How To Make Craig’s List Look Good On A Mac

Alright, Craigslist.org destroyed the newspaper classified business. Is that reason sufficient to avoid using Craig’s List? Of course not.

Mac users love Craig’s List, right? We just hate the experience? Why? Is there an uglier popular web site than Craig’s List? Here’s how to get rid of the Craig’s List ugly with a handy Mac utility which makes it all pretty and user friendly. The Mac way.

Unless you’ve been living in outer Elbonia in recent years you probably know something about Craig’s List. It’s a web site that runs classified advertising in most major US cities, and many countries. It’s also free for advertisers.

So successful is Craig’s List that many attribute the fall of the daily newspaper’s classified business to the online behemoth. Behemoth?

Craig’s List generates over 10-billion page views a month. Over 40-million people use it; over 30-million in the US.

Why? Craig’s List is free. It’s relatively easy to use, but the experience is anything but pleasant. In short, Craig’s List is uglier than a monkey’s armpit. Shaving a wildcat in a phone booth is more fun than traversing Craig’s List.

Marketplace to the rescue. This handy Mac utility does for Craig’s List what your Mac does for peace of mind to the paranoid.

You can fire up Marketplace and search through any Craig’s List region. Need to check out local iPod selling prices in San Diego? Can do. Use Marketplace to search listings across categories or subcategories. Add built-in filtering to drill down even deeper.

That’s one of the problems with Craig’s List. It just ain’t pretty, and that makes it a challenge to wade through all the cruft and scum. Literally. Marketplace’s filters make wading almost pleasant.

Even better, Marketplace let’s you choose and save favorites, so you can check each day for updated listings using the same parameters. The interface is all Mac with organizational skills and attention to details that would make Monk proud.

Instead of using Safari or Firefox to wade through Craig’s List, use Marketplace to make the journey actually pleasant. No, not so much pleasant as terrific. Especially so when considering the alternative. Craig’s List’s own interface.

Marketplace puts listings in the left column, and single details in the right column, including images. At the top, where a toolbar should be, are the Marketplace filters.

They stack and look and work similar to the filters in Apple’s Mail application.

Drilling down through Craig’s List, which used to be painful, is actually pleasant and logical. At any step of the way you’ll know where you are. Which city. Which product. How many listings.

If you want, Marketplace lets you toss in a bunch of options at the start which makes drilling seem like a one-click search. Add price, location, whatever. Then click. Save the search as a favorite. To get started, click the Plus button. Enter what you want to search for, category and regions, then click.

The only negative for this elegant utility is that it’s one way. Craig’s List to you. Not from you to Craig’s List. So, you can’t make and post your own listings. Yet. That would make Marketplace a perfect utility for the Craig’s List impaired among us.