Craigslist regional or national searches

[California]

I found a search tool to list Craigslist ads nearby and within a specified distance. Searchtempest.

Here's a Searchtempest example, customized for me. I defined it as Yanmars within a 300 mile radius of I-80 / I-5. (ie all of Northern and Central California).


Searchtempest also shows the Ebay and Amazon listings that match the search criteria.

 

[Domush]

Thanks. I've always wondered why craigslist doesn't let you do expanded area searches. All of this time and they have barely improved a bit.

I'd be tempted to make a website which converts craigslist into a usable site, complete with new item notifications but they don't allow automated systems to use their site. And they are known for going after sites violating that rule.

The one you mention does all the work using your browser to get around their rules, which is nice.

 

[ssg510]

At one time I used The jaXed Mash Combined For Sale Listings. It combined ebay, craigslist into state or regional searches. From what I understand, Craigs List filed suit to enjoin them from doing this because they only want to be a local trade site. Does not make sense. The bigger the market, the more likely to sell or find the item you are looking for. I now use searchtempist.

 

[YannyMan]

I use Search Tempest as well. The webiste is slow is the only drawback.

 

[kf4uda]

Give this one a try. It will let you search national then narrow it down to regional then by state.

allofcraigs.com - Search ALL of Craigslist

 

[johnrex62]

I have been using the Android app Craigslist Notification. It allows grouping regions and creates saved searches.

Whenever I am looking for something, I just create a search term to look for and check off the regions I am willing to go to and it populates a list on my phone and updates it every 15 minutes with new ads.

 

[California]

I found a search tool to list Craigslist ads nearby and within a specified distance. Searchtempest.

Give this one a try. It will let you search national then narrow it down to regional then by state.

allofcraigs.com - Search ALL of Craigslist

I just spent a few minutes trying out AllofCraigs. I found it is a front end for Google Search, so it doesn't list CL ads until the Google spider found and indexed them.

So far, Searchtempest looks like the best application. It composes a 'local' search for each CL in the region you specify. So you see ads immediately as they are posted.

At least for Yanmars, the best deals are sold within hours so seeing the ad immediately is a big advantage.

 

[IslandTractor]

Thanks. I've always wondered why craigslist doesn't let you do expanded area searches. All of this time and they have barely improved a bit.

I'd be tempted to make a website which converts craigslist into a usable site, complete with new item notifications but they don't allow automated systems to use their site. And they are known for going after sites violating that rule.

The one you mention does all the work using your browser to get around their rules, which is nice.

The Craigslist philosophy is local, local, local. They object to programs like SearchTempest and make life difficult for them. If you notice with SearchTempest the results of a regional or national search are really pretty inconvenient to look through and have lots of duplicates.

I use an iphone app, Craigs Pro+ which is actually better than Search Tempest in many ways but still doesn't cut out duplicates.

 

[hawkeye08]

I use this one. crazedlist.org : search craigslist like a madman

 

[Domush]

The Craigslist philosophy is local, local, local.

And it is a fine theory, except some people live on a border, border, border and straddle two equally close areas. This means people have to search twice (or more) for every item instead of simply checking two (or more) region checkboxes and avoiding the annoyance or jumping around.

As a practical example, my area is "Western Kentucky".. which covers a LOT of ground, where "Clarksville, TN" items are sometimes just 15 minutes down the road (across the TN border). How does limiting my search to all of West KY and not including 15 min down the road make anything "local"? Good theory, but you're wrong.

Frankly, the regions layout is downright outdated, as doing it by distance from zipcode would be much more useful. If you really wanted to stay local, that is a much more effective means, and a means CL doesn't support.