diff --git a/bugzilla.cabal b/bugzilla.cabal
--- a/bugzilla.cabal
+++ b/bugzilla.cabal
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 -- documentation, see http://haskell.org/cabal/users-guide/
 
 name:                bugzilla
-version:             0.2.0.0
+version:             0.2.1.0
 synopsis:            A Haskell interface to the Bugzilla native REST API
 description:         This package is designed to provide an easy-to-use, typesafe
                      interface to querying Bugzilla from Haskell.
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 source-repository head
   type:     git
   location: https://github.com/sethfowler/hsbugzilla.git
-  tag:      0.2
+  tag:      0.2.1
 
 flag BuildDemo
   description:  Build the 'bugzilla' demo program
diff --git a/changelog b/changelog
--- a/changelog
+++ b/changelog
@@ -1,7 +1,13 @@
+0.2.1.0
+
+	* Added searchBugs' and searchBugsWithLimit', variations which return
+	only a list of BugIds. These are more suitable for polling than the
+	existing functions.
+
 0.2.0.0
 
 	* History events now have a sequential id, just like comments.
 
-	* When using an anonymous session, Bugzilla does not return email addresses for users.
-	  To accomodate this, the User type now stores email addresses as type
-	  'Maybe UserEmail'.
+	* When using an anonymous session, Bugzilla does not return email
+	addresses for users.  To accomodate this, the User type now stores email
+	addresses as type 'Maybe UserEmail'.
diff --git a/demo/BugzillaDemo.hs b/demo/BugzillaDemo.hs
--- a/demo/BugzillaDemo.hs
+++ b/demo/BugzillaDemo.hs
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 dispatch Nothing s ("--login" : user : as)    = dispatch (Just $ T.pack user) s as
 dispatch l Nothing ("--server" : server : as) = dispatch l (Just $ T.pack server) as
 dispatch l s ["--assigned-to", user]          = withBz l s $ doAssignedTo (T.pack user)
+dispatch l s ["--assigned-to-brief", user]    = withBz l s $ doAssignedToBrief (T.pack user)
 dispatch l s ["--requests", user]             = withBz l s $ doRequests (T.pack user)
 dispatch l s ["--history", bug, n]            = withBz l s $ doHistory (read bug) (read n)
 dispatch _ _ _                                = usage
@@ -31,6 +32,7 @@
      >> hPutStrLn stderr ""
      >> hPutStrLn stderr "Bugzilla queries:"
      >> hPutStrLn stderr "  --assigned-to [user email] - List bugs assigned to the user."
+     >> hPutStrLn stderr "  --assigned-to [user email] - List bugs assigned to the user."
      >> hPutStrLn stderr "  --requests [user email]    - List requests for the user."
      >> hPutStrLn stderr "  --history [bug number] [n] - List the most recent 'n' changes to the bug."
 
@@ -61,6 +63,12 @@
     showBug (Bug {..}) = putStrLn $ show bugId ++ ": " ++ show bugSummary
                                  ++ " [" ++ T.unpack bugStatus ++ ": " ++ T.unpack bugResolution ++ "] Updated: "
                                  ++ show bugLastChangeTime
+
+doAssignedToBrief :: UserEmail -> BugzillaSession -> IO ()
+doAssignedToBrief user session = do
+    let search = AssignedToField .==. user
+    bugs <- searchBugs' session search
+    mapM_ print bugs
 
 doRequests :: UserEmail -> BugzillaSession -> IO ()
 doRequests user session = do
diff --git a/src/Web/Bugzilla.hs b/src/Web/Bugzilla.hs
--- a/src/Web/Bugzilla.hs
+++ b/src/Web/Bugzilla.hs
@@ -35,7 +35,9 @@
 
   -- * Querying Bugzilla
 , searchBugs
+, searchBugs'
 , searchBugsWithLimit
+, searchBugsWithLimit'
 , getBug
 , getAttachment
 , getAttachments
@@ -120,7 +122,7 @@
 intAsText :: Int -> T.Text
 intAsText = T.pack . show
 
--- | Search Bugzilla and returns a list of 'Bug's. The 'SearchExpression'
+-- | Searches Bugzilla and returns a list of 'Bug's. The 'SearchExpression'
 -- can be constructed conveniently using the operators in "Web.Bugzilla.Search".
 searchBugs :: BugzillaSession -> SearchExpression -> IO [Bug]
 searchBugs session search = do
@@ -129,6 +131,20 @@
   (BugList bugs) <- sendBzRequest session req
   return bugs
 
+-- | Like 'searchBugs', but returns a list of 'BugId's. You can
+-- retrieve the 'Bug' for each 'BugId' using 'getBug'. The combination
+-- of 'searchBugs'' and 'getBug' is much less efficient than
+-- 'searchBugs'. 'searchBugs'' is suitable for cases where you won't need to call
+-- 'getBug' most of the time - for example, polling to determine whether the
+-- set of bugs returned by a query has changed.
+searchBugs' :: BugzillaSession -> SearchExpression -> IO [BugId]
+searchBugs' session search = do
+  let fieldsQuery = [("include_fields", Just "id")]
+      searchQuery = evalSearchExpr search
+      req = newBzRequest session ["bug"] (fieldsQuery ++ searchQuery)
+  (BugIdList bugs) <- sendBzRequest session req
+  return bugs
+
 -- | Search Bugzilla and returns a limited number of results. You can
 --   call this repeatedly and use 'offset' to retrieve the results of
 --   a large query incrementally. Note that most Bugzillas won't
@@ -146,6 +162,22 @@
       searchQuery = evalSearchExpr search
       req = newBzRequest session ["bug"] (limitQuery ++ searchQuery)
   (BugList bugs) <- sendBzRequest session req
+  return bugs
+
+-- | Like 'searchBugsWithLimit', but returns a list of 'BugId's. See
+-- 'searchBugs'' for more discussion.
+searchBugsWithLimit' :: BugzillaSession
+                     -> Int  -- ^ The maximum number of results to return.
+                     -> Int  -- ^ The offset from the first result to start from.
+                     -> SearchExpression
+                     -> IO [BugId]
+searchBugsWithLimit' session limit offset search = do
+  let fieldsQuery = [("include_fields", Just "id")]
+      limitQuery = [("limit", Just $ intAsText limit),
+                    ("offset", Just $ intAsText offset)]
+      searchQuery = evalSearchExpr search
+      req = newBzRequest session ["bug"] (fieldsQuery ++ limitQuery ++ searchQuery)
+  (BugIdList bugs) <- sendBzRequest session req
   return bugs
 
 -- | Retrieve a bug by bug number.
diff --git a/src/Web/Bugzilla/Internal/Types.hs b/src/Web/Bugzilla/Internal/Types.hs
--- a/src/Web/Bugzilla/Internal/Types.hs
+++ b/src/Web/Bugzilla/Internal/Types.hs
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 , Flag (..)
 , Bug (..)
 , BugList (..)
+, BugIdList (..)
 , Attachment (..)
 , AttachmentList (..)
 , Comment (..)
@@ -433,6 +434,16 @@
 
 instance FromJSON BugList where
   parseJSON (Object v) = BugList <$> v .: "bugs"
+  parseJSON _          = mzero
+
+data BugIdList = BugIdList [BugId]
+                 deriving (Eq, Show)
+
+instance FromJSON BugIdList where
+  parseJSON (Object v) = do
+    bugs <- v .: "bugs"
+    bugIds <- mapM (.: "id") bugs
+    return $ BugIdList bugIds
   parseJSON _          = mzero
 
 -- | An attachment to a bug.