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97 of Top 100 Classified Sites Are Craigslist

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the newspapers-still-dying dept.

According to a recent report, 97 of the top 100 classified sites are just localized versions of Craigslist, up from 88 just last year. Combine that with a massive rise in traffic to classified sites in general and you have a recipe for one raging behemoth. "Craigslist isn't just crushing the newspaper industry and crowding out other classified sites. It's also taking an increasing slice of total U.S Internet traffic: the site's market share in February was up 90% year over year, accounting for about 2.5% of total US Web site visits."

47 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The article correctly noted that craigslist's staggering success is not the real story here. Craigslist has been growing quite nicely for sometime. Also, it is not Craigslist that has grown drastically but Craigslist Cities custom category's number of visits went up 90% between Feb '08 and Feb '09 and all other classifieds grew 22 percent. Craigslist cities is below all other classifieds in the graph on their blog which contradicts what the article is saying. So that 90% figure is a bit misleading and I think it is a particular custom division of Craigslist.

    The news is that they think the recession is causing this thrift explosion. From the article:

    So it seems the recession is more or less rescuing some classifieds sites while acting as a rocket booster for Craigslist. This meshes well with last week's info about Craigslist replacing MySpace as the top U.S. search term.

    And from Hitwise's blog:

    Market share of US Internet Visits increased 90% to the Craigslist Cities custom category year over year in February 2009 while visits to All Other Classifieds grew 22%.Visits to All Other Classifieds had been declining for most of 2008 with visits starting to increase in January and February. This suggests that the worsening US economy may be boosting visits to classifieds websites, and contributing to the recent up tick in visits to both Craigslist Cities and All Other Classifieds.

    I'm not sold on their evidence. I don't see a huge jump since February of '08 in search popularity. Why do we do this with percentages? We break them down into categories and play the telephone game to distort them for the sole purpose of shock-and-awe reporting leading to ad revenue?

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession by Red+Flayer · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm not sold on their evidence. I don't see a huge jump since February of '08 in search popularity

      What? Did you even look at the graph you linked to? Sure, it's fairly steady growth, but even just a quick eyeing of the graph shows at least a 50% growth (and that's a VERY conservative estimate -- looks more like 75% to me, but I didn't want to push it).

      I don't know about you, but that's pretty damn significant to me.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    2. Re:Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession by Cube+Steak · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm not sold on their evidence. I don't see a huge jump [google.com] since February of '08 in search popularity.

      You don't? It went from around .75 to at least 1.25 which is at least a gain of around 67%

    3. Re:Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession by Lord+Grey · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Going along with the general traffic statistics are some supposed demographics:

      Craigslist attracts wealthier households, but recent growth is visible from lower-income groups. Analysis of demographics of the Craigslist audience reveals that those earning a household income of $150,000 a year or more were 68 percent more likely to visit a Craigslist Cities Web site than All Other Classifieds Web sites in the four weeks ending Feb. 28, 2009. However, the siteâ(TM)s recent growth is being fueled by lower-income segments, suggesting that Craigslist may become less of a destination site for wealthy people and more of a necessity for lower-income groups as the economy continues to sour.

      But later in that same article:

      ... Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise's patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. ...

      Exactly how do they "anonymously capture" data and determine an average household income?

      --
      // Beyond Here Lie Dragons
    4. Re:Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession by davester666 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Man, I just read the article title, and I was confused as to why anything on Craigslist would be considered 'classified' by any government, let alone that it would have 97% of all online classified data.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    5. Re:Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession by Zakabog · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Did anyone else notice the largest drop on that graph occurred right after this article -

      Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

    6. Re:Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession by Planesdragon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Maybe they like being ripped off in the US or something. It seems to me using a system like that you might as well set fire to your money

      you don't get it.

      Craigslist isn't a place to buy stuff. It's a place to FIND stuff. You don't trust the #@$#!ing craigslist ad; you make a contact with a real person, and go from there.

      ebay's kinda a joke --> used electronics, scams, and crap, all peddled by folks who only care about thin numbers that give themselves a veneer of respectability.

      Craigslist tosses that, and the fees, and just connects the buyers and the sellers. It's the internet in its purest, and most open, form.

    7. Re:Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession by Serious+Callers+Only · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Unfortunately, on London craigslist at least, you are more likely to get responses from Africa trying to scam you than real responses to your ad. From a recent ad I got three responses from Abuja, Nigeria (according to IP), and none from genuine buyers, in spite of an instruction saying 'local buyers only' and requiring pickup.

      This sort of site requires a critical mass of genuine people to be using it, and in certain places a lot of the traffic is probably caused more by scams than real items for sale. As you say, it's the internet it its purest, most open, form, and like email and web discussions, it's been taken over by scammers, spammers and blow-hards.

  2. In other news: by ShadowRangerRIT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As Prostitutes Turn to Craigslist, Law Takes Notice. Given how much of the web is devoted to porn, why is anyone surprised that the best site for marketing prostitution is doing so well?

    Note to sarcasm impaired: This is (mostly) a joke.

    --
    $_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
    1. Re:In other news: by linzeal · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yeah and this is the problem as I see it.

      Craigslist made the economics of prostitution more decentralized so cops were busting fewer hookers even though the sex industry in a lot of towns was thriving with Craigslist. So the cops started to take notice when their revenue dropped off. In some towns over 50% of the revenue comes from fines levied against the citizens for non-violent crimes and anything that disrupts that will make politicians poke their local county sheriffs and police departments to do something about it. Look at your county coffers and see how much comes in from traffic tickets and criminal fines for my county it is nearly 30% of the revenue. Making so much of county and city budgets dependent on vice and traffic crimes has made it profitable to exacerbate problems that will encourage it while not directly encouraging it. -- See drug war, cheap alcohol and 1 second yellow lights.

      We also had a massive decrease in violence against prostitutes and charges filed for pimping because craigslist made it far easier to go solo and be safe from crazies by filtering out them by email and phone before meeting. Sort of like speed dating, now these women are back out working for pimps and working the streets. This sort of action by the police community against sex workers is abhorrent and is bringing back old problems that were going away with Craigslist being used by escorts.

      --
      An Education is the Font of All Liberty
  3. Good Game, "old media", it was mediocre... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While it lasted.

    Seriously, though, Craigslist now seems to be an unstoppable testament to the power of network effects and general benevolence. The site feels like it was dragged out of 1993, stripped of all the animated .gif flaming skulls and starfield backgrounds, and dumped on the present. However, it is fast, even on devices without the chops for horrible flash and javascript monsters, unobtrusive, no in-your-face ads, and if it exists, you can find it.

    I'm not at all surprised that it has terminated the traditional classifieds, since they all sucked; but I am mildly surprised that that it seems to be crushing its online competitors so absolutely. I would have expected at least a few me-too outfits with gmail-styled "Web 2.0" interfaces to be doing OK somewhere. Network effects, I suppose. Like ebay; but without the evil.

    1. Re:Good Game, "old media", it was mediocre... by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "...the site feels like it was dragged out of 1993, stripped of all the animated .gif flaming skulls and starfield backgrounds..." which is EXACTLY why it's so successful and demonstrates nicely why other sites fail. It's straightforward, to the point, and not so junked up with marketing S**T that you can't find what you want.

      --
      Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
    2. Re:Good Game, "old media", it was mediocre... by blhack · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The surprising thing is that all that "web 2.0" crap? Yeah, not that many people actually like it very much, especially not nerds (from what I've seen).

      Craigslist is so popular because it just works there are no stupid buttons or widgets are anything that doesn't work on anything other than IE6 running on windows XP.

      This is just my own experience, so bear with me here.
      I remember when digg first came out, I was on that site all day, every day reading stories, posting stories, commenting on stories etc. etc. etc.
      Then...well, then they changed the layout, added all kinds of gradients and 50 billion buttons that have no discernible purpose. I think I continued trying to use the site before I gave it up and migrated back to fark.
      Then...and this one made me really sad, Slashdot jumped on the web 2.0 bandwagon. What was once a clean, obvious, straight-forward website was transformed into a disgusting mess of collapse/expand buttons (wtf, guys...really?), buttons, more buttons, buttons here and buttons freaking everywhere. slashdot.org/~$username/ no longer took me to my comment history, but rather to some mess of a page with no sort of explanation and, you guessed it, more fucking buttons. Also, some sort of a speech bubble with a number in it next to my latest one? What the hell is that?

      So I've decreased my usage of slashdot but don't know where to turn to? There is my own website which i tried to make as clean as I could. There is reddit, which is an ungodly clusterfuck of conspiracy theorist whackjobs who think that the government is out to get them and post stories like "How can I hack a satelite?" which gets rocketed on to the front page.

      It seems like the only place left, really, is hackernews. Their confusing policy of not having their name be the same as their URL has kept MOST of the retards away, but I fear that they're going to discover bookmarks soon. /rant over.

      What we're experience is what I call "designers designing for designers". Its what happens when a designer (or a coder in this case) changes something because it looks really cool to people in-the-know, but fucking hideous to the people actually doing the consumption. Craigslist seems to be immune to this syndrome. I have no idea why, but I suggest that if they ever hire a graphic designer we take a flamethrower to their wacom tablet and CSS manual immediately.

      --
      NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
    3. Re:Good Game, "old media", it was mediocre... by eltonito · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I recently overheard a web developer raving about this new online classifieds website he was launching in a few months. From what I could tell, it was solely focused on competing with Cragislist and they were going to achieve this by having very slick, graphical interface and unlimited sub-categorization. They were spending big money on this website and it was going to show!

      Right then and there I knew their website, whatever it was called, was doomed to fail because they had missed the point. People neither need nor want a graphically slick, over-produced, banner-ad infested place to trade their toaster for a case of panty hose.

      To boil your post (and maybe mine) down to a Han Solo quote "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid."

    4. Re:Good Game, "old media", it was mediocre... by JCSoRocks · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Seriously. Very few sites are as easy to navigate as Craigslist. They don't force unnecessary pagination for increased ad views. They don't base their entire layout around cramming ads into the middle of content that you're trying to read. The search is helpful and effective. The community around flagging / cleaning up garbage posts is pretty good. It's a tough site to beat. I hope they never jump on the idiotic web 2.0 bandwagon.

      --
      You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
    5. Re:Good Game, "old media", it was mediocre... by dltaylor · · Score: 5, Informative

      Change your /. prefs. Other than the sometimes lame colors they use, I don't see any of that silliness, once I'm logged in.

    6. Re:Good Game, "old media", it was mediocre... by jonbryce · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Gumtree is a lot more popular than Craigslist in Britain.

      I guess it is the network effect again. Gumtree has a lot more British ads, so more Brits visit it. People put their ads their because more people see them.

    7. Re:Good Game, "old media", it was mediocre... by demachina · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "If that's the level of journalism we can expect from these outfits in the 21st century, then fuck 'em."

      So you are advocating no journalism at all, or do think Huffington Post is the answer to our problem? Tyrants and despots will certainly like your point of view.

      One problem main stream media had in the first term of the Bush administration was 9/11 and the frenzy that followed which pretty much muzzled all dissenting view points until the chinks started showing in their armor with Katrina and the wheels falling off in Iraq.

      The Bush administration was given a gift on 9/11, they knew it, they milked it. It gave them a blank check for years to do whatever they wanted and anyone who opposed them could be shouted down with accusations they were unpatriotic or soft on terrorism. Some journalists did eventually regain their voice, and now they are being laid off.

      Daniel Froomkin at the Washington Post has been a constant and useful watch dog on the Bush administration and now Obama's.

      --
      @de_machina
    8. Re:Good Game, "old media", it was mediocre... by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 2, Informative

      Craigslist's UI is very underrated. It isn't pretty to look at- so people don't realize what an effective UI it is. It doesn't constantly foist the trendiest UI gimmick of the week on everybody. It's ugly. But it doesn't needlessly confuse you or piss you off. And the ugliness sort of goes along with the message- if you wanted pretty style sheets you'd be getting less good deals elsewhere- that's what those drab colors are telling you. Ebay is butt ugly for the same reason. You really feel like you're suffering for every last cent.

      Restaurant owners as a general rule don't seem to understand this at all. They think their web sites need to be strikingly beautiful virtual reality showcases of the interiors of their restaurants, accompanied with annoyingly loud soundtracks of "atmospheric" music to wake people in neighboring cubicles, or we won't want to eat there. I just want to see where you're located, or if you're open, or if you deliver, or if something is on a menu, and all of a sudden I've got this huge Flash file blasting off in my browser like a Saturn V which makes me close the tab immediately. I'm more likely to show up if you just open your menu in your word processor and export to HTML.

    9. Re:Good Game, "old media", it was mediocre... by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
      —Antoine de St. Exupery

  4. The truth revealed! by Experiment+626 · · Score: 2, Funny

    97 of Top 100 Classified Sites are Craigslist

    So THAT's the top secret info Uncle Sam puts on SIPRnet hmm? People going through the trouble get get a government security clearance must be really disappointed.

  5. Classified? by Baranovich · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Did anyone else see 'Classified' and think something else entirely?

    --
    Philosophy is questions that may never be answered, religion is answers that may never be questioned.
  6. Finally indexed by imajinarie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I may be off here, but part of the reason of the reason Craigslist may be gaining popularity is because its listings are finally well indexed by search engines, where as of a year or so ago, they weren't - now when I search for an item or service, Craigslist actually shows up in the relevant hits! The more users who see Craigslist in google results, the more likely they maybe are to list with it.

    1. Re:Finally indexed by imajinarie · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I may be off here, but part of the reason of the reason Craigslist may be gaining popularity is because its listings are finally well indexed by search engines, where as of a year or so ago, they weren't - now when I search for an item or service, Craigslist actually shows up in the relevant hits! The more users who see Craigslist in google results, the more likely they maybe are to list with it.

      Sorry - SearchEngineJournal.com link here

  7. Re:Newspapers would like the ads back, please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    newspapers aren't phased by this

    Fazed.

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fazed

  8. Re:2.5% of all US traffic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The other 97.5% is to www.webmd.com/do-i-have-an-std.html

  9. Re:Craigslist... by eln · · Score: 4, Funny

    You say that like it's a bad thing...

  10. Craigslist has a HUGE amount of scams. by Samschnooks · · Score: 5, Informative
    Top scams I've had to deal with on Craigslist:
    1. Bogus job postings to get personal info for identity theft (This is also happening on Monster, CareerBulder, etc...)
    2. The overpaying for items and asking for balance to be sent back via Western Union
    3. Bogus checks
    4. Folks overseas saying they have homes for rent.

    The old Western Union trick:

    You're selling an item for $1,000. Someone wanting to buy it sends you $2,000. They say "Oops!" could you send me the balance back to me via Western Union and I'll pick up the item later. You do so. Their original $2,000 check bounces and they have your $1,000. You're out $3,000 and YOU OWE IT, baby!

    The scam works many ways but it usually involves you sending a Western Union money gram or some other method where, once you send the money, it's gone. The renting overseas homes works similar to this.

    Jobs. Do not give personal information, DOB or SSN, until you've met them and you have verified they are actually an employer.

    Some employers, such as governments, insist on a SSN so they run you through Choicepoint, the credit bureaus and other Big Brother corporate entities before they will consider you for employment. I only get those forms when I'm on the interview. I wouldn't give the information to them unless you get an interview.

    You need to be very careful on Craigslist.

    1. Re:Craigslist has a HUGE amount of scams. by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You need to be very careful on Craigslist.

      You need to be very careful online.

      The problem is that Joe User doesn't understand infosec, and trusts too much. Period.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    2. Re:Craigslist has a HUGE amount of scams. by sexconker · · Score: 4, Informative

      NEVER use Western Union.
      NEVER accept cashier's checks as payment.
      ALWAYS wait a week after the payment has "cleared" before processing any refunds or "oops I paid too much!".

      The trick you describe is more commonly done with cashier's checks. The bank you take it to will say it's valid and give you the money. But all they're really doing is checking to see if it points to a real bank. Once that bank receives it for processing, they look at it and say "what the fuck is this shit you're trying to pull" and demand the money back from your bank.

      Your bank then thinks you're a counterfeiter. You face not only the debt of the original check, the loss of the sent back "over paid" money, the loss of the item (if you've sent it), but you also face criminal charges if you can't cough up the original amount in a couple weeks.

      Yes the bank knows about the scam.
      No, they don't believe you - they think you're in on it.

    3. Re:Craigslist has a HUGE amount of scams. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Dunno about most of you, but unless the money is in my bank account (a.k.a. the check has cleared), I haven't received it.

      Then you are an ideal candidate for some of these scams.
      Despite the terminology, checks do not clear. They just fail to bounce.

      By law, US banks are required to make funds available within 5 business days from deposit of a check. When people say "the check cleared" they really mean that the 5 days passed and the check did not bounce. But under various circumstances, the check may bounce after 6 days or 10 days or in some cases involving forged cashiers checks, a month later.

      So a sufficiently tricky scam artist will set up the right circumstances such that their bogus check won't bounce in the first 5 business days and it will appear to have "cleared" to their unknowing mark. The mark will feel confident that the check was valid and will proceed to get scammed. Then a few days later the check does finally bounce and the bank takes their money back and the mark is screwed.

      the oddly relevant captcha for this post was "outlast"

    4. Re:Craigslist has a HUGE amount of scams. by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're selling an item for $1,000. Someone wanting to buy it sends you $2,000. They say "Oops!" could you send me the balance back to me via Western Union and I'll pick up the item later. You do so. Their original $2,000 check bounces and they have your $1,000. You're out $3,000 and YOU OWE IT, baby! I hate to question your math, but it seems to me like you're out $1000 if you haven't shipped the item yet, or $2000 if you have shipped it.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    5. Re:Craigslist has a HUGE amount of scams. by Eil · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem that I have with craigslist is that they're refusing to scale their staff and procedures in accordance with their popularity. In some categories, the spam/scam level is as high as 90% so clearly whatever they've been doing for the last few years isn't working. If you're a legitimate user whose IP has been marked on their system as suspicious and try to post an ad, they tell you to jump through a bunch of hoops (including creating an account, verifying the account, etc) that lead absolutely nowhere. They have no technical support and do not respond to emails.

      I like the idea of craigslist, but I fear that the site is going to collapse under the weight of its own success unless they start engineering some practical, scalable solutions to the problems of spammers, scammers, as well as legitimate users.

    6. Re:Craigslist has a HUGE amount of scams. by RincewindTVD · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I thought cashier's cheques were guaranteed by the originating bank?
      Last time I made one they took the money out of my account, then handed me the cheque. I no longer had the money, I had a note guaranteed by the bank. I could hand this to someone else and they would get the money from the bank, not from me.

      Does anyone know if NZ banks have this issue?

    7. Re:Craigslist has a HUGE amount of scams. by maxume · · Score: 3, Informative

      They are. That doesn't help you much if I give you a forgery.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    8. Re:Craigslist has a HUGE amount of scams. by phoebe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I thought cashier's cheques were guaranteed by the originating bank? Last time I made one they took the money out of my account, then handed me the cheque. I no longer had the money, I had a note guaranteed by the bank. I could hand this to someone else and they would get the money from the bank, not from me. Does anyone know if NZ banks have this issue?

      It's a fallacy with US banking, both cashiers cheques and bankers drafts are as useless as regular cheques for guaranteeing payment. Both can be bounced by the originating bank for a variety of reasons. Cashiers cheque are generally more dangerous as your account can be credited earlier, as required by federal law, than when the clearance occurs so you account can appear in credit but later in debit.

  11. Re:2.5% of all US traffic? by need4mospd · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know. But here in NZ, one site alone accounts for apparently 90% of all web site visits.

    www.sheepfantasy.co.nz?

  12. Re:Mostly unrelated.. but No Banners/Web Advertism by pileated · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well maybe,just maybe, that's the very reason that they're so popular! They give users what they want, not what someone in marketing/advertising thinks users ought to want, or what will give them a few more ad dollars but drive users off. They're old cliches but it seems silly to argue with success or fix what's not broken.

    I'm going to make a very broad statement here: the most successful parts of the internet give users content, not advertising. Advertising revenue is a byproduct and it's a mistake to make it the priority as many sites have done, all the while arguing of course that they haven't.

  13. It's Ebay from... by Ceiynt · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the year 2000. Everybody had to be on it. It will explode into this huge mass, consuming everything, for the next 5-6 years. It will be bought for over $2 billion(USD). It will turn to crap shortly there after, and by 2016, a new online overlord will rise from the IPv6 pit of doom to consume the next generation of online users.

  14. Missed Connections by qpawn · · Score: 3, Funny

    Where else can I tell that short, brunette woman in the purple shirt who barely made eye contact with me in the bookstore that I would like to see her again?

  15. Hooray by benjfowler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm happy for Craigslist to destroy the newspaper industry (at least in the English speaking world), so long as it takes Rupert Murdoch and his empire with it.

    1. Re:Hooray by The+Good+Reverend · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Small and medium sized newspapers are rarely owned by what you perceive as "big media", and are one of the last remaining sources for local news. Don't go wishing for their death too quickly (unless you're just trying to sound cool by hatin' on the media).

  16. Not exactly true by Percy_Blakeney · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think this report is misleading. It should be titled "97 of top 100 pure-play classifieds sites are craigslist".

    Hitwise assigns every web site to a single category, like "classifieds" or "news". If your site spans multiple categories, then you have to choose the one that defines you best. Since many traditional classifieds providers are also large news sites, you'll find that there are a lot of major sites that are missing from this list of "classifieds" sites.

    I'm not saying that craigslist isn't the powerhouse of online classifieds, but to simply ignore a wide range of classifieds providers because they also provide news is kind of silly.

  17. Re:Can you say.... by stuffeh · · Score: 2, Funny

    You must be new to CL. That should be ers or cas, stp is starting to head in that direction depending on your locale, and easily m4m if you swing that way. Maybe something from mcy or msg would help your odds in the w4m/m4w section. Not even going to bother talking about w4w since this is slashdot, some nice eye candy there though. Or you can just troll mis and let her make the first move. Hit refresh every 30 mins and read best of in between updates, there's about 2000 posts there to keep you entertained. And if you do actually find someone, remember to look through tix for somewhere nice to go to.

  18. Newspapers only have themselves to blame by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Rather than making themselves community sites to attract the eyeballs that would generate revenue, so many online sites treat the internet like a cash register. On-line advertisements should have been as dirt cheap (or free) as Craigslist since printing costs don't warrant what most charge for on-line ads.

    Also, so many on-line newspapers haven't figured out how to create a good front page. Check out my home paper's site. You're bombarded by so much data and links that you simply can't take in everything you're seeing (thus you ignore most of it).

    Newspapers just failed to figure out the internet which is why so many are disappearing.

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  19. Re:How many are scammers? by nelsonal · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Since there's going to be one, i'd much rather it be on a website where no one is bothered by it (except seedy motel guests) than putting all the goods on display in the Financial district/abandoned downtown.

    --
    Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
  20. I never had a bad experience by poached · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I never had a bad experience buying from Craigslist. At first, I wasn't very sure about sending sellers emails using my personal email, but to this day, I have not had any massive spam increases (gmail filters them out anyway), nor any crazy stalkers bothering me. I've furnished my entire studio with craigslist, for about maybe $400 and that's because I decided to spend a little money. For that I got:

    a. a super heavy and sturdy office desk with 3 drawers. It supports 2 21" CRT monitors and computer and receiver. Looks like it could take a lot more too. The seller offered to help me assemble it for free, which I took on his offer but decided to give him $10 extra for it. Total cost: $60.
    b. a recliner. I was looking for a recliner to put my feet up. All recliners I saw for new were like lazyboy ugly craps, or some designer stuff that costs about $900 at least. I found an old school leather recliner for $30.
    c. a dinner room table with 2 chairs. Fits my space perfectly. Cost $50.
    d. a bed side table with 3 drawers. Nice looking dark wood and not some assemble it crap. Cost: $90?
    e. two designer lamps. I springed for these and paid I think $200. These were brand new.

    I also purchased:
    a. 21" sweet CRT monitor for $10.
    b. a nice road bike that fits me well for $600. The seller was really cool and gave me a whole bunch of stuff for free and even gave me some technical support after.
    c. old clicky keyboard. New would've cost $85 but I got this one for $25. Turned out I couldn't use it and so I returned it. The seller gladly refunded my money.
    d. nikon lenses.

    I sold some computer memory through it and some other stuff. But generally I buy more than sell.

    Some things I wouldn't use craigslist for:
    1. personals. They are interesting/voyeuristic to browse, but you never know who is on the other side.
    2. cars. too expensive to bring cash. I watched on this tv show this murder happened because the seller knew the buyer was going to bring lots of cash so they arranged to meet at a secluded place and murdered the buyer.

    Some tips:
    1. You know what they say: if it's too good, it probably is.
    2. Don't meet at a deserted place late at night. Meet at a place that you are comfortable with and with lots of people around.
    3. Don't give out personal information, ever.

    Craigslist is also more useful in larger metropolitan areas. I used to live in a small town and hardly used it. But now I live in a larger city I use it a lot.
    Craigslist + RSS is also a major win.