TheHistoryOf.net

Back in 1995, Craig Newmark of San Francisco California started emailing his friends a list of local events. It was just a hobby, something he did for fun – he had no idea that one day his list would become the largest collection of classified advertisements in the world.

What is Craiglist?

Now exponentially larger than its humble beginnings, Craigslist is an online classified and personals forum that serves millions of people across the country and around the world. Here are just a few of the things you can find on Craigslist:

• Job listings
• Classified ads
• Personals
• Garage sales
• Community events
• Rooms and homes for rent or sale
• Community moderated forums
• Automobiles

And just about anything else you can think of! If you want to know what’s happening in your area, if you’re looking to rent an apartment, if you’d like to find out how to sell your car, or if you just want to meet new friends, Craigslist is the place!

Size and Scope

Craigslist gets over nine billion page views per day – that’s one and a half views for every man, woman, and child on the planet! This puts the traffic heading to Craigslist at the seventh largest of all the websites in the world.

Every month, Craigslist user post nearly 2 million new job listings, over 50 million new classified ads, and hundreds of millions of forum posts ranging from “What’s the best kind of yarn to make a sweater?” to "How much is your car worth?”

Staff and leadership

Jim Buckmaster is CEO of Craigslist, and has been since late 2000. Even with 9 billion page views per month and hundreds of millions of users, the staff at Craigslist is comprised of a mere 30 people working out of an office near the Inner Sunset neighborhood in San Francisco, California.

Craigslist Abroad

With over 700 million users more than a hundred countries, Craigslist is one of the most translated sites on the Internet. As of now, Craigslist is translated into French, German, Italian, Portugese, and Spanish, with plans to add half a dozen new languages over the next few years.

Craigslist and Ebay

In 2004, online auction giant eBay acquired 25% of the total equity in Craigslist from one of the former shareholders. Industry experts are interested to see if the two sites will soon form an alliance, and are eager to invest in Craigslist if it ever goes public.

Flagging

Perhaps one of the most innovative, useful, and appreciated functions available on the Craigslist site is the “flagging” function.

If advertisements, forum posts, or personals appear to be insincere, spammy, or obviously false, Craigslist users are able to “flag” them as inappropriate. If enough people flag something as incorrect or offensive, the site automatically removes it. Quite a handy invention for such a populated website!

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Craigslist.

About the Author

Melissa Cameron understands what it is like to need balance in a busy day with a spouse, children and a full-time job. In her spare time she enjoys photography and studying how to take better photos. She is also learning all about infrared and infrared technology as it relates to her digital camera. Melissa loves surfing the internet, looking for deals and spending time with her family.