classified

Listpic, the controversial visual front-end for Craigslist, has made the switch to classifieds service Oodle.com. The change comes after last week's cease and desist order from Craigslist, which forced Listpic to discontinue scraping data from the popular classifieds service. Listpic was apparently sucking up so much of Craigslist's bandwidth that the site's performance had suffered. Craigslist then fired back with legal action.

Oodle.com is a service that aggregates classifieds listings from a number of local and national sites. It claims to let users search over 20 million listings that have been pulled from more than … Read more

Listpic, the visual searching and browsing tool for Craigslist has been blocked from the service as of yesterday. Craigslist creator Craig Newmark posted on the Craigslist user forums to alert the community to the shutdown last night, citing bandwidth drains and Listpic's attempts to "monetize" Craigslist by piggybacking off its services and using its own advertising. Newmark claimed that so much bandwidth was being used by the third-party service that it was "making it harder for the vast bulk of people who visit our site."

Listpic provided its users with a fairly simple way to … Read more

The simplicity of Craigslist is key to its success, but the classifieds can be clunky when you're shopping for something specific that could turn up anywhere on the map. What if you're willing to drive up and down the West Coast to find a mint Cadillac coupe from the Carter era? Here's where Craigslist stops being simple. It certainly can do the trick, but you'll have to do separate searches from Seattle to San Diego. Since my knuckles are sore, I don't want to click that much.

Two low-key-looking Web sites that provide portals to … Read more

Facebook's new "Marketplace" classifieds feature launched quietly this weekend, giving the social networking site's members the ability to post Craigslist-like ads and make them visible to their friends and "networks" (which, if you aren't familiar with Facebook, are based around regions, high schools and colleges, and companies). I gave it a quick run-through to test it out; here's what I found.

When you click on Marketplace, which is accessible by a link in the left sidebar (along with other Facebook staples like photos, groups, and notes) you are directed to the Marketplace homepage for your primary network, with tabs where you can navigate to the corresponding pages for your other networks if you're in more than one. In the image below, you can see the CNET network is the one displayed; I also have access to listings from my former university's network and to the NYC network. The interface is more or less just like the rest of Facebook--blue and white, without much clutter.

Read on after the jump...… Read more

Very recently, Facebook launched its new "Marketplace" classifieds ads feature, a potential rival to services like Craigslist. The service, according to a New York Times article, was supposed to go live on Friday. At least in the networks that I have access to, it wasn't actually available until Sunday night. (Facebook occasionally will roll out features to select school, workplace, or regional "networks" within the service before they become widely available. But it looks like now the Marketplace is available to everyone.)

Look for our review of Facebook Marketplace very soon.

Thrillist, a NYC-based e-mail list that features everything from bar picks to gadgets, has tipped us off to some pretty cool webware recently. (The site currently operates "everywhere," NYC, and LA versions with San Francisco coming soon.) They do, however, tend to be targeted toward Thrillist's key demographic of party-ready slackers. Like this one, for example: Do My Stuff. It's a way for you to find people to, well, do your stuff: lawn mowing, house painting, moving, posing for photographs (ahem), you name it.

The thinking behind it is sort of an eBay-Craigslist hybrid, with … Read more

Moving can be a strange experience. Even stranger are the people you meet along the way. TenantMarket is a new service that plays matchmaker for both landlords and potential tenants in an attempt to avoid potentially bad living situations. You simply give TenantMarket details like length of employment, credit status, and reasons for moving, and it will match you up accordingly.

Landlords pay to have their listings matched up, and the system provides them with a fresh set of "leads" to contact. Likewise, potential renters are e-mailed personalized offers about new places that match their criteria. It's … Read more

Iqzone is a new service announced at Demo 07 that allows you to post classified ads to the Internet using the camera on your cell phone. Users can create text-only postings or add pictures. The entire process is done by sending your photo and item description in a mixed media text message.

Iqzone is free, and all listings end up on the Iqzone's classifieds Web site. I'd like to see Iqzone build in some sort of integration to post to Craigslist and eBay. The service is being promoted as a quick way to sell things, but I can'… Read more

I recently got my car stolen from a public parking lot. When I got it back several days later, all the electronics were stolen, along with everything else even remotely valuable. The same day I got it back, a friend of mine told me to check out Craigslist to see if any of my stuff had been listed. I took his advice, and to my surprise I found a local posting with what was undoubtedly some of my car's electronics, along with a post date the same day of the theft.

I immediately contacted the police with the posting … Read more