Craigslist tip

I figured since so many people on here use Craigslist for equipment, this might help. I've been doing this for a while now.

If you're searching for something specific, you can use Google alerts to tell you when a new post hits Craigslist. Google will send you an email as soon as something new matches your Craigslist search. The text-only email will contain the Craigslist posting title as well as the first few lines of the post and a direct link to it, so it works well with cell phones.


Prepare your google query as follows:

<search string> site:<city>.craigslist.org

So, if I want to be alerted when a 7 string Ibanez guitar appears in austin, I would search for:

7 string ibanez site:austin.craigslist.org

Click search. Now click on the News link at the top. Then, click on News Alerts on the left toolbar.

Make sure the "Search terms" field has your search string in it. Change the Type field to Web.
Change the How Often field to As it happens.

Type in your email and submit the information. You will get a confirmation email shortly.

You can use this technique for many other sites, just be aware that you're going to get an email every time there is a new match in the google query.

If you aren't in the US, you'll have to use whatever domain is appropriate instead of <cityname>.craigslist.org, like <cityname>.en.craigslist.ca or whatever.


If you want it to send you a text message instead, you can use the following email format, depending on your provider. If you want to get updates on your phone, this would be much faster than email since email generally has to be refreshed at certain increments, where texting is more or less instant. However, be aware that text messages are (generally) 160 characters, so it's going to truncate a bunch of the email and you will have to get to a computer to be able to read the whole post OR you can set up a second alert sent to an email address on your phone, so that when you get the text, you can manually refresh your email to read the whole thing.

Here are the formats for some different providers. If yours isn't on here, just search for it. They all have this capability.

Alltel [email protected] [email protected]
ATT [email protected] [email protected]
Cingular [email protected] [email protected]
Metro PCS [email protected] [email protected]
Nextel [email protected] [email protected]
Sprint [email protected] [email protected]
T-Mobile [email protected] [email protected]
Verizon [email protected] [email protected]

Excellent info! Thanks.

awesome, thanks

I am surprised by how well you explained this.

You probably just increased the amount of competition in your city for home brew stuff.

madewithchicken said:

I am surprised by how well you explained this.

You probably just increased the amount of competition in your city for home brew stuff.

Click to expand...

and yours too :cross:

oh....and in mine too

Alternatively, you can do your search on the craigslist site, create an RSS feed out of that (RSS icon at the bottom of the page) and subscribe to that feed with a RSS reader (Google Reader)... I've been using this method for a while.

The OP's method of using email/SMS alerts is a little simpler for folks who aren't in from of a computer all the time (like I am for work).

madewithchicken said:

I am surprised by how well you explained this.

Click to expand...

I'm surprised by how much I understood it...

Thanks!!

dont forget you can create an rss feed so if anything is posted it will update you.
just do your search.
scroll down to the bottom
on the right hand side right click the rss button and choose copy link location
paste it in your rss reader.

Another thing you might want to do is search with a * at the end.It's a wild card character. For instance keg* will show matches keg,kegs and keggles.

Cool Idea, I hope I have better luck using this method! I will give it a try.

Sweet. I will have to do this!

I do this all the time, I've found it useful for other searching things too like forum posts.

Sometimes I'll use crazedlist.org : search craigslist like a madman though.

Has anyone tried to use the texting feature with sprint? If so how did you get the google alerts account verification to validate? I tried to reply to the text, I realize this will not work but did it anyway, and I still can’t get the account to validate. So if anyone has this working with sprint would you tell me how you did it?

Crazedlist seems only to work with Firefox

I will be exploring that site 4 sure...

Before was using rss feeds

Crazedlist seems only to work with Firefox

I will be exploring that site 4 sure...

Before was using rss feeds

This is a great tip, thank you.

um...so if I get tired of getting emails how do you unsubscribe?

This work very well. I just scored a great deal on a motorcycle...I think I replied to the ad while the guy was still formatting his post. When I first viewed it within four minutes, he still hadn't posted his photos...hah.

Excellent advice. I've also used pingie.com before. It's a free RSS to SMS service. Just add your craigslist rss feed and your phone number and it'll send you a txt when someone adds another item matching your search. Cool stuff. But noone use this around the Orlando area for corney kegs