Yes, I’m into the genre of blogs and books on optimizing productivity aka: “Productivity Porn”. I recently came across a cool tip I’d like to share with you. I think I’ve either been hiding under a rock, or I’m one of the millions of people who haven’t noticed the tiny little “RSS” link now at the bottom of every search done on
Craig’s List. I finally noticed, and started using it the other day, and WOW, it’s a powerful little tool!
It’s a simple site enhancement to the wonderfully basic Craig’s List, until you start thinking about how to use it. What I’ve done is tied multiple searches to my Bloglines feed to be monitored daily.
Example: I’m looking to buy a cheap computer chair. I don’t want to get in my car, drive to Target, and buy a new chair for $50 + tax + gas + assembly, hell no. A basic black computer chair is one of those commodity items people moving out end up wanting to unload quickly for twenty bucks. So I set up a search on “computer chair” under Furniture for Sale in SF. Now I can sit back, wait for the results to come in, and monitor the prospects from a place I hang out anyways--my bloglines feed. This is a perfect example of the information I want from the web coming to me instead of me seeking it out again and again manually.
My computer chair is a simple example, but let’s think about more significant uses. Say you’re looking to move to a certain appealing block in San Francisco, say, “The Great Highway”. You can simple set a search under apartments for ALL mentions of that block and be amongst the first to hop on a vacancy. Want to eventually buy a house in a certain neighborhood, say, Noe Valley? Simply add that search to your RSS feed and monitor that market and wait for a under market offering like the stealth cheetah you are. Looking to buy a rarely re-sold high-end piece of furniture? Go ahead, store a search for that “Eames Lounge Chair” for under $500 you’ve been lusting over, sit back, wait for that Pac Heights housewife to list hers at a price break, and let the results come to you.
Feeds I've Set:
DS Light (by Nintendo so I can play that Brain Age game)
Liberty Hill (neighborhood I'd like to eventually live in)
Computer Chair
Sapien Bookcase (a DWR bookcase I'm lusting over)
Ikea Besta (a bookshelf I want--second-hand ikea is a good 1/2 off)
Yes, I’m into the genre of blogs and books on optimizing productivity aka: “Productivity Porn”. I recently came across a cool tip I’d like to share with you. I think I’ve either been hiding under a rock, or I’m one of the millions of people who haven’t noticed the tiny little “RSS” link now at the bottom of every search done on Craig’s List. I finally noticed, and started using it the other day, and WOW, it’s a powerful little tool!
