Among the housing ads cited as objectionable by the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc. were ones that read “NO MINORITIES,” “Requirements: Clean Godly Christian Male,” and “Only Muslims apply.”

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060210/ap_on_hi_te/internet_discrimination

1- Ease of Loading
2- Instant Gratification
3- Versatility
4- Free or Low Cost
5- Practical Value
6- Navigationally Simple
7- Optional Anonymity
8- Bay Area Birth in 1995

Do a web.archive.org Search for the complete archives of Craigslist – then analyze the changes and growth over the past decade.

BTW:
Could you imagine if ONE SUPER BRILLIANT mind had came up with a
Google-Yahoo-Ebay-Amazon-Craigslist,
All in one Website idea in 1995.

When the product is physical it’s easier to study. The iPod is on its way to being a classic MBA case study. How did Steve Jobs design a player that cost more and had less features and seized 80% market share? That thing will be analyzed to death.

But when the product is a website, the key differentiating features are often not obvious, and seem to get overlooked.

PageRank? Sure. But there were easily another 11 differentiators that Google had early on which also contributed to user adoption. Google is a consumer product just like the iPod. The business and the people behind it are intensely covered, but the product itself gets a fraction of the scrutiny.

It’s easier to write about the physical characteristics of the guy you had lunch with than to do the homework, say go get Jacob Nielsen and ask him what he makes of that strange Craigslist UI, versus, say, Yahoo’s. But not as illuminating.

Methinks the reporter is a little miffed with Craig for not worshipping him – ego? Craig is a very quiet, reserved, good person – Good for CL – an American success story.

Something the Guardian “reporter” will, probably, never be….

David
Charlotte, NC

Your typical general-consumption story about Google or Yahoo or Craigslist or eBay treats the company concept as if it were a platonic ideal that emerged from the very physical laws of the universe, instead of the creation of people, people with insights but also with flaws. It’s spoon-fed from company press releases and hastily prepared by people who don’t know the right questions to ask or the right people to interview. That crap frustrates the hell out of me.

The kind of man Craig is yields important insights into the kind of service Craigslist is, and will become. Ditto Larry, Sergey and everybody else. Studying the maker allows us to perceive new sides of the thing, sides that the maker would prefer to keep hidden.

John, after THE SEARCH’s penetrating analysis of the Google founders and the man who gave us Goto/Overture, I’m flabbergasted that you’d deny the validity of the human element in these studies.

The specific piece may indeed fail. There should be a balance; profiles should encompass the best and worst things about their subjects. But to condemn “studying the maker” seems to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Craigslist is Worth More than EBay

I have to agree with Tim about the misuse of the .org designation. It’s not clear whether craigslist is a foundation, a charity, or a bordello, but it certainly doesn’t look like a nonprofit.