Is It Still Craig's List?

By: Lucas ConleyWed Dec 19, 2007 at 7:44 AM

When you're a small, spirited startup built on community, personal attention, and customer service, attracting the investment of one of the world's largest dotcoms can be daunting. Craig's List's leaders had the courage to collaborate with eBay, and early reports indicate that the company will remain grounded -- while still having more room to grow.

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Buckmaster: The one that's requested most frequently is Paris. We get them for lots of different countries. The first foreign language we go into may be Spanish, given that it's the language that will crop up on most frequently in postings. Spanish is very applicable, even in the U.S. And of course there are lots of large cities where Spanish is the primary spoken language.

FC: What about social networking? Have you thought about going into that field?

Buckmaster: I guess we're already there in a very light way. As far as adding technologies like friend-of-a-friend, it's not something that we've looked at closely. In our view, it looks promising, but it's not a mature technology and we're probably going to be content to wait until it's been figured out. We figure it will filter up from the bottom of our site rather than a top-down approach. We'll look to weave it into the Craig's List tapestry in an organic fashion over time rather than in some bold new initiative.

FC: Assuming eBay won't have much to do with the look of the site, how do you decide what gets added? Categories, forums, features -- who makes those calls?

Newmark: Usually people ask us for those, either directly by asking for new cities or categories. There's a lot interest in Anchorage right now. And now and then Jim and I will figure stuff out on our own. Here's two examples. Some years ago we added missed connections, out of a sense of the romantic. Because sometimes you meet someone, there's some chemistry, but no one gets the other's phone number. The other example is that we were thinking how single moms never get a break -- so that's the reason behind the childcare section. Something moms need a lot is babysitters. The childcare section has taken off really well; I hear a lot from parents who find babysitters that way. Plus, it's taken off to the extent that people have started posting a lot of baby stuff for sale there, so we created a special baby section. In a sense, people asked implicitly for the new section simply by repurposing the original one.

Buckmaster: Our role is to prioritize the feedback that we get from users, since we can't do everything that's suggested to us. We try to figure out which features would have the largest possible impact and which would speak to multiple needs that we're hearing about, and of course which features we can get out the door rapidly. Some of the things requested are obviously more difficult than others. We've gotten to the point where the most difficult thing about adding new categories or new cities is trying to maintain a navigational interface that's not overwhelming. When I first started we had about a dozen categories and we were only in San Francisco. And even though our home page is now a sea of blue hyperlinks, people seem to be able to navigate it just fine. We've striven... is that a word? (Laughter) We've striven to stay compatible with 1995 Web technology. (Laughter) We're not real big on style for the sake of style. A lot of times, style decisions aren't made with the end user in mind; they come out of the marketing department. Not having a marketing department, we don't have to worry about that.

FC: Did eBay have anything to say about that?

Buckmaster: No. The topic didn't even come up. They must not have been repulsed by it. (Laughter) Our site has been described as having the visual impact of a pipe wrench. Our headquarters have been described as either a shabby or dilapidated Victorian. One of the two. Both probably apply. (Laughter)

FC: Well, it's comforting that you haven't upgraded to the gold-plated trash cans.

Buckmaster: Well, we do have new computers. We're not crazy. The majority of team now uses Linux. There are some Macintosh and a few folks on Windows in accounting.

FC: In terms of the way the site evolves, where have you seen users repurposing features?

Newmark: One example was in our "general for sale" category: People posted more and more furniture. After awhile, we caught on and created a furniture section.

FC: And do you catch on because you're watching all the time -- or are people bringing it to your attention?

Newmark: Both. We try to keep abreast of things, but given the culture we've developed -- where people look out for us as we look out for them -- frequently people will spot stuff before we do. For example, that's why we have the flagging system. Somehow, we've built a really good culture of trust and even fairness on the site. And the deal is that since we've found that pretty much everyone is so trustworthy, we've handed over a lot of control over the site to the flagging system -- and people flag stuff for removal. Sometimes we'll get repetitive abusers -- misbehaving apartment brokers, mostly in New York, but spreading to Boston and Washington -- and we're trying to figure out how we can turn over more power to those people who, for some time, have helped us locate the bad guys.

From Issue 86 | September 2004

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Recent Comments | 47 Total

July 16, 2009 at 3:13am by Smith William

We do a lot with a little. And remember, it's a relatively small investment from their standpoint. It's not as though they're counting on us for their future financial performance.
online Bachelors degree | online Computer Science degree | ME degree

Is It Still Craig's List?

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