Craiglist is an enormously useful service. I’ve found places to live, meet great people, and helped grow small side businesses with it. Nearly everyone I know has had at least one positive experience with it.

Craiglist however has never really had serious competition. Now they do – not only from eBay, but also from spammers and bots. Competition is good for improving quality and service, but it’s rarely good for the market leader. I think I first read on Techcrunch the idea that modern websites are like TV shows, and that even successful websites only have a lifespan of 5-7 years. If that’s the case, then the battle for free local classifieds is about to heat up. This is great news for people who enjoy innovation.

Craigslist is not known for innovation. Nor does it necessarily need to be – after all if it’s ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s simplicity is a large part of it’s success. However the Internet thrives on innovation, and those who stand still are eventually surpassed. Craigslist knows this, which is why they recently announced that they are hiring in their blog. But why so late to respond? When you have a lock on a market, there is no incentive to change. eBay is a great example of what happens when a successful website lacks serious competition. Competition is going to be beneficial for users. imo, eBay/Kijiji is a terrible alternative, but others will emerge as the better service…

I think about this stuff a lot – which is why I’ve just released my own free local classifieds service called Lookcube.com – There’s enormous potential in local websites – a chance for people to meet, join, and organize, small business and freelancers to grow, and goods to be exchanged – all outside of the corporate sphere – if I can help make that happen, my effort will be a success.

Do you think they got the standard “were you happy with our service e-mail”

Come to think of it, I’ve never seen CHL. I tend to only watch Paul Newman alongside Robert Redford. (What can I say? I like RR. Y’know, 30 years ago, when he wasn’t MY GRANDMOTHER’S AGE. I have to remind myself of that.)

And I like asking questions to which I don’t know the answers.

Andrew Miller’s last blog post..The Future of Analytical Marketing, According to Google

CVOS man’s last blog post..Free Credit Report Lackluster SEO