Angie’s List and Craig’s List
Are you suddenly becoming aware of web sites like angieslist.com and craigslist.com? If so, you’re not alone. The craigslist.com site has been around over a decade now and remains a free “classifieds” service for local communities. Alternatively, angieslist.com is a paid premium referral and review service, which recently launched a major television advertising campaign. Craig and Angie are not alone, now there are more “first-name-list.com” web sites cropping up. So, what’s the deal with these lists anyway?
Does it require a really big ego to start a web site named after yourself? I mean, who is this Craig and Angie anyway? Wouldn’t it be more humble, and to the point, if these sites were named after the particular service they provide? Carfax.com is an example of a cleverly named site that’s name also relates to the actual purpose of the site. Isn’t that better than SomeJoesList.com?
Who is Craig?
Well, quite specifically, Craig is Craig Newmark, and not an egotist at all. In an interview on NBC’s Today program the 52-year-old Craig Newmark seemed pretty down to earth. It is likely his URL name has more to do with lack of creativity than of personal “first name pride.” After all, “Internet squatters” are tying up many good domain names. It’s almost like starting a band, it’s not easy coming up with a good name. Sometimes you just have to pick something and move forward with launching your site.
The craigslist.com web site happens to be very simple and unpresuming, lacking any flash or gimmicks. What you see is what you get with craigslist.com, and the site is entirely free for you to use. Wikipedia describes craigslist.com as, “a centralized network of online communities, featuring free classified advertisements (with jobs, internships, housing, personals, erotic services, for sale/barter/wanted, services, community, gigs, resume, and pets categories) and forums on various topics.”
Who is Angie?
Marketed as an ordinary housewife with the best interests of other similar consumers in mind, Angie is actually “Angie Hicks,” a clever Internet entrepreneur. The popularity of angieslist.com cannot be described as “an accident” in the way that craigslist.com might be. Her site is much more planned and capitalistic in nature. She knew what she wanted, and unlike Craig Newmark, she sought venture capital and started her site with the specific intent to make money. This one might actually be more of an ego trip. After all, Angie’s list is so special, you have to pay to read it.
Commonality
These two web sites are not direct competitors. Angie’s List and Craig’s list do, however, share the “national site designed to serve many local communities” model in common. They both attempt to serve visitors at a local level. Craig’s List does it for free. Angie wants your money to use her web site. Not all areas are available in these lists either, although Craig currently has more communities than does Angie.
Which to Use?
Since they are not direct competitors, it really comes down to what you are after. For example, if you are looking for a very competitive plumber to fix your water pipes, you might find a listing on craigslist.com. Or, if you happen to be a plumber, perhaps a small one-person operation, you might post your contact information on craigslist.com as a free way to advertise. If you are a lonely plumber, you might also find a date on Craig’s List, maybe even someone that likes pipes as much as you!
Someone wanting to find out if you are a good plumber or not might pay Angie to use her site and look for a review on your services. If a review exists, someone that has hired you to fix his or her pipes in the past presumably wrote that review. They are either giving your work praise, or blasting you for being overpriced and incompetent.
What to Watch Out For
Craig’s List is a great site, because it is free of charge and there’s no hidden agenda behind its existence. It is a true “Web 2.0″ type of site, much like Wikipedia and many of the services Google provides. However, you might want to stay clear of Craig’s List if you fear a somewhat uncensored site that may contain classifies for, besides ordinary things, prostitutes and escort services. Craig’s list is not extensively moderated and tends to be more of a free-speech type of philosophically libertarian web site. Not that absolutely “anything goes” on craigslist.com, but a lot does go on there.
Angie’s List, on the other hand, is not that impressive. There are other places to find company and product reviews that are free of charge. Also, no matter how good your product or service is, there’s always going to be some dopey person that is not satisfied and will badmouth you on a review site.
Basically, Angie’s List is a member’s only editorial site for anyone willing to pay to bash or praise a company. There’s no way to tell if that person even actually used a company’s product or service. Alternatively, a company employee trying to put out some positive publicity could very well have written a given positive review. It’s simply not worth paying for this type of information. It can be had for free elsewhere.
Who is Judy?
First name based web branding doesn’t end with Craig and Angie. Another egotist’s first name web site is Judy’s Book, or www.judysbook.com. Judy’s Book is actually much more closely related to what Angie’s List does. The interesting thing about Judy’s “Book”, is besides not being Judy’s “List”, if you happen to get confused and type www.judyslist.com you will get redirected to Craig’s List. Now if that doesn’t make your head spin, just wait until more people start arbitrary sites using their first name.
If you’re not impressed with either Angie or Judy, you might try the more appropriately named site, 20referrals.com. Although less well known (mainly because Angie has been spending big bucks marketing on Fox News and has an unholy relationship with NPR), the 20referrals.com site won’t cost you a dime to use. As with Craig’s List, it is up to users to get the word out and make the site succeed.
Thank you for reading this article and we look forward to seeing you on our new web site in the future. We plan to launch it after we figure out a way to get all our names in front of “list.com” without exceeding the limitation on what fits in your web browser.