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Whether you are on the side of PadMapper, or not, I'm glad to see that Craigslist is finally starting to take some innovation seriously. A competitor coming out

Whether you are on the side of PadMapper, or not, I'm glad to see that Craigslist is finally starting to take some innovation seriously. A competitor coming out to show them that they can do something different, causing them to do something different, is a win for everyone, besides PadMapper. That being said, it should be pointed out the original link[1] contains quite a bit more information than this post. * Craiglist looks like they will be hosting their own maps via OpenStreetMap[2]. * There are already examples[3] out in the wild. Beyond this, it also appears that Craglist has even setup feedback[4] for their maps. [1] - http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/craigslist-maps-test-openstreetmap.php http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/craigslist-maps... [2] - https://twitter.com/openstreetmap/status/237877987507322880 https://twitter.com/openstreetmap/status/237877987507322880 [3] - http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/apa/3207930288.html http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/apa/3207930288.html [4] - https://forums.craigslist.org/?forumID=3132 https://forums.craigslist.org/?forumID=3132

minouye 14y ago
I'm not chalking this one up as a win. This is Craigslist doing the bare minimum, just like they did when they developed mobile/tablet versions of the site. They build half-features that ultimately aren't that useful, but are enough to quell the angry masses. And given that embedding a map should be fairly simple, I'm surprised that they're having trouble with it: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/sub/3237512654.html http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/sub/3237512654.html
hooande 14y ago
Hear hear. This is a +1 for padmapper, even though they might have technically lost the war. If there's one thing that's been constant over the last 5 or so years, it's that craigslist doesn't change. They don't add a lot of features or functionality, and displaying maps is like scifi tech to them. It's obviously a complex situation, but this could be viewed as a determined individual causing a behemoth to move. Sometimes you can effect change without making millions of dollars.
seagreen 14y ago
Nope! I respectfully disagree. It's a win for current craigslist users and craigslist, but it's a loss for the ecosystem as a whole and everyone in the future besides craigslist. Imagine if email was a centralized system instead of a protocol. It would not be good for users in the long run, even if the most righteous person ever was in charge of it (btw Craig Newmark seems like a pretty cool guy). The temptation for the email company to abuse its position would be too great ("Don't like our company? OK, don't use email!"). Even if the company wasn't abusing users (this is the where we currently are with craigslist) it will still always be glacially slow to innovate compared to a decentralized system like actual email. It actually would have been great if craigslist had stopped innovating entirely and gotten replaced. Now we're back where we started. EDIT: spelling
- flatline3 14y ago
  It's not Craigslist's responsibility to hold still so that you can replace them, nor are they somehow at fault for not doing so.
  - seagreen 14y ago
    Totally! Each company should work in it's own best interest. I'm only pointing out that the interests of craigslist are neither the interests of developers nor the general public.

minouye 14y ago

I'm not chalking this one up as a win. This is Craigslist doing the bare minimum, just like they did when they developed mobile/tablet versions of the site. They build half-features that ultimately aren't that useful, but are enough to quell the angry masses. And given that embedding a map should be fairly simple, I'm surprised that they're having trouble with it: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/sub/3237512654.html http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/sub/3237512654.html

hooande 14y ago

Hear hear. This is a +1 for padmapper, even though they might have technically lost the war. If there's one thing that's been constant over the last 5 or so years, it's that craigslist doesn't change. They don't add a lot of features or functionality, and displaying maps is like scifi tech to them. It's obviously a complex situation, but this could be viewed as a determined individual causing a behemoth to move. Sometimes you can effect change without making millions of dollars.

seagreen 14y ago

Nope! I respectfully disagree. It's a win for current craigslist users and craigslist, but it's a loss for the ecosystem as a whole and everyone in the future besides craigslist. Imagine if email was a centralized system instead of a protocol. It would not be good for users in the long run, even if the most righteous person ever was in charge of it (btw Craig Newmark seems like a pretty cool guy). The temptation for the email company to abuse its position would be too great ("Don't like our company? OK, don't use email!"). Even if the company wasn't abusing users (this is the where we currently are with craigslist) it will still always be glacially slow to innovate compared to a decentralized system like actual email. It actually would have been great if craigslist had stopped innovating entirely and gotten replaced. Now we're back where we started. EDIT: spelling

flatline3 14y ago
It's not Craigslist's responsibility to hold still so that you can replace them, nor are they somehow at fault for not doing so.
- seagreen 14y ago
  Totally! Each company should work in it's own best interest. I'm only pointing out that the interests of craigslist are neither the interests of developers nor the general public.