8. Avoid Bulky and Impractical Search Tools

Stay away from sketchy and redundant Craigslist search software. While you have lots of useful methods of navigating Craigslist outside of the actual site, there are also far too many programs that complicate the process rather than help it.

Search Tempest (formerly Craig's Helper) allows you to set a starting point, no matter how many miles away from your actual location, and search from there. This aspect of the free, Web-based Search Tempest is useful, but it's nothing you can't do with a higher-profile tool like CraigsPal. I felt like my computer was being slaughtered by spyware just looking at the site, and it's downright ugly. But you don't need it anyway: Search Tempest is mostly a rehash of other available resources.

Crazedlist.org also presents multicity searches, but it requires dismantling referrers in your browser. I tried to execute the procedure in Firefox, and the browser screamed that I was wandering into treacherous territory that may be harmful to its stability, security, and performance. Definitely not an app you'd want to tinker with if you value your online safety.

The home page of Anthony Damata's Global Craigslist Search Engine announces that it has undergone several crashes and unexplained blocks due to Craigslist interference. Again, I'm far too paranoid a Web surfer to want to play around with something that might harm my computer. Anyway, this search engine acts merely as a direct portal to Craigslist itself, so you might as well just go straight to Craigslist.