
Craigslist is Squashing Innovation, and We’re Letting It Happen - michael_fine
http://pandodaily.com/2012/05/30/craigslist-is-squashing-innovation-and-were-letting-it-happen/
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sheraz
I don't believe the author understands innovation, craigslist, or online
marketplaces.

1\. Innovation is not features. It is utility. The real innovation of
craigslist has been to resist so much call for change, especially in tech.

2\. Craigslist is a product that works extremely well. It works well for a lot
of reasons:

    
    
      * The changes in UI are slow, even glacial. That means I don't have to re-orientate every time I visit the site.
      * It works on all browsers known to man (and some unknown).
      * Simplicity in browsing and posting (this is huge)
      * It is fast. Really. Darn. Fast.
      * It does not require a login to use. Only email.
    

I would say that Craigslist offers some the of the best user experience on the
web. I often use it as an example of "WHAT WORKS(TM)"

3\. Online marketplaces are successful because of people. Yes, people.
Craigslist, is successful because it makes it easy for two parties to transact
a deal. That ease comes from making a familiar and simple place to do it.
Again. And again. And again. for over a decade.

I wonder if the author is an investor in the half-dozen companies listed at
the bottom of that article. Or maybe I'm just cynical...

~~~
prostoalex
This is PandoDaily. The intent is to generate a flamebait headline to make you
click, not to make a valid argument.

~~~
nmridul
I wonder why this topic is even on the front page of HN.

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seldo
The thesis of this article seems to be that by sending C&Ds to companies that
are scraping their website and using the data for profit, Craigslist is
"squashing innovation". This seems crazy. Is the underlying idea that
companies scraping Craiglist are like Google crawling the web -- making use of
public data? Because Google links back to the source of the data; these
companies (mostly) do not.

While I accept that Craigslist has solid network effects going for it that
make it hard to compete even with better UI, I don't think you get to go
whining to the tech press about the fact that there are natural barriers to
entry in your market. Far from "squashing innovation", Craigslist is doing
almost nothing to defend its market share.

~~~
rhizome
If you peruse their forum for people with ads getting flagged, you'll see an
endless litany of complaints about how long (long!) established rules at
Craigslist are preventing Joe Random from doing whatever they want on the
site. There is a huge sense of entitlement among some ad posters who think
they have some kind of right to exploit the network effects you mention.

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talmand
I may be wrong but this read as a complaint about not being allowed to
monetize data that belongs to someone else. Seems to me that if Craigslist
doesn't want you to play in their playground then that's fair, it is their
playground. Seems there's an entitlement problem here.

Plus he finds all this unacceptable? What's he going to do about it exactly?
Write another stern blog post?

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LarryMade
Quashing Innovation or merely sending C&D Notices to people scraping their
data. There's a difference there.

I'm sure if the author made his own real estate listing site (with it's own
database/management/etc.and integrated maps on it) it would not have been an
issue.

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paulhauggis
The problem? They are already fully entrenched in the classified ads market.
It's going to take years for something else to become popular.

It's the same thing with Amazon. They treat their sellers like garbage, but
it's really the only place you can go if you actually want to make sales.

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mgrouchy
I don't get it. Craigslist is a company, they have been against 3rd parties
using their data for years and they have no obligation to share their data
with anyone else.

How is this even an article, and why the hell are we reading it?

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fleitz
It's not squashing innovation, it's just that for selling stuff how many users
use the site is far more important than how it looks, or the latest AJAXy
widget. Or a JSON API. Or whatever other fancy pants stuff your advisors say
you need.

Craigslist is a massively profitable business, businesses don't exist to drive
innovation, they exist to pool resources to make more money than each
contributor could individually.

Craigslist's only problem is that it disproves the opinion of the OP day in
day out and serves as shining beacon reminding people that fancy buttons
aren't the only way to make money.

It doesn't even have a Pin it button, how faux pas.

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Karunamon
FTA, On TOS's: _(I’m not an attorney and I have no desire to read them)_

That's pretty damn dangerous in 2012...

~~~
recursive
I don't know anyone who has ever read one. So far do good...

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poppew
Anybody know why craigslist allows some companies / startups to leverage their
communities and not others? I can't seem to find any method to the madness.
Looks like AirBnB got away with it for the most part, even after some blatant
spamming, yet companies like CLmetric or Worthmonkey, that only made listing
more informative got shut down. I have been looking at eggdrop and their posts
seem to be searchable and they are much bigger than worthmonley or clmetrics
ever got. Would love to hear some insight if anybody has any. Are the C&D
letters provoked by something, or nothing at all?

~~~
Drbble
AirBnB attacked Craigslist users, not the website itself. AirBnB didn't post a
copy of CP online. The spammed users could have tried to bring action against
AirBnB under CAN-SPAM.

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rhizome
This is a terrible article and the author should feel bad for writing it.
Craigslist has _always_ had a rule against 3rd party scrapers.

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silentscope
It works hella well. That's innovative.

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lani
<http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html>

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Baba_Chaghaloo
They nearly killed newspapers in this country, which has nearly killed
investigative journalism, which for whatever noble reasons they had is
reeeealy bad karma. If anybody wants to put a dent in these fuckers, I'm on
board.

