If you haven't seen
Edgeio yet, it's worth checking out -- and keeping an eye on. This new startup venture has an interesting and, as far as I know, new twist on classifieds.
Basically, you post your listing on your own venue (your site or blog, or perhaps even a hosted service like Google Base) and then tag it with the tag "listing." Then go to Edgeio and enter the URL of your listing. Edgeio then goes to your site and adds your feed to its database. Thereafter, any items on your feed that are tagged with "listing" get added automatically to the Edgeio database.
On Feb. 20, Jeff Jarvis posted his thoughts on Edgeio. Read that article, and don't miss the comment thread -- it offers plenty to consider for anyone whose business model involves advertising, especially classifieds.
Personally, I think it's important not to view services such as Edgeio or Craigslist as "threats." It seems to me that this is a natural evolution. News organizations can roll with, and capitalize on, this trend. For instance, news organizations could feed-enable their classifieds and then use Edgeio as an easy, free, automated way to increase distribution.
The inevitable downside of Edgeio (and any service like it) is spam. People who are already creating "splogs" and other forms of search engine kudzu will be all over this. I hope Edgeio has a plan for dealing with that.
