Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
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Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
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Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#2Replace "Craigslist" with "Classified Ads" and the same thing can be said for over 100 years. ugly, spammy time waster calls for your ads, fake apartment listings (or worse scams), sex trafficking and more. I don't see how any of those things (other than perhaps "ugly") are immediately fixable on CL or any other site.
Personally I've done dozens of local CL transactions safely, securely and with a minimum of inconvenience.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#3For the some of the same reasons why somewhat crummy, but still more or less serviceable student apartments exist. It has sufficient utility. The landlords make enough money. And in the end, what choice is there, really? Then on top of that, add the network effect.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#4The problem is that the target audience, as a whole, doesn't necessarily care about prettiness. It's functional, it works, and the users are comfortable with the design, so there's no need to fix it.
I am reminded of Digg's redesign and descension.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#5FYI, for people who have not been on Craigslist in awhile...it's also been a long time for me since I've used the service...I was just about to complain that CL doesn't need a radical redesign, it just needs features grafted on that users could choose.
For example, whenever I do apartment/furniture searching, I'll write a script to pull down the links so I can create my own webview of the links juxtaposed with the images...but I just checked the site and I guess CL has created a number of different views for the traditional list, including thumbnail-listings, a grid-layout, and mapping:
http://nyc.craigslist.org/search/sya?zoomToPosting=&altV...
I guess this was just added recently?
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/03/craigslist-finally-gets-mor...
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#6The design is the least of Craigslist's problems. The scams and spam are what turn me off.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#7It's not that it hasn't been tried before.
I would guess it's similar to Atwood and his new Discourse platform. It looks nice, and developers & designers get excited about it. But one reason forum software hasn't been dramatically overhauled in the last 10-15 years is because it's working for most people.
I've sold plenty of junk on craigslist and I've bought a few things from there as well. I did the same thing with Freecycle and Cheapcycle when we lived in a town that did those. None of those were glamorous. In addition, the people I met there were from all walks of life.
I get why startups think CL is ugly and not useful, but go do a UI overhaul and sit back for the barrage of hate that is going to come from the core users.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#8The problem is that the target audience, as a whole, doesn't necessarily care about prettiness. It's functional, it works, and the users are comfortable with the design, so there's no need to fix it. I am reminded of Digg's redesign and descension.
I think the title of this article is a little misleading. It's easy to bash Craigslist over their dated (or lack of) style, but the problem with Craigslist really comes down to usability, which is not the same thing as prettiness.
Craigslist could make lots of feature and UI improvements to their site to make it easier to find and post, but they choose not to for the most part. If they did, sites like PadMapper probably wouldn't exist. Instead of innovating themselves, they've focused on trying to kill other companies innovating in this space.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#9I've long considered CL one of the biggest tragedies of the internet age. The problem is it's just good enough to prevent competitors from gaining critical mass, but it's not good enough to consistently do an adequate job. There's a huge pent-up demand for what CL provides, including local person-to-person commerce, sublets, apartment hunting, job hunting etc. I probably use CL about 2-3 times a year, and I end up regretting it about half the time.
I think the primary thing that is missing is a system to establish the reputation of both parties. CL could tie accounts to real identities, and let users rate each other. But CL has no need to innovate. I agree with the article that it acts like a monopoly.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#10I've long considered CL one of the biggest tragedies of the internet age. The problem is it's just good enough to prevent competitors from gaining critical mass, but it's not good enough to consistently do an adequate job. There's a huge pent-up demand for what CL provides, including local person-to-person commerce, sublets, apartment hunting, job hunting etc. I probably use CL about 2-3 times a year, and I end up re…
In your opinion, what job is it that CL fails to address adequately in a consistent fashion?
Ignore the real identity / account reputation issue, which nobody has managed to solve in an adequate fashion. What is it that CL promises, that it fails to follow through on?