Here's the info I found in the Help section:

• Friends Direct

  What are friends for, if not to share books with? Gold Key Members can easily search all their PaperBackSwap Friends' Bookshelves to find books to request, and if you Post a Wish List book that is on a Friend’s active Wish List, you will be shown a list of your friends who are currently wishing for the book, and you will be able to offer it directly to any of them (or to none of them, and offer it to the club in general)!

If I'm interpreting this correctly, to easily find out if a friend is looking for a WL book, I have to post it first? 

Is there a way I can search Friends' WL without searching through each individual's list and without having to post the book?  If no friends are looking, I'd like to be able to put it in the Multii-WL thread in the BB first.  If I do it the way the Help Doc says, won't I have to leave the book posted in the FIFO since, if I remember correctly, you can't cancel a posted WL?

Thanks for any help other members can pass along. :)

It tells you before the book is fully posted.  So you can select the option of posting to the friend(s) or not.  I usually open another window and look that friend up to check their WL to see if I have something else.

So, if I were to start posting a copy of "Sarah's Quilt" it would let me know if a friend had it WL'd - and if none of my friends did, I could cancel the posting process before it was completed?  That would be great. 

I guess I should have tried posting a book myself before asking.  Yup, that's exactly how it worked - Thanks Mary L. for the info!!

Before they started the gold key membership, I would just go to the "friends" tab and click on individual people who I knew liked the genre of the WL book I was planning to post to see if they had the book on their WL.  Not "the search" method that would make it easy for you to find out quickly, but the "old school" method of checking friends' WLs.  Then I would PM them and ask if they wanted me to send it to them and they could "friend" me a credit when the book arrived in good shape.  

 so I really appreciate this gold member benefit!

I love that option! I have found a few on my friends list who've had WL books that I own.  When I put the book on here, then I go to their WL to see if they have other books I own. I have been sending out PMs to random members if I see they have multiple WL books that I have to see if they want me to send more than one to them. It helps save me on shipping, plus they can get more than one WL book at a time.

I've done it the "old school" way too where I just sift through the lists, but that can take awhile.  It does work though if you want to save on shipping!

I used to do the old school way when I couldn't decide what to read next. I'd find a friend that I could send more than 1 too and then PM them to ask. If they said yes then that's what I'd read next. 

Gold Key has not worked for me and I will not renew it. Originally, I got it for the extended WL, but t it did not make any difference whether I wished for 200 or 300 books. I either bought the books or borrowed and now my WL is down to 200 again. It certainly did not short circuit the long, hard wait for FIFO.