[gavanwoolery]

Craigslist continues to destroy its competition by maintaining its walled garden. This wouldn't bug me as much if CL was actually serious about improving its user experience, which has more or less been the same for the past decade (just bad enough to be usable).

I don't mind it being spartan - but that aside there are usability issues. One simple example is the reason things like PadMapper and HousingMaps became popular. Another example is that their categories are often hard to filter through. Lastly, there are trust issues - something like "connect to Facebook" would really go a long way in some transactions.

If anyone ever needed proof that monopolies crush innovation, this would be a good starting point.

[JustSomeNobody]

I don't have a problem with CL. It's dirt simple and it works. It reminds me of the simplicity of newspaper want ads.

[nitrogen]

We tend not to know what we're missing until someone gets sued for trying to give it to us.

[JustSomeNobody]

Depending on how they're trying to give us something, they might darn well deserve to be sued!

[eli]

I don't see the connection between bullying being acceptable and improving a site's UX. If it's wrong then it's wrong regardless of whether or not they steal competitor's ideas when they crush them.

[3am]

CL is popular because it's simple, easy, cheap. They have tons of competitors that they manage to beat, so they're doing something right. Companies that want to horn in on them should create the marketplace as well as the front end, but they would fail at it so they're just left with complaining.

[a5seo]

Or, they "dumped" free classified listings into the market, killing off competitors (newspapers), giving CL a monopoly.

Of course they "manage to beat" competitors, that's not hard for a monopolist. But it doesn't equate to "doing something right."

The whole suit is ridiculous from the consumer/society perspective. You can't argue that scraping Google to get CL listings harms CL in any way whatsoever. So the only TRUE reason to sue 3Taps (or their customers) is to retain the monopoly, plain and simple.

I'm starting to think that, on balance, CL may no longer be a net benefit to society.