Craigslist is a classified advertisements website that allows users to post listings for jobs, housing, items for sale, and services for free. It began in 1995 serving only San Francisco but has since expanded to serve over 450 cities worldwide. While simple in design, Craigslist is effective in allowing users to easily find what they are searching for. Some controversy exists around scams targeting users. Financially, Craigslist does not use advertising but has become powerful through its expansion and protecting its domain name.
3. Introduction to How Craigslist Works
● The site's main function is to host classified ads that
cover practically every category you can think of,
including housing, job postings, items for sale, services
and personals. There's also a forums section that allows
users to discuss topics on everything from gardening to
the Linux operating system.
● Posting for most classifieds categories on craigslist is
free, and it's also free to browse and respond to ads.
The Web site doesn't have any flashy animation or
graphics -- its value comes from its utilitarian design and
the contributions of
4. Introduction to How Craigslist Works
● The site has a range of broad categories, and each
category has several subcategories, making it easy to
navigate to the appropriate section quickly. For
example, the "for sale" category features subcategories
like computer, books, electronics, sporting, motorcycles
and collectibles, among others.
● Most ads include the member's e-mail address.
Craigslist offers a function that masks e-mail so that
members don't have to worry about their address being
openly available.
5. Network
A couple of months later, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York
City, Portland, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
followed suit. Today, more than 450 cities have a craigslist
community site. Craigslist members range from teenagers
to senior citizens. They post on the forums, shop online,
trade tips and make new friends. While the site itself may
not be the most visually interesting Internet destination,
there's no denying its effectiveness. Users often report that
it's easy to find what they are searching for within a few
minutes of logging on to the site.
6. Controversy
An interested buyer contacts the seller and says he'll send
a check for the item, but when the check arrives, it's written
for a much larger amount. When the seller contacts the
buyer to inform him of the difference, the buyer apologizes
and explains that he wrote the wrong amount after
confusing it with another purchase. He tells the seller to
deposit the check and wire him the difference.Users
posting to craigslist must first click on a button that says
they understand and accept the terms of use.
7. Financials
The company also purchased the domain craigslist.com to
prevent anyone from buying it and misleading craigslist
members. Each year since then, craigslist has expanded to
cover more cities and communities, becoming a powerful
financial force in the process. It doesn't sell advertising
space for banner ads, pop-up ads or any other kind of web
advertising. Newmark says he doesn't intend to use any
kind of web advertising on craigslist in the future.