Why is Craigslist Such a Mess?

In anticipation of our discussion tonight on web usability, I came across this article from Wired Mag about the highly-trafficked website that serves as a platform for everything from selling IKEA furniture to finding a sexual partner. Focusing mostly on Craig Newmark, the founder and (infuriatingly coy) brains behind the site, Wired Mag delves into the various ways that keep Craigslist not only afloat, but thriving. Craigslist is ugly, extremely functional, and sees 47 million unique users every month in the U.S...

Odd perhaps, but no odder than what you see at the most popular job-search site: another wasteland of hypertext links, one line after another, without recommendations or networking features or even protection against duplicate postings. Subject to a highly unpredictable filtering system that produces daily outrage among people whose help-wanted ads have been removed without explanation, this site not only beats its competitors—Monster, CareerBuilder, Yahoo's HotJobs—but garners more traffic than all of them combined. Are our standards really so low?

Read the full article here: http://bit.ly/bV83v