Flutterby™! : Watching Craigslist

Next unread comment / Catchup all unread comments User Account Info | Logout | XML/Pilot/etc versions | Long version (with comments) | Weblog archives | Site Map | | Browse Topics

Watching Craigslist

2008-09-08 13:16:31.69194+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments

Hey, anyone out there got a recommendation for a Craigslist watcher? It's probably about 45 minutes of Perl, but before I do that I figured I'd see what else is out there. I just want something that'll keep track of a category and tell me if a keyword match comes up.

There are a couple out there, for instance Ad Notifier, but we don't run Windows consistently enough to use a Windows box, and as I look around at some of these other packages I'm somewhat nervous about spyware.

So, either existing Linux, or running on someone else's server, and if we have to pay a few bucks that's okay.

[ related topics: Microsoft Perl Open Source ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: dapper.net + yahoo pips made: 2008-09-08 14:24:48.4721+00 by: hananc

For those kind of tasks I use what's available on the net. I use http://dapper.net and filter the results through Yahoo! Pipes.

Maybe not suitable for "mission critical" ad watching.

#Comment Re: made: 2008-09-08 16:56:41.044841+00 by: soopahviv

You can give this a try: http://toddalerts.com/

It was written by someone I know for their personal use. I haven't tried it, but it's free and externally hosted. :)

#Comment Re: made: 2008-09-08 17:05:54.142207+00 by: crasch

I've used crazedlist to good effect. You can set up an RSS feed for search terms. There are also a couple of others mentioned here:

http://www.techsoup.org/fb/ind...opic&id=65698&forum=2008&cid=117

#Comment Re: Your RSS reader made: 2008-09-08 19:29:17.659237+00 by: Jack William Bell

You can get an RSS feed for any Craigslist search. So, just carefully construct your search and add the feed to your favorite reader (I use Google).

Simple solution to a simple problem using simple standards; I think it is the best way to go!

#Comment Re: made: 2008-09-08 19:54:07.801555+00 by: Dan Lyke [edit history]

I'm waiting on a registration email from toddalerts.com, but feeding an RSS of the search into Claws (or, in Charlene's case, Opera) sounds simplest. Awesome.