I owe a lot to the website craigslist.  It helped me find my current townhouse and housemates; it helped me find my current job; and it helped me find a great (and cheap!) dining room set.

The site began in 1995, with a very simple design.  Since that time, the design has not changed all that much.  "Keep it simple, stupid" is definitely the unspoken motto of the now-thriving entity.  There are very few graphics on the site, and the entire interface is very similar to newspaper classified ads.  Personally, I have always been a big fan of this design; I get very sick of watching flash intros to every other website on the market when I am foaming at the mouth to get to the actual content.

With an astounding 9 billion page views per month, yet only 25 employees, the website is well on its way to being the most used site on the web.  New cities and areas are added fairly frequently, with 450 being represented at the time of this post.  You can learn more about the wonder that is craigslist by visiting the "Fact Sheet" on their website.

Recently, and quietly, craigslist expanded its empire by introducing the first of several to come foreign language versions of the site.  Craigslist has never been one to make loud announcements about its new accomplishments and updates (just another reason to love it), and these new languages were implemented back in November of 2007.  Craigslist is now available in French, German, Italian, and Portuguese.  The individual areas of the site will continue to be community moderated.

The lack of multi-language support was the only thing stopping craigslist from being a bigger hit overseas, but with this welcomed foreign facelift, the site is poised to spread its influence even further.

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