Craigslist First Look (CFL), is another windows based software application I developed in C#.NET. CFL was inspired out of the need that existed to acquire real time feeds from Craigslist.org on user defined search terms via campaigns targeting specific cities and categories.
At the time of developement their did not exist a suitable solution that could deliver real time Craigslist results. Most rss aggregators would only deliver feeds on a daily or hourly basis where as CFL would deliver feeds at a rate up to 60 times and hour. This may have been somewhat excessive, being that Craigslist results are cached every 15 minutes. However, having real time results delivered automatically to you via Email or SMS as soon as they become available, can prove to be very valuable in the highly competitive world of Craigslist.
A couple of features that made CFL unique at the time of it’s development was not only the real time results delivery system, but also it’s automatic response capability. What this meant was that the user could create a generic targeted message that would automatically be sent out in response to ads meeting the users predefined search criteria. This effectively put the user first in line to acquire the desired item. Another was it’s avoidance of queued results delivery. Similar solutions were web based and queued the users searches before delivering results. With thousands of users on each system, this essentially adds some latency in the users receipt of their desired results. CFL works on a stand alone computer, on its own internet connection, and as it own server, working just for the user. No latency, no delays, no queues! Just real results in real time as they become available. CFL is an automatic system to help insure subscribed users get the first response and acquisition of their desired craigslist items.
