Craigslist

I spend a lot of time on Craigslist — looking for tech goodies, apartments, garage sales, whatever — and you can get lost in its many offerings, and find yourself off track from your initial surfing goals. Sometimes, it's better to use a third-party app or tool to find what you want without ever visiting the site. This sure cuts down on spam and time, so check out a few ways you can find what you're looking for without ever pointing your browser to Craigslist.com.

• Craigslist iPhone App (Free) — This iPhone app has been tried and tested by one of our TrésSugar editors during a recent apartment hunt, and she says this is the best one she's tried. Coming with the ability to filter and nail down goods, digs, and other free goodies on the go, this app doesn't crash like some of the other lesser-reviewed apps. Plus, it's free!
• Housing Maps — Speaking of apartment hunting, Housing Maps allows you to see available rentals on a map instead of clicking through each listing, then opening new windows for a Google Maps locator. Filters include pets, price, keywords, bedrooms, and pictures, but the good news is, if the listing has photos, you'll see it pop up on the map without clicking through to the ad.

See the rest of the list after the jump.

If you're pulling your hair out about how hopeless the sale of your house is going, maybe you should hop onto the Craigslist bandwagon. Scott Miller, a resident of Dallas, TX, decided to place an advertisement in the online classifieds network for his five-bedroom house, according to the Daily Mail. He's asking for $349,500, and has already received a bid that matches the amount. Miller says, "I think it could change the way people sell their houses in America because it puts the sales process in the hands of the owner."

Miller's going the nontraditional route of taking things into his own hands and not relying on a realtor. It seems to have worked — within two days of putting up the ad, Miller had received several bids. Would you consider selling your home on Craigslist?

If you're looking for something — anything — near you, Craigslist is probably one of your first online stops. The site has essentially re-created newspaper classifieds for the Internet. Now, there's an iPad app that re-creates Craigslist for the iPad, using a classic newspaper design. Lifelike Craig is a new (old?) way to view and post to Craigslist with the look and feel of a newspaper's classified ads.

The app allows you to do everything you do on Craigslist — post and edit ads from multiple accounts or browse ads in landscape or portrait design. The app makes ads much easier (and prettier!) to read. It also targets your location, automatically displaying all available categories. You can view the location of any posted item on a map, forward ads to friends, and reply to ads without leaving the app.

Lifelike Craig is available for $2 in the App Store.

I've been known to peruse my local Craigslist Missed Connections daily on occasion, mainly for its entertainment value ("Your friend offered me some cotton candy . . . I want to taste your 'other' cotton candy . . . " really?!), but I never thought that people seriously connected through them. But then one of my friends shared that several of her gal pals have found MCs about them.

Here's her true story about "Me: Guy at the end of the bar in the Giants hat that couldn't stop looking at you. You: Ravishing beauty with dark blond hair."

My roommate never went out — grad student, new to the city, not a lot of friends yet — and the one time she does, she gets an MC! I tried dragging her out for a drink for the 20th time, and she finally came. Another friend of mine who trolls MC saw the ad and remembered what she was wearing. It was definitely her in the ad. He described what she was wearing, said they kept making eye contact, and said, "It looked like you were dealing with your drunk, tattooed friend who was very loud." She remembered the guy as being cute but didn't write him back; she was too afraid. But one of the girls she was with did. And he didn't respond! I think he thought the email was fake, or he had regrets (he posted his MC at 3:30 a.m.).

Whether it was while riding on public transportation, at a sporting event, at the gym, or at another local singles hot spot (for us it's Safeway), do you have some juicy Missed Connections stories? Spill the deets!

Source: Flickr User Andy Mangold