Craigslist searching?

Factual Questions
1

Of the thousands of ads in the writing/editing jobs section of Craigslist, there are a few gems. But it takes a non-trivial amount of time finding them. To get to a basic list, one has to click the city of interest, then writing/editing jobs, then telecommute, then search. Look over the list, then back out to the main state or general page, and start all over again. Since I’m mainly looking at telecommuting jobs, you can imagine that there is a lot of clicking involved. Also, because a clicked link changes color, there are many times where I get a bit lost in the list (did I click on Piscataway today?), and clearing browser history is overkill. Since looking in CL is generally done after other prospecting, there really isn’t time to scour every major city, let alone the plethora of minor ones.

Is there an easier way? One that doesn’t conflict with CL’s terms of use? A script or browser plug-in, perhaps (FF or IE7)?

Thanks,

Rhythm

2

Shoot, missed the edit window. Has anyone had experience with Craigzilla? It seems like it is what I’m looking for, but I can’t tell if it searches multiple regions.

3

Do you have experience using RSS ? Craigslist publishes RSS feeds for it’s search terms.

First you need an RSS reader. I use Google Reader.

To add a feed to Google reader, first sign into Google Reader, then go to Craigslist and put it your search terms. Click Search. At the bottom right of the page, click on the orange square with the letters RSS.

This will take you to the feed page.

On the feed page select Google in the drop down box and click the subscribe now button. On the next page click Add to Google reader. The feed is now in Google reader, and will be updated every few hours. You can read it at at the google reader site.

Other readers are just as easy to use, but I don’t know the step by step instructions off the top of my head. I think IE7 and Firefox both have readers built into the browser, for instance.

Note: Firefox displays an orange RSS box in the address bar when it detects a feed. You can click this button to be taken to the feed page. THe one at Craigslist doen’t work.

Sorry, I don’t know anything about Craigzilla.

Hope this helps.

4

If it takes you a bit to get those methods to work, you can copy the URL and simply change the city name. For example, the writing/editing jobs in Santa Fe are:
http://santafe.craigslist.org/wri/

The ones in Albuquerque are:
http://albuquerque.craigslist.org/wri/

There’s not enough to need a telecommute section, it seems, but you get the general idea.

5

Thanks!
I’ve always wanted to find a good use for an RSS feed, and this looks like what I need.

If it doesn’t work, I can go back to trying various address bar hacks (is that what they’re called?). I tried the /wri without specifying a city, but it defaults to San Francisco. I’d like to find a way to script multiple URLs together, or go one to another (assuming it’s possible, and assuming the RSS feed doesn’t work out).

Again, thanks.