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Craigslist releases new mobile app for iOS and Android
- Exuma 7y agoI was hoping the font was times new roman. Still, great they kept it plain looking.
- saagarjha 7y agoLooks like the default San Francisco on iOS.
- beeskneecaps 7y agoLove the category menu. Everything still looks like a scam, but now it looks less scammy.
- spqr0a1 7y agoHave yet to use the mobile apps, but kudos to the Craigslist team for making their website one of the best mobile experiences out there. Loads quickly, easy to navigate, and isn't missing features compared to desktop. Certainly doesn't have the look we expect from a modern website but there's a level of usability we can all aspire to.
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoCL desktop works pretty damn good on mobile if you don't mind pinching and zooming.
- pkamb 7y agoStrongly disagree that Craigslist should be held up as an example of a usable website. The Web 1.0 look is fine. But if you use CL a lot you'll know how bad the UX is, especially on mobile, especially compared to mobile-first camera-focused apps. I can think of 5-10 incredibly annoying non-standard Craigslist UX elements off the top of my head.
- sillysaurusx 7y agoYou didn’t actually mention any specific criticisms.
- rtpg 7y ago- there aren't great ways for people to offer multiple items apart from making one listing with all the stuff (And having to update all the time) - You have to do the whole "negotiate payment mechansim and shipping" thing every time. They could easily provide a sort of flow for when an agreement has happened - On the buyer side you gotta basically just go in and delete your listing when it's done There's an alternate universe in craigslist where you could somehow signal "I have a potential buyer" to put the thing in hold, and a single-button finalisation step when its done. Similarly, sellers could be able to register certain info to just plop it into a message. I understand that the existing UX (mainly e-mail forwarding) makes this hard. But... well maybe they can change their UX
- Nextgrid 7y agoThese are valid issues but I think they aren't a big deal. Every other platform I've seen that tries to be "smart" and offer these features ends up overdoing it and making it way too complicated & time consuming to post an ad for the first time. CL in contrast is easy & understandable. You post an ad, post a price, and done. No "profile" or "account" to manage, etc.
- cglace 7y agoAfter using letgo to buy and sell I will never use craigslist again. Night and day in terms of usability.
- tomcooks 7y ago> I can think of 5-10 incredibly annoying non-standard Craigslist UX elements off the top of my head. Yes?
- 7y ago
- zelly 7y agoI find craigslist's fast loading pages to be problematic. I think their website would be improved by rewriting it entirely in JavaScript, transpiling the JavaScript to JavaScript, requiring the JavaScript to render, re-implementing the entire UI in JavaScript including hyperlinks, then running JavaScript on the server to generate HTML, sending the HTML to the browser, also sending the JavaScript bundle with megabytes of hipster fonts and random people's github repos to insert spaces in a string and stuff, then finally re-rendering the client's page after the multi-megabyte JavaScript bundle finishes downloading. Now that is the nice modern user experience I have come to demand as a user in 2019.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ec109685 7y agoDon’t forget breaking the back button miserably and ensuring there are no URL’s that can be copied and pasted.
- giancarlostoro 7y agoAlso to spam about using cookies and ask for the location data every single time you visit. Ah the ultimate Single Page Abomination (as I jokingly call it even though I do my own at work but everything has its place). Course Svelte is what might be the game changer in this regard.
- Nextgrid 7y agoYou forgot notification permissions.
- giancarlostoro 7y agoI really wish I could tell the browser to default those to "Nope" for me.
- rdtwo 7y agoIt’s crazy that searches for craigslist in the App Store does not actually show the official app anywhere
- Despegar 7y agoMobile computing has finally arrived
- mehrdada 7y agoCraigslist has held on to its market share quite strongly for a long time, but more recently it has clearly started to weaken with Facebook Marketplace and a plethora of more special-purpose apps that are much more mobile-centric. I'm glad they are finally starting to defend their share. I'll be curious to watch: time will tell if they were too late in transitioning to mobile or will it be just fine for them.
- goosehonk 7y agoI find that Nextdoor gets me more responses on for-sale items and none of them are scams. On Craigslist I get fewer and the majority are scams. I only bother with Craigslist these days when I’m looking to buy, or if I’m selling an item expensive enough to worry about getting the best price.
- xenihn 7y agoFor anyone who hasn't used Craigslist in years due to FB groups/Marketplace, OfferUp, and others: IMO it's only improved since the rise of competitors. I did lots of buying and selling on Craigslist as a college student, then stopped using it for years until recently.
- hellisothers 7y agoAgreed, especially if you’re trying to buy weird items Craigslist is still the place to shop
- dclusin 7y agoI paid $5 to post a used truck for sale ad on craigslist. The only responses I got was from scammers. I posted for free on facebook market place with copy pasta text + pictures. 10+ inquiries and sold it in 2 days for my asking price. craigslist is going down the tubes and they are just cynically capitalizing on every bit of revenue they can before it fades into obscurity.
- hamhand 7y agoI'm surprised they are going strong to this day without mobile apps and innovation.
- 52-6F-62 7y agoExcept you need a FB account. Craiglist isn't going to track you all over the web and include your sales and purchases in your advertising and whatever other profiles. There's a lot of funny business on any public want-ad board. I appreciate one that doesn't want to know the intimate details of my life for their financial benefit. I have to laugh at calling Craigslist the cynical ones in this case...
- kennywinker 7y ago> and they are just cynically capitalizing on every bit of revenue they can before it fades into obscurity. What? Did you want your money back for your first ad? Oh right it was free and completely un monetized. Can you say the same for your fb marketplace ad? I bet you saw ads at every step in the process. I’ve found in my travels that local buy/sell tools are very localized. I.e. in some cities craigslist is the only game in town. In others, it’s barely used. It sounds like you live somewhere where cl is not the best way to sell. I live somewhere where it is definitely still the best way to sell. I worry about fb fragmenting the market, but for now cl is still king here.
- egdod 7y agoThe website works just fine on mobile. Why in the world would I download another app?
- goosehonk 7y agoPerhaps the app can manage to remember your address and phone number, instead of making you type it in every time even when you are logged in to your account? I dunno just guessing at some improvements they can make.
- Austin_Conlon 7y agoWhat's the link to download it on the Play Store?
- pkamb 7y agohttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.craigslist.CraigslistMobile https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.craigslist... (found both these apps via a banner on the mobile website, btw. No press releases that I've seen.)
- greggman2 7y agoI'm not sure this is a direct competitor or not but just to pass on info to HNers, here in Japan Mercari is #1 for buying and selling used stuff online. It's mobile 1st. Take a picture of the item you want to sell, add a price and it's on sale. They've done nearly everything possible to make things as seamless as possible. When a sale happens you get notified where and how to ship it. They partnered with the post office and the 50k+ convenience stores so you can ship from the stores. At both locations they auto print labels via QR codes and offer fixed box sizes. I think they do a little bit of escrow (not 100% sure the actual mechanics) but I believe the buyer pays immediately but the funds are not forwarded until the buyer approves the item. (really not sure about this part) Certain things seem like it might only fit Japan. The convenience store partnership is huge since, at least in populous areas there is always multiple within 2-5 min walk. Even post offices are relatively many. I also don't know to what extent a more trustworthy populus helps. They are hiring like crazy and hiring foreigners as well if you want a job in Japan. They're probably the #1 company for running dev meetups in Tokyo and those meetups feel like SV, all English, in rooms that might as well be at Google Mountain View including food and kitchens etc.. AFAIK they've had no luck replicating their success outside Japan
- siquick 7y agoIn Australia where I live, selling goods online outside the likes of eBay and normal ecommerce has become a generally painful experience. Facebook marketplace (and Gumtree to a lesser degree) have given the buyer this weird desire to lowball on pricing to the point of insult. It's almost like as soon as people open Facebook, they become this extreme version of themselves, and this extends to "haggling".
- whtrbt 7y agoDefinitely a lot of tyre kickers. Every time I've marked something I'm selling as e.g. '$500 negotiable' I get tons of messages saying "what's your best price" or "what's your lowest offer?" That's not how haggling works. My lowest offer is $500 until I hear yours. Aside from that, I've had good experiences selling old video game consoles on Gumtree.
- s09dfhks 7y agoHave to sign in just to save a search? no thanks
- exhilaration 7y agoWhy not just bookmark the search?
- dredmorbius 7y agoUse RSS feeds: http://septicscompanion.com/blog/2013/12/how-to-monitor-lots-of-craigslist-sites-at-once/ http://septicscompanion.com/blog/2013/12/how-to-monitor-lots...
- jhatemyjob 7y agoHas Craigslist ever taken investment? It always smelled like a purely bootstrapped company to me...
- ec109685 7y agoOne of the original owners sold a stake: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/craigslist/investors/investors_list https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/craigslist/investors...
- etxm 7y agoTraded a Hank Williams CD for an old canoe once. Looking forward to the future, CL.
- dublidu 7y agoBetter late than never I guess. It's pretty sad how little Craigslist has done to keep up with the times.
- cryptozeus 7y agoI recently moved and tried selling stuff on craigslist. The amount of spam and shady emails I got was overwhelming. They never figured out how to control that.
- dredmorbius 7y agoOn the buy side, it's also getting tots redic. I've mostly monitored furniture classifications. The "by dealer" sections are all but unusable, with repeat and keyword-stuffed listings. This has been going on for at least a decade. It's bad enough that I don't bother. The individual sales listings are much more viable. IMO: Craigslist should start charging for business listings, at least in regions for which spamming is prevalent.
- Camillo 7y agoIs Craigslist still the way to go for finding a place to rent in the Bay Area? As far as I recall, it was a pretty poor experience, but it was the only place that had the listings.
- commoner 7y agoGoogle Play Store link for Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.craigslist.CraigslistMobile https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.craigslist... The Android app requires you to sign in with a Google account, which is disappointing in terms of privacy.
- giancarlostoro 7y agoWow the reviews are night and day between Google and iOS.
- jcomis 7y agoThey require access to your google account to sign in which is clearly not needed. Most people HATE this, myself included.
- qubex 7y agoI’m on the Italian App Store and I just get a “not available in your location” error, which is somewhat galling.
- joshfraser 7y agoI love how their product screenshots show a 2 BR Victorian in San Francisco for $2,000 / month. At least they're honest about how many scammy fake listings are on their site.
- pentae 7y agoA classic case of your designers placeholder finding its way past final review
- avree 7y agoThe Hippie Van for $420 is a nice touch too.
- joshfraser 7y agoLate edit: 4 BD not 2.
- ksec 7y agoForgive my ignorance, ( Not from US ) how does Craiglist make money?
- JeremyNT 7y agoListing some sorts of items costs money. I recently sold a used car and had to pay them a small fee.
- degenerate 7y agoJob postings cost money too. They definitely rake it in!
- creeble 7y agoReally? I was unaware of this change, haven't sold a car in a while (but have sold several on CL in the past). I guess the spam level got too intense, which I can definitely vouch for. Lots of not-believable deals that were basically phishing scams.
- frosted-flakes 7y agoPeople pay to post prominently-placed ads.
- dredmorbius 7y agoSome ads carry a fee. A full listing here: https://www.craigslist.org/about/help/posting_fees https://www.craigslist.org/about/help/posting_fees
- mrguyorama 7y agoCraigslist has a running cost of practically nil when you compare it to most tech companies
- bluedino 7y agoDoes anyone use CL anymore? It's basically all spam (Keyword dumpers that CL doesn't care about apparently) anytime I search for anything, and I used to be able to sell a laptop on there in 1-3 days. Now I can go weeks without getting a legitimate response. So much spam on the other end of it as well.
- jumbopapa 7y agoI use it and it works fairly well. I wish they wouldn't allow on actual stores and spammers. I recently graduated and moved to a larger city than my college town and I've found that Craigslist is actually worse in the larger city. Less people who respond overall and there's always someone who responds 45 minutes across the city.
- kennywinker 7y agoYou can filter the stores out using “by owner” instead of “by dealer”. Some spammers will have their listings as by owner but... it gets rid of most of them
- jwr 7y agoI sold some stuff on CL, but it was really really painful. The worst thing is that once you post, the first 4-8 people contacting you will be scammers (trying to redirect your phone through Google Voice, or trick you into other scams). It's like putting your hand into a pool full of alligators.
- gh123man 7y agoPersonal Anecdote: I am in the Boston area so YMMV - but I love CL. If you are serious about buying selling used stuff it is by far the best place to go. Competitors (FB marketplace, Letgo) have a much lower quality of listings and a much less educated user base on how to prepare, negotiate and make sales. I am not saying CL is not full of spam and junk, but its very easy to spot serious sellers and people who have no idea what they are doing. Over the last 3 years I have probably made 50+ buys/sales on CL and it is still by far my favorite platform.
- 7y ago
- ds 7y agoIf I had equity in craigslist as a employee or investor I would be furious. Think about how much value has been lost to offerup & letgo because they literally took over a decade to release a official mobile app. There is no excuse besides incompetence and gross negligence. There should unironically be employee lawsuits at the management.
- The_rationalist 7y agoIonic or native?
- pryelluw 7y agoI used to work at the company (Mokriya) that had previously released an "official" CL app. CL's attitude towards apps was funny. I never got it. The lead dev told me they were hard to work with and were against providing APIs. No wonder they got their lunch eaten by facebook and other marketplaces.
- crooked-v 7y agoIt really says something about the iOS App Store that I literally put in "craigslist" as a search term and this app doesn't appear at all in the results.
- ctingom 7y agoWow so Craigslist launched a iPhone app — like 5 years too late.