People Love Craigslist

Thanks to Michael Nielsen’s share, I read an article titled “What Can We Learn From Mess”. I’d like to add few thoughts of my own on this subject.

I know a woman who uses, likes Craigslist a lot. Well, correction; She uses and loves Craigslist a lot. I am using the word love here, and we need to think about why that is, and how it came to be. It’s not an easy relationship to form with your customer, especially on the Internet where people can theoretically desert you in seconds, rather than hours or days.

Some speculation:The spartan look and feel of Craigslist could be a factor in this loyalty… That, combined with the fact that Craigslist carries so much data inside it could entice a user who like to discover things (who doesn’t?) to use the system more.. Isn’t that the rage these days, in movies, TV shows? Find some artifact! Combine this symbol with that one.. Push the button … at this time.. Wake the Transformer.. whatever. It’s like saying, here is a magic wand (very simply looking wand essentially just a stick, you can wave it around), but if you know how to use it, you can do great many things with it.

The domain Craigslist carries data for could also be a factor. Data domain is literally everything. It’s life. It’s like, mastering Craigslist means mastering life. That is one way of looking at it. Searching the Internet on Google is also on the same wavelength, but Craigslist actually connects people willing to do some service for someone else, so looking for something there is more like looking for a connection. It is livelier.

Hence, the bottomline could be this; sharing the most recent data about people, their life, events is king. That is why I also have great hopes for new augmented reality apps that started showing up on Android phones, and lately on iPhones. It’s about real people, real data, and it is uptodate. Point it to some building, you can receive all “likes” people had on this building, that site, this statue, etc. It gives people more flexibility, freeing up their time, which means better productivity, happier, more satisfied customers at the push of a button.