Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute suggests in the current issue of ASTRONOMY magazine that we broaden our search for "smart life" to include red dwarf stars-- the most common type of star in the galaxy-- rather than focus on Sun-like stars. Recent exoplanet discoveries have found red dwarfs not only have planetary systems, but they can have rocky worlds in their habitable zones, which means they could harbor life, and, possibly, technological civilizations.
There's also another possibility. Because red dwarfs are so common, any star-hopping civilization out there would likely establish outposts in red dwarf systems. We could intercept the internal transmissions of an interstellar civilization.
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