Reader comes in. 


According to DownloadSquad, "Craigslist Reader makes searching Craigslist simple." It is a well written application that allows users to drill through the entire database of Craigslist, based on any search criteria whatsoever. The application is aesthetically impressive and is completely FREE. Search results are displayed in the pane to the right, and individual ad content is displayed in the panel below it. There is also a section where users can add their Craigslist items for free.

Users can go to "Advanced Search" section to set comprehensive search criteria. They pick their locations, categories, search options, and click on the "Search" button and it goes and finds stuff from Craigslist. Browsing through postings with Craigslist Reader is also very fast. In the top frame, you have a list of all your results. 

Click on a result and it appears in the bottom frame-exactly as the page would appear on Craigslist. Then you can simply click the next listing (or just press the down key) in the top frame, and that will appear below. With Craigslist Reader you don't need to constantly click the back button to view the next listing. It might be worth downloading for this reason alone.

The power of this application really comes out when you start using it. While the search itself can take a fair amount of time depending on the number of connections you allow (consider the fact that it's sifting through millions of ads across the world), the results are more useful than anything you'll find trying to sift through the website yourself.

For example, if you are looking for your dream car and are willing to look beyond your local city, you might pick your entire state or areas near you. The Craigslist Reader is useful for local searches as well, but when you can do work on a global scale, this application can really come in handy. By the time it's finished there are thousands of results to sift through; or just few - depending on your search criteria and locations.

Alerts The real game on Craigslist is getting to the opportunity faster than anyone else. If somebody is selling that iPod on a really great price because they want to sell it "today", and you call them "tomorrow" then it might be too late. On eBay, whoever calls last wins the opportunity, but on Craigslist, it's the opposite. On Craigslist, whoever calls first usually wins the opportunity. That's where the "alerts" feature of Craigslist Reader is useful.

When you click the "Add as Alert" box before performing a search, you can add that search to your alert list. What that means is that the Craigslist Reader will repeat the search as often as you tell it to, and when there are any new results, it will immediately notify you through a display, sound, SMS, email, RSS alerts. It really doesn't get any better and faster than this.

This is an excellent feature, especially if you're in a highly competitive industry and need to jump on opportunities before your competition.

Free User Ads Craigslist Reader offers something not just for buyers, but also for sellers. There is a section where you can add your ad, and everybody who is using the application will see that ad, if it matches the keyword that the user is searching for.

All you do is locate your ad on Craigslist and then drag and drop that ad on this section. Everybody who uses this application will see the ad if it meets their search criteria. This is the best way to reach those thousands of people who are using the application. This is another reason which makes this application worth downloading.

Contacting the seller

When you are looking at the ad in the bottom frame, you will notice that on the right side application provides some shortcuts. You can use these shortcuts to forward the ad to your friend, or add it in the ad section, or open it in your browser window, or add it to your favorites section. But the best shortcut is the "Reply" one.

It lets you contact the seller right from the Reader. Once you choose this option, it opens up a window which looks like this.

Here you can enter the information and click "Send" to send an email to the seller. Best thing is that it will remember all the information that you entered first time, so next time you will not have to change anything and you can just simply click on the 'Send' button. This saves a lot of time. For example, if I am buying a laptop, I usually send email to several people and I have the same body in those emails, asking them for the details of the laptop. I don't have to re-type that information again and again for different ads; the application remembers it and saves me a lot of time.

Options

The key feature in the Options section is the ability to modify how many connections you want to allow the application to use. This lets you scale back the bandwidth that the Craigslist Reader uses if you want to just let it run in the background while you surf the Internet. By carefully selecting the right connection count, you can tweak the Reader to make the most efficient use of your broadband Internet connection.

While there are a number of web based and application based Craigslist readers out there, Motion Technologies really nailed it with this particular free reader. The search capacity, bug-free features, and the ability to tweak the application and alert settings to your particular needs sets this reader well above the rest.

In particular, if you are looking for job opportunities, just set up your search notifications, let the application run in the background and before you know it countless job opportunities will be knocking down your door.