craigslist.com is an excellent non-profit directory of classified ads for
various urban areas in the United States,
including its home city San
Francisco as well as Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago, Portland,
DC, etc. The suburban areas around these cities are also serviced,
with almost half of the posts coming not from the urban city itself,
but instead from the surrounding towns. Each location has its own site
and listings, allowing a very local audience to be reached. Other
locations in the United States and the rest of the world exist, but
some have not yet acquired a sizable amount of users to be of any
immediate practical use. For a full list, visit
craigslist.com and look
on the right hand side for your city.
craigslist.com primarily offers a free job and housing listing service
for (except for in New York and San Francisco where there is a small
fee to post but none to browse).
Organized brilliantly, craigslist also
boasts classified ads for sale / trade, personals, and discussion
forums. Posting and browsing are equally easily, making craigslist an
enticing place to begin a job or housing search.
All postings are first organized according to category, then posted
based on time. Spam and other undesirable messages can be flagged for
removal, and there is even a "Best Of" flag to mark particularly
interesting posts. Be forewarned - some posts are graphic in nature
and children should be supervised when browsing some sections of the
site. craigslist has created its own sort of culture, with some
acronyms to learn (for instance, R&R is Rants and Raves), but
it is easy to catch on quickly - the greater danger is getting addicted...