Jeremy Williams
03-13-2009, 7:49 AM
Some of your techies will already know this little trick, so this is for the not-so-technically-inclined who want to try their hand at finding great deals online ... especially on Craigslist.
The shortcoming of Craigslist is that you can't search all Craigslist sites in one move. Craigslist is not just one website ... it's many websites all over the world. So ... that makes it messy.
In comes Google.
One-time Search How-To
It's too simple, but this is what you have to do. Just pick the words you want to search for, and then in the search box also include site:craigslist.org (no spaces!). This will work with any domain you choose. The results will be a standard Google search results page, but now the results will be limited to only those with the craigslist.org domain.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/666/searchcraigslist.jpg
Google Alerts Setup How-To
So now that you know how to search Craigslist globally with Google ... why not let Google do the work itself!
iGoogle is going to be required to do this. Just go to www.igoogle.com (http://www.igoogle.com/) and get a free account.
Okay, now to the setup ... in 4 steps you'll be up and running!
1. Go to iGoogle and click on My Account
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/666/medium/igoogle1.jpg
2. Find the link for Alerts and click it.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/666/igoogle2.jpg
3. Put in your search terms, how you want Google to search, how you want it to report and which email address to send it to.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/666/medium/igoogle3.jpg
4. Sit back and let Google do the work. When the search engine finds a match to your search criteria, it will now send you an email with links. Cool, eh?
One more thing ... next time you go in to add more searches (yes, you can have many!) the screen will look like this.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/666/medium/igoogle4.jpg
Good luck and have fun!
The shortcoming of Craigslist is that you can't search all Craigslist sites in one move. Craigslist is not just one website ... it's many websites all over the world. So ... that makes it messy.
In comes Google.
One-time Search How-To
It's too simple, but this is what you have to do. Just pick the words you want to search for, and then in the search box also include site:craigslist.org (no spaces!). This will work with any domain you choose. The results will be a standard Google search results page, but now the results will be limited to only those with the craigslist.org domain.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/666/searchcraigslist.jpg
Google Alerts Setup How-To
So now that you know how to search Craigslist globally with Google ... why not let Google do the work itself!
iGoogle is going to be required to do this. Just go to www.igoogle.com (http://www.igoogle.com/) and get a free account.
Okay, now to the setup ... in 4 steps you'll be up and running!
1. Go to iGoogle and click on My Account
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/666/medium/igoogle1.jpg
2. Find the link for Alerts and click it.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/666/igoogle2.jpg
3. Put in your search terms, how you want Google to search, how you want it to report and which email address to send it to.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/666/medium/igoogle3.jpg
4. Sit back and let Google do the work. When the search engine finds a match to your search criteria, it will now send you an email with links. Cool, eh?
One more thing ... next time you go in to add more searches (yes, you can have many!) the screen will look like this.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/666/medium/igoogle4.jpg
Good luck and have fun!