Every Sift feature, and exactly how it works

How Sift decides

Sift is not a black box, and it isn’t AI. Each feature follows a simple rule, and you can always see why it did what it did.

Hiding

As each page of results loads, Sift reads every listing card: its title, price, place, photo and posting time. It checks the card against your rules, such as sponsored listings, sold items, a word you blocked or a distance you set. A card that breaks a rule leaves the grid and the listings below slide up to fill the gap. Every hidden card keeps its reason, like “Sponsored listing”, “41 km away” or “Blocked word: wanted”. The pill at the bottom of the page counts them; click it to peek at each one and bring any back. If you’d rather see them faded than gone, one switch dims them instead.

Blocked words match whole words, so blocking “art” leaves the party tent alone. “Phrases in quotes” match as a phrase, a star matches the start of a word (financ* catches financing and financed), and accents are ignored.

Price history and reposts

Sift records the price of each listing it sees, on results pages and on the listing itself, and keeps that record in your browser on your computer. When the price falls, a badge such as ↓ 25% shows the drop from the highest price Sift has seen. Hover for the dated history: every change, the lowest price, and when Sift first saw the listing. History starts when Sift first sees a listing; it can’t know what something cost before that.

Sift also recognises an item that was deleted and listed again to look new. It marks it Reposted, with the date and price it first appeared at.

Fair price

Each listing gets Below typical, Typical or Above typical, based on the other listings on the same results page. Sift leaves out sponsored, free, placeholder and wanted listings, trims the extremes, and needs at least eight usable prices before it gives a verdict. Below typical means cheaper than the lowest quarter of the page; above typical means dearer than the top quarter. The card shows the middle price and how many listings it was based on.

It is a quick read, not an appraisal. A search for “bike” mixes kids’ bikes with road bikes, so the narrower your search, the sharper the verdict. For a second opinion, eBay sold prices are one click away.

Red flags and good signs

Sift reads the listing’s title and description, in English and French, for wording that scam guides from Meta, the FTC and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre warn about: deposits and payment first, gift cards, wire, Zelle, PayPal friends, WhatsApp, “text me at”, phone numbers and email addresses, sellers who are “moving out of the country”, and shipping-only offers for things you’d normally pick up. It also flags a price under half the middle price on the page. Each flag appears as a Check this chip and shows the words it matched. Green chips mark good signs: one owner, service records, a receipt, the original box, a clean title or Carfax, warranty left.

A listing with no flags can still be a scam. Sift points out wording; the decision is yours. More in how scam flags work.

Distance

You set home once, either by picking from a built-in list of 2,000+ cities and regions or by using your position one time. For each listing, Sift looks up the place named on the card and works out the straight-line distance from home, in kilometres or miles, right in your browser. Anything past your radius is hidden. Places Sift can’t find are shown, dimmed or hidden, as you choose.

Alerts

On any search page, choose Watch this search. Sift checks that search in the background as often as every 15 minutes (you pick 15, 30 or 60), for up to 10 searches across both sites. Each check runs new listings through your filters first, then sends one notification per search: “3 new · couch, Toronto”. Quiet hours keep it silent overnight, and checks run while you’re at your computer.

Everything else

Presets. Save a whole browsing setup, like “Bike hunt” or “Furniture under 200”, and switch between them from the popup.

Newest first, always. Sift opens every search sorted by newest, so you never have to find the sort menu.

NEW and age badges. A NEW badge marks listings that appeared since your last visit, and a small age badge (3h, 2d, 1w) shows how long each one has been up.

Fresh-only modes. Hide anything older than a set number of days, or switch on “only new from now on” to see nothing you’ve already scrolled past.

Dealers, wanted posts and bait prices. Hide dealers or tag them “Dealer”; hide wanted, ISO and WTB posts; show only genuinely free items without the “message for price” bait; and hide placeholder prices like $1 and $1234.

Starter packs. Six ready-made block lists: parts and broken, wanted posts, “message for price”, rentals, dealers and dropshippers.

Check elsewhere. One click from any listing to eBay sold prices, Google Lens on the photo, Google Shopping, or the same search on the other site.

Cars. Filter by year and maximum mileage, and hide salvage, rebuilt, flood, as-is and for-parts titles. More on car filters.

Focus mode. Optional and off by default. Block Reels, or send Facebook’s home feed, Watch and Gaming straight to Marketplace, on a schedule if you like, with a hard lock for weak moments. Messages, groups and profiles are never touched.

Keyboard. Press h over a listing to hide it, with 6 seconds to undo. Esc closes the peek.

Languages and units. Sift speaks 20+ languages, down to the chips on each listing, and measures in kilometres or miles.

What Sift never does

Sift never posts, messages, likes or buys anything for you, and it never logs in on your behalf. There is no Sift account, no analytics and no Sift server: your settings sync through your browser’s own sync if you use it, and your listing history stays on your computer. It reads listing pages on facebook.com and kijiji.ca, and nothing else. Sift is independent, and not affiliated with Meta, Facebook or Kijiji. The privacy policy has the details.

Where it runs

Sift is a browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer: Windows, macOS, Linux or a Chromebook. It does not run in the Facebook or Kijiji apps, or in a phone’s browser. Coming soon to the Chrome Web Store: the button on this page goes live on launch day. Shopping Kijiji? Every feature works there too: see Sift for Kijiji.

Questions people ask

Is Sift AI?

No. Sift follows clear rules you can see. It uses your filters, the prices it has recorded, the other listings on the page and known scam wording. Every hidden listing shows the reason it was hidden, and every chip shows the words that triggered it.

How does Sift know a listing’s price history?

It remembers every price it sees while you browse, and keeps that record on your computer. The history for a listing starts the first time Sift sees it, so the longer you use it, the more drops it can show you.

Does Sift change what Facebook shows other people?

No. Sift only changes the page in your own browser, the way an ad blocker does. Sellers, other buyers, Facebook and Kijiji see exactly what they saw before.

Can I turn features off?

Yes. Every filter, badge and chip is optional, and you can dim hidden listings instead of removing them. One switch in the popup puts the page back exactly as the site shows it.

Sources

1. 01Sift Privacy policy