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Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

pcmag.com

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Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#61

I rent a couple of properties out in the bay area and up until this year I've always relied on craigslist to get new tenants, but this year we tried out Zillow and we got tons of applicants, and the whole application process including vetting and setting up a lease and everything was done through Zillow. On the other hand someone noticed our Zillow listing and created a fraudulent listing of my property on Craigslist…

Thanks for sharing. I’m about to rent out a house so this helps a lot.

One thing I don’t get is why someone else would copy your listing? Do they somehow get a slice of the pie if a respondent rents?

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#63
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious where you live. After all, craigslist famously decimated classified advertising in the US, primarily because classified ads in newspapers are hella expensive, and craigslist is usually free.

Probably KSL Classifieds in the Utah market: https://classifieds.ksl.com/

Yup. :)

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#64

* I far, far, far prefer Craigslist interface to anything else in that space. It's clear and focused Its search engine too - I get things I search for in the area I search for. For me, Kijiji and Facebook marketplace are awful UI, awful distractions, and give me 10,000 "suggested" or "fuzzy searched" things in random order, suppressing things I'm actually looking for. And I've completely given up on eBay over last de…

In Spain all old craiglist equivalents are mostly gone or full of spam. We've got Wallapop though, and it's fine. It feels modern, not too clunky, and IMO it's a right balance.

Until someone decides it needs to be more flashy.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#65
post #13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>plenty of money for 10 people I'm guessing a lot of people here wouldn't consider it plenty of money.

Craig Newmark has roughly $1B.

I doubt if he’s typical of people working at Craigslist.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#66

Not to be “that guy,” but Craigslist has changed a lot over the years. They’ve kept the same coat of paint on it (visual design) but the way it works evolves continuously. For one obvious example, search results come up in cards now by default and you can use hover arrows to go through the photos on each one. It is far more visual experience today than it was when search results were a compact list of text titles. An…

That sounds like a regression to me. A more visual experience isn't necessarily better - I and most people on this site probably prefer the compact list of text titles, since the information is easier to parse.

Filtering also limits search, not enhances it, as you are prevented from generically finding things, and now have to sort by filter.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#67

* I far, far, far prefer Craigslist interface to anything else in that space. It's clear and focused Its search engine too - I get things I search for in the area I search for. For me, Kijiji and Facebook marketplace are awful UI, awful distractions, and give me 10,000 "suggested" or "fuzzy searched" things in random order, suppressing things I'm actually looking for. And I've completely given up on eBay over last de…

Although unfortunately, it doesn't understand the fairly typical non-urban "yes, you found something that's less than 10 miles from me as the crow flies, but is about 80 miles away if I need to actually drive there because of the fact that my car can't cross a river/strait/lake on its own". Even after 25 years, that part can still do with improvement.

Careful what you whish for. That sounds exactly as one of those fuzzy algorithms that will hide posts randomly due to stupid reasons. Eg. some address has a glitched road and Google Maps believes it is only reachable by boat or helicopter.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#68

* I far, far, far prefer Craigslist interface to anything else in that space. It's clear and focused Its search engine too - I get things I search for in the area I search for. For me, Kijiji and Facebook marketplace are awful UI, awful distractions, and give me 10,000 "suggested" or "fuzzy searched" things in random order, suppressing things I'm actually looking for. And I've completely given up on eBay over last de…

Yeah, craigslist never really had any marketshare (at least not for the past decade) in Montréal. Kijiji was king, and honestly I prefer it to CL but even then it is getting dominated by Fb marketplace.

I'm not often on Facebook, so I sometimes miss kijiji but honestly the fact that you can at least know a little bit about the seller on Facebook is a huge plus, even if I fully understand how that can also be a huge problem for some. The seller ratings, plus the ability to see what else they are selling/sold can be super helpful to make sure you aren't getting scammed or buying a stolen item.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#69

* I far, far, far prefer Craigslist interface to anything else in that space. It's clear and focused Its search engine too - I get things I search for in the area I search for. For me, Kijiji and Facebook marketplace are awful UI, awful distractions, and give me 10,000 "suggested" or "fuzzy searched" things in random order, suppressing things I'm actually looking for. And I've completely given up on eBay over last de…

The killer feature that Facebook marketplace has is the fact that you can do some basic verification of the person you are selling or buying an item from.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#70

My problem with Craigslist isn't that it looks old, the problem is that they seemingly refuse to modernize anything else about the site. Craigslist is chock full of spam and people abusing the search feature. I'm no anti-spam guru, but surely there is a way to cut down on people submitting the same thumbnail dozens of times using as many keywords as they can so their cellphone screen repair service shows up when look…

> and actively goes after any competition to his site

What do you mean by this? Is he acquiring the competition or is there another way he's going after them?

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