Do you understand the concept of "monopoly power"? It sounds like you do not.
I, personally, save several hours every time I look for an apartment by using padmapper over Craigslist. Aggregated, that's human lifetimes of time saved every year by padmapper.
UI isn't about round corners and fancy color schemes. It's about using computers to automate repetitive behaviors. Newmark's defenders tell me what I really want is to waste my limited lifetime clicking manually through entries on his shitty site. But no, I really don't.
Question: what "monopoly power" do you believe Craigslist has? What product or service can you _only_ buy from Craigslist? Are they the only way to find an apartment to rent? Are they the only way to advertise an apartment to rent? (Note, your answers there may be very_ different from my perceptions of the answers to those questions - for me locally here in Sydney Australia, Craigslist _exists_, but isn't even close to a bit-player in real-estate/aparement-rental, never mind a major player - and it'd be _laughable_ to accuse them of "monopoly")
"Fuck Craigslist. Seriously."
Because they "cost" you "several hours" everytime you choose to use them to look for an apartment? Which is what - twice a year maybe? And this cost to you is somehow greater then the newspaper classifieds market they disrupted? Without some more backstory - I can't help but think you're _seriously_ over-reacting…
> I, personally, save several hours every time I look for an apartment by using padmapper over Craigslist.
> Fuck Craigslist. Seriously.
It's a bit disingenuous to say fuck Craigslist when the data you are using above...comes from Craigslist. Shouldn't you have switched to Zillow or another service by now if you hate Craigslist so much?
"UI isn't about round corners and fancy color schemes. It's about using computers to automate repetitive behaviors."
I think my point still stands - if there's a better way to do it that's so obvious, why hasn't somebody _done_ it and grabbed all the users? Google did it to Alta Vista. Facebook did it to MySpace (who did it to Friendster who did it to Tribe…)
It seems to me as though Newmark has balanced the often conflicting requirements of "people wanting to advertise stuff" and "people wanting search through advertisements" better than anyone else. Craigslist wouldn't have any data worth publishing in an API if they didn't address the needs of the advertisers. Padmapper doesn't have any data at all - why should Craigslist give them their apartment rental data just so Padmapper can compete with Craigslist without having the constraint of having to satisfy the advertiser well enough for them to provide the data in the first place?
I, personally, save several hours every time I look for an apartment by using padmapper over Craigslist. Aggregated, that's human lifetimes of time saved every year by padmapper.
UI isn't about round corners and fancy color schemes. It's about using computers to automate repetitive behaviors. Newmark's defenders tell me what I really want is to waste my limited lifetime clicking manually through entries on his shitty site. But no, I really don't.
Fuck Craigslist. Seriously.