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97 of Top 100 Classified Sites Are Craigslist
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."
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.
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
While it lasted.
.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.
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
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.
The other 97.5% is to www.webmd.com/do-i-have-an-std.html
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.
I don't know. But here in NZ, one site alone accounts for apparently 90% of all web site visits.
www.sheepfantasy.co.nz?