I discovered Craigslist in 2005.

I’m sure everyone has their moment of clarity when fondly remembering the first time they came upon this immensely useful site, much like how the forest animals reminisced about where they were when they heard Bambi’s mother was shot in Gary Larson’s satirical comic strip The Far Side. Craiglist has become so ubiquitous to our culture, the go-to source for apartments, jobs, used bikes, and more, that in a few short years it has become as common a household word as eBay, Amazon, and Google. I found both my apartments in Oakland, and my apartment in San Francisco through Craiglist, and I’ve definitely scoured city blocks in finding those free plants plunked on curbsides listed under the “Free” category.

BeCraigly.com developed an iPhone app called Craigly Lite that allows you to easily navigate through Craigslist without using a browser. It’s pretty straightforward, the first screen showing search parameters of location, category, price range, the option that an image must accompany a description, and then another filter depending on the category (i.e. if you chose to search under the category apts/housing, then an additional filter option of bedroom amount will be given – 0+, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, etc). New to version 1.2 is the addition of the Personals and Best-of-Craigslist categories, so now you may post those poetic “missed connections” right after you run into that ethereal, pouty-lipped redhead ordering a Macchiato at the local Starbucks.

Once you finish filling out your search filters, tap the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner and Craigly Lite will quickly provide you with all the search results either in List, Thumbnail, or Slide Show format, the view of which you may change by tapping any of the aforementioned tabs along the top of the screen. I, myself, prefer the thumbnail view option, as it allows me to see roughly 5 small images along with their description at a time, before having to scroll through the rest. The slideshow view is quite nice, giving you a blown up image in detail, only you must cycle through results one at a time, which can be a bit time-consuming and induce your mind to wander after awhile.

After selecting a search result – I selected a handmade purse from anywhere in the SF Bay Area – you are taken to the exact Craigslist page for that particular item. Tap the arrow tab at the bottom of the screen to bring up an options screen allowing you to either reply directly to the post, reply with pics, forward to someone through email, save the images, or add to your wish list. The in-app mail feature allows you to send emails with multiple picture attachments, allowing for greater ease of use (no more resending and resending with single attachments!).

When adding a location to search, you have the option of using a US city by name, US ciy by state, US neighborhoods, Canada, Latin America, International cities, and other cities by country. For those unfamiliar with Craigslist – yes you, the Aborigine living in the red sand dunes of Australia – “neighborhoods” are those smaller enclaves within a city itself; places like San Francisco are large enough to where people identify a certain radius with a localized culture, creating neighborhoods with names like Pacific Heights, the Mission, Bernal Heights, Marina, Nob Hill, North Beach, the Tenderloin (so far still in the unsuccessful campaign of being re-dubbed “Little Saigon”), and more. Should you simply wish to utilize the nifty GPS feature compatible with Craigly Lite (with a coordinate database of 760+ craigslist sites), you may opt to search “nearby locations”; of course, once you change the default distance filter from 300 to 1000 miles, it’s not exactly “nearby” anymore.

While you may search multiple locations simultaneously, even multiple searches with a different category or location combo, Craigly Lite is limited to a maximum of 5 search sites at once, reminding you with an error message should you try to squeeze in one more. Thankfully, though, if ever you don’t want to search strictly by lists or from picking names, you may use the Google maps interface for editing your search locations. Once you tirelessly search through all the different locations and distance radii, categories and such, Craigly Lite has the option of saving your search or adding them to your Wish List so that you won’t forget.

Craigly Lite is free, and offers much of the same amenities as the paid version (perhaps an updated review on the paid version is warranted), and I find it a suitable and handy way to search for items on the go, or when I simply don’t have my computer at hand. With a clean and straightforward interface, and easy search functions, Craigslist has made a step in the right direction with Craigly Lite.