C'mon Craiglist, Launch an API Already

There was a discussion in the "Craigslist Crusher" thread a few days ago that basically pointed out that because Craigslist's main advantage over everyone else is its user base, and not its pretty site or awesome features, it would be foolish for them to offer an API, in which others could mooch off the user base. I tend to agree: From a business standpoint, a Craigslist API has more cons than pros.

<i>"You are missing a HUGE opportunity to extend and control your brand."</i><p>Why? The article doesn't touch on this. Craigslist is already an extremely successful business. It's not a small startup looking to gain traction. An API has pros and cons, and Craigslist has a lot to lose. I would expect the author to show how the pros could outweigh the cons.

C'mon frustrated bloggers, create your own Craiglist already and launch an API for it.

An API seems like the antithesis of Craigslist. Craigslist is the online classifieds equivalent of the long form sales letter. To contemporary designers/developers, the design is hideous, the usability sucks, and if you asked for an off-the-cuff evaluation, most would tell you they (long form sales letters) won't work. Yet, they do.<p>Craigslist is similar. The site is sparsely designed, but makes no attempt at exploiting a minimalist aesthetic that we're used to seeing other places. The site continues to use bare bones formatting and lacks features that everyone expects. Forget an API, where are the like/tweet/share/etc buttons?<p>I think Craigslist's anti-feature pattner works for them. Posting your first listing to the site has some confusing points, but once you've made your way through the process once, friction is incredibly low. Craigslist is the ultimate in low effort online posting. I'm not sure an API would fit with this product philosophy.

I don't see why the fuss about Craigslist not providing an API:<p>1. Anyone is free to come up with a better provide that serves Craigslist users' needs, you can argue that craigslist is the dominant player and it's hard to steal users from them, but many niche-focus startups have proved otherwise (or they simply don't have a compelling enough products);<p>2. When it comes to the time Craigslist fails its users functionally and aesthetically, it's hard to imagine no other players will surge up in the game;<p>3. Even if Craigslist provides an API now but doesn't improve its user experience, do we just want it to serve as a database for all other services that piggyback on Craigslist?<p>So my message to Craigslist: "Just think hard about how to serve your users better. You're not an asshole for restricting data access to your site, but it is irresponsible to waste other engineers lives on trying to defeat you while you can easily make yourselves better for your users!"

Why would they? I would be afraid of some service taking away parts of my offerings. I have no idea how the API would still direct to craigslist but imagine:<p>E.g. service A puts up a nice website for nicheB using the API. ServiceA gets super successful and becomes the #1 go-to site for nicheB. ServiceA lives on without the API. Craigslist lost nicheB.

An API would just allow YC startups to come in and strip away Craigslist's business category by category, as AirBNB did.<p>It's a wonderful idea for people who want to strip away categories from Craigslist, but it's a really silly suggestion for Craigslist.

if people care so much about craigslist features, then just build something and offer them the code for free.<p>but that's not what this is about...it's about people complaining that criagslist isn't allowing them to make money from craigslist brand.

Craigslist doesn't care about its users. It is a lazy monopoly. There will be no API.

They do have RSS feeds, which are pretty good already. I'm not sure why PadMapper can't use them. (Legal maybe?)