Last year, a close friend moved to the Bay Area, California. A new job, a new family – his face was beaming with optimism for the first few weeks. I used to think settling down in the bay area comes naturally to anyone. But I was probably wrong. He is – what I would like to call – a smart buyer! He knows what to buy used and what to buy new. And he also knows what is the season to buy what stuff right. Video Games, Books, Cars – almost always used. Television, appliances – almost always new. Change of Rental Property – always in winter. And on and on.

So we proudly introduced him to “the” online classifieds for the Bay Area. And the result was as much surprising to him as it was to us. His first question – “Are you sure this is it? It looks a website from the early 90′s?”. And it really was more telling of what we had gotten used to as well. It really is the early 90′s when it comes to classifieds.

Ignoring the user interface, he gets down to finding the right apartment for himself. Besides, talking to agents, he is looking at some privately owned places. The short version of the search process is find interesting places after work, mail the listings to himself so he can access it on his iPhone, call the property owners from contact information somewhere in the listings, store all the notes to an iPhone note folder and drive to the right location. At the end of the day, the simple conclusion is that the classifieds service is just showing him a place and that’s it. No help if he wants information on the go. No help with any information about the neighborhood or services in that area that can facilitate decision making. His reaction – “Why can’t this rental service be like Zillow? And what’s the deal with ‘Peninsula’ vs. ‘San Francisco’? Why can’t I just find places a few miles from where I work without having to name all the cities and locations?”. His reaction is an indication of a problem we have gotten used to living with.

And that’s just one side of the story. Service providers and sellers have there own wish list. My auto mechanic once complained – “I love technology and all but it takes so much time to handle it”. “How so?” - I wondered. “Well, I can call the newspaper and ask them to print my Ad. But with online classifieds, I have to go and do it manually, keep re-posting as my posts expire in 30 days. And if I don’t submit frequently enough, I don’t even figure in the first few pages on most classified sites . There doesn’t seem to be a solution, even for a price except my own time”. With technology things should be more efficient, not more complicated.

A different set of problems exists with the way interaction with the world has changed. More people are relying on finding jobs through referrals than through Classifieds services. My friend wants to go to places that his circle of friends have recommended but any online discount is a bonus. He wants to be able to ask some questions before he purchases a used bike – without giving away his email or phone number. He wants easier ways of finding stuff and saving them and accessing vital information anytime, anywhere. And more importantly, he doesn’t want to have to come back to a Desktop – we are in a mobile world and we want all these conveniences on the go. Wouldn’t we all like that in our classifieds service?