Craigslist: Your one stop shop for books, beds, and… babies?
Monday, June 9th, 2008
Craigslist is a phenomenon that has swept the nation, and even the globe. In case you haven’t already sold your old couch or purchased a coffee table on Craigslist, allow me to give you a brief run down of exactly what it is. Thanks in large part to being completely free for users (minus the cost for posting a job), Craigslist is a hugely popular online destination for local classifieds and forums that is localized for more than 500 cities in more than 50 countries.
Craigslist touts the ability to search for jobs, housing, goods, services, local activities (my favorite!) and even romance. With more than 40 million people a month using its services, it’s no surprise that Craigslist has become a household name, along with its (more costly) industry peer, eBay. Speaking of eBay, a battle has been waging between the two groups ever since eBay purchased a minority stake in the company back in 2004 from a former Craigslist exec. I won’t bog you down with the details here, but if you want to check out Craigslist counter suit go here.
Lately though, the integrity of Craigslist has been put to question. What happened? Well, there have been a few strangers that have managed to creep in through the back door. Take for example the Vancouver couple recently caught allegedly attempting to sell their baby on Craigslist. Even though the parents claimed it was just a hoax, the folks at Craigslist (and the police) are not laughing. Craigslist rep Susan MacTavish Best stated that the “misuse of Craigslist for illegal purposes is absolutely unacceptable to us.”
Another recent post hit particularly close to home for me, when a user asked about a girl that lives across the street from him [and close to my own home]. He posted, “for a couple of months now I’ve been looking at you from across the street,” which I’m sure you’ll agree, would make any woman living in my area want to jump up and move. Fast.
Yes, I do occasionally get a good laugh out of the “Best of” Craigslist section where they place the rare, but quirky and crazy posts. However, this really isn’t what Craigslist is all about. The truth is, it’s an incredibly user friendly site that allows people to live out the phrase “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure”. Quite simply it’s the perfect online garage sale. And companies are starting to take notice.
Canadian mobility company Viigo has launched support for Craigslist that enables users to be notified on their smartphones when certain search criteria are met. Viigo allows you to stay on top of all the recent postings because hey, you’ve been waiting for that vintage Snow Patrol poster to pop up for months, and you don’t want another buyer to snatch it up before you do.
Another company called ImageShack has leveraged the site’s popularity by offering a photo hosting service. Craigslist offers a very simple photo uploader for posts, but they come out small and often fuzzy, which isn’t too helpful when you are trying to make your item extra appealing to a possible buyer. ImageShack solves this problem by hosting the pictures for you in numerous formats and sizes. All you need to do is snap and post.
With its popularity growing exponentially, I’m interested to see what other services and applications, particularly mobile applications, will start popping up in support of Craigslist. Stay tuned.
As for now, I’ll definitely be posting more items to Craigslist, especially when I move apartments.
