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• San Diego magazine chooses Geebo, highlighting commitment to online safety

  8:31 am on May 27, 2011 | No Comments » Permalink | Reply
  

  For some time now, I’ve been soap-box preaching about the value of a partnership between a safe online classified community such as Geebo and locally-circulated publications. For the most part, I’ve been referring to the opportunity for newspapers.

  But local magazines are another excellent example.

  Earlier this month, Geebo partnered with East County Magazine, a local publication in the San Diego region that was impressed with Geebo’s commitment to providing a safe haven for online classifieds. For folks in San Diego, that sort of commitment hits close to home. The city has been rocked by at least two high-profile crimes that originated through ads on craigslist.

  The first involved the widely-publicized 2007 slaying of San Diego State University student Donna Jou, who met her assailant through a tutoring ad on craigslist. More recently, San Diego teenager Garrett Berki was shot and killed after a botched robbery attempt that occurred when he answered about a computer for sale on craigslist.

  Thieves and violent criminals will always find a way to seek out innocent victims. But as publishers of online classified ad sites, we don’t have to make it easy for those criminals to use our sites as a means of finding people to victimize. Geebo screens every ad that’s posted to the site and has made a commitment to refuse personals ads, which are often a front for prostitution, human trafficking and other illegal activities. Likewise, Geebo is working with an independent service called WeGoLook.com, which employs inspectors – or “lookers” – to verify items for sale before the buyer and seller agree on the terms of a transaction.

  San Diegans, like Geebo, understand that it takes a proactive commitment to keep a community safe. Miriam Raftery, editor and founder of the magazine, said her decision to partner with Geebo for classifieds stemmed from the violent headlines that sent shockwaves through her community.

  “As a nonprofit media, we are dedicated to helping improve our community and keeping our readers safe,” Raftery said. “We are delighted to partner with a reputable company such as Geebo to provide our readers with the safest possible online classified advertising opportunities.”

  We welcome East County Magazine as a partner not only in the classifieds business but also in our efforts to keep the Internet safe.

   

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• Why won’t Geebo’s competitors take steps to keep their users safe?

  9:45 am on May 19, 2011 | 1 Comment » Permalink | Reply
  

  A couple of months ago, I penned an open letter to my competitors in the online classifieds business, asking them to join me in taking some bold steps to make our sites safer. For some time now, I’ve been standing pretty much alone on my soapbox, promoting Geebo as a classifieds site that puts user safety first.

  As much as I enjoy tooting Geebo’s horn whenever possible, this open letter challenge wasn’t meant to be a promotion of Geebo or otherwise present a holier-than-thou message. This was a way of reaching out responsibly to my counterparts in the industry, as if to say, “Let’s put aside our competitiveness and take the steps necessary to deter criminals from preying on innocent victims, via our sites.”

  Not surprisingly, I didn’t receive one response from any of them – Craigslist, Oodle, Backpage and others. Not one of their executives so much acknowledged my letter. Certainly, I didn’t expect that all of the others would jump on board – but I also didn’t expect them all to ignore my pleas for increased user safety.

  I can only guess why they were non-responsive. Maybe they don’t have the manpower to monitor ad submissions. Maybe they didn’t want to acknowledge a competitor for fear of losing customers. Maybe they don’t see the assaults, murders and rapes that stem from meetings on their sites as their problem. Maybe they just don’t care.

  But how can they not?

  Earlier this month, police in New York City reported two separate assaults on prostitutes who advertised their services online, one on Craigslist and one on Backpage.com. And in San Diego last week, a teenager trying to buy a $600 computer off of a craigslist ad was shot and killed by three other teens during the course of a robbery gone bad.

  Robberies and assaults occur everyday and criminals looking for victims will do whatever it takes to find them. But do our sites have to make it easy for them? There’s no way a crime involving prostitutes would have originated on Geebo, which doesn’t accept personals or escorts ads. Likewise, Geebo’s partnership with WeGoLook is intended to prevent the types of tragedies that occurred in San Diego. By dispatching an inspector to verify the item for sale ahead of time, especially bigger ticket items where a buyer might be carrying cash, WeGoLook and Geebo can offer some assurances to potential buyers that the deal is legitimate.

  I guess I could use this blog solely to toot Geebo’s horn and publicize things like our sponsorship of FAIR Fund’s annual Pearls of Purpose Gala, an organization committed to battling human trafficking of young girls. But that’s just self-serving and doesn’t advance the causes.

  I can’t stop hoping that, even though the recipients of my open letter chose to be non-responsive to me, that they’ll take the words of that letter to heart, take note of the incidents that are originating on their sites and start making the changes that deter criminals from preying on their users.

   

• Classifieds and newspapers: More reasons why there’s still a spark

  3:31 pm on May 13, 2011 | 1 Comment » Permalink | Reply
  

  In a blog post here last week, I chimed with some thoughts on the relationship of newspapers and classifieds. Newspapers are local brands and, as such, have the advantage of serving as the community’s bulletin board – both online and in print. It’s not too late for newspapers to lean on classifieds for increased revenue.

  I shared my post on the Facebook pages of some newspapers, including McClatchy Newspapers, the company that owns the Sacramento Bee, the hometown paper of Geebo’s birthplace. I was happy to see a comment post by a McClatchy rep, albeit an anonymous one.
  

  
  
  
  This rep’s argument in the exchange about Career Builder is strong. Newspapers were quick to realize that the most lucrative pieces of the classifieds revenue pie included job listings, real estate and car sales. Those were the community businesses who were doing the advertising.

  But classifieds also included everything else you see on sites like Geebo today – used furniture, rooms for rent or garage sales. Those were the listings from the people in the community, the readers with whom newspapers had a trusted relationship because of their journalism. And even though those 2-line, agate-typed listings for a lost pet didn’t bring in as many bucks as the job listings, they were a link to the community – something that was just as valuable.

  A report released this week by the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University highlighted a case study about TV station KSL in Salt Lake City, which jumped into the online classifieds game early on and focused its efforts around providing a safe online marketplace for its audience. Owned by the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, the station refused adult-oriented ads and screened for potentially fraudulent ads. (via NYT)

  Newspapers once did the same thing. And it’s exactly what Geebo does now.The Columbia University report quotes Clark Gilbert, president and chief executive officer of the station’s online properties, which includes KSL.com. He said:

  “Here’s something hard for old-media people to accept. … Our news content gave a level of trust to the classifieds, and classifieds drove relevance back to the news.” Or, put another way, the fact that readers have come to rely on the classifieds under the KSL brand helped to
  build relevance and credibility in the news as well.”

  Interestingly enough, the same Columbia University report also uses McClatchy Newspapers as a case study, looking at how the chain has had to rethink its advertising model. The linkage between the news side and the ad side of the business is breaking down and news orgs are looking for ways to replace it.

  The report quotes Chris Hendricks, VP of Interactive at McClatchy, who said: “The longstanding premise of content and advertising being inextricably linked has clearly fallen apart.” He said the company has started selling space on Yahoo or Facebook as part of the pitch to local advertisers, essentially turning its own salesforce into the local sales team for worldwide online companies. “It’s almost like we are a sales and distribution company that decided we’re going to fund journalism,” Hendricks said in the report.

  As newspapers rethink their advertising models, it’s important for them to remember that classifieds were once an important element of a lucrative model. Yes, they may be seeing nice returns on employment ads or real estate listings – but are they still the trusted marketplace host for their local readers? There’s still a chance.

   

• Newspapers and Classifieds: They can still be a team in the online age

  3:42 pm on May 4, 2011 | No Comments » Permalink | Reply
  

  The newspaper industry has certainly fallen on tough times in recent years and it’s sad, in a nostalgic sort of way, to see the old print edition slowly head out to pasture. It had a good run, though, surviving the arrivals of radio, television and around-the-clock cable news before the Internet hit the scene. We now know what a game-changer the Internet was. But despite the warning signs, newspaper executives were caught off-guard by it, blinded by the resiliency of the industry to survive the earlier game-changing forces and convinced that their business model was immune to the power of the Internet.

  Since the beginning, newspapers have made their money from advertising, using the eyeballs of their daily readers to sell pieces of the newsprint page to advertisers eager to showcase their products and services to the folks living in the area. That’s been the basic model for generations and, for quite some time, it proved to be a quite lucrative model. But it wasn’t just those big fancy full-page ads featuring the latest cars or fashions that brought the big bucks for newspapers. The classifieds – those daily agate-typed two-liner listings that advertised things like missing cats, apartments for rent and used cars – were also a newspaper cash cow.

  Geebo, of course, is in the online classifieds business. And a decade ago, when Geebo was just getting started, I pitched what I thought was a slam-dunk of a deal to the Sacramento Bee, the local newspaper where the company was founded. The idea was to upsell classifieds customers – notably employers providing job listings – by including it in both the newspaper’s print edition and also on Geebo, with a 50-50 revenue split. Initially, the executives at the newspaper were excited about the deal but the decision-makers at the top killed the deal. They didn’t understand why the online listings were important. The Internet, after all, was just a fad.

  Fast forward to today and we know how this story has evolved – and just how wrong those newspaper executives were about the Internet. Granted, not every newspaper is struggling in the online landscape. Some have built quite the online presence - albeit a bit late to the game – to showcase their content. And some are bringing in ad revenue by way of those Web pages. But it’s certainly a lot more crowded in that media landscape today than it was 10 years ago. The so-called “citizen journalist” has been empowered by blogging tools, Facebook posts and Twitter, as well as mobile apps and instant digital photography. Readers today have an overwhelming number of choices when it comes to a news provider.

  But let’s not throw in the towel on newspaper companies just yet. The truth is that many of them, especially in medium- or mid-sized markets, still have a lot of life left in their brands, their reputations and their reach.

  Consider this: Newspapers have long been regional news outlets because they had a limited geographical reach, a physical boundary that they held to because of the costs involved with the daily delivery of the product. As regional sources of news, they focused primarily on local headlines but also rounded out the offerings with news stories from the next county, the next state or even the other side of the world – sometimes from wire services, other times from their own correspondents stationed in key cities.

  Today, with the power of the Internet, newspaper companies have the opportunity to expand their reach and compete for readers on a global level – just the same as every other newspaper, or blogger, for that matter. And while that potential reach can be enticing and exciting, there’s also no shame in focusing more on re-building that core local audience, the one that not only wants to know if the planning commission approved the new shopping center but also if anyone spotted Fluffy, the neighbor’s cat, anywhere near Main Street and Central Avenue.

  All of that, of course, brings me back to the classifieds. Here at Geebo, we understand the significance of a global audience. We, too, are looking for ways to expand regional listings to broader audiences. Last month, we announced a partnership with WeGoLook, a company that performs on-site inspections of items – largely big-ticket items like cars or boats – for prospective buyers, regardless of where the product is located.

  We still believe in the power of local and continue to welcome partnerships with newspapers to both localize and globalize their classifieds listings. A site like Geebo already has partnerships with some of the niche sites that newspapers are turning to for specialized listings, such as cars and homes, but can offer them a greater variety of listings because we haven’t limited ourselves to just one partner for car listings or job listings, for example.

  Certainly, classified ads are only one part of the newspaper’s other potential sources of greater revenue. Advertising in the Internet age may be different, but it’s still lucrative – just ask Google. Today, newspapers who target a regional area may not score the big display ad from the national retailer, but it is possible that the local car dealership or grocery store might be interested in reaching that targeted regional audience that’s checking in regularly to keep up with the headlines from their neighborhoods.

  In some ways, things haven’t changed at all.

   

• A partnership with WeGoLook brings peace of mind to classifieds

  5:05 pm on April 24, 2011 | 2 Comments » Permalink | Reply
  

  Geebo is becoming known as the online classifieds site that cares about the safety of its customers. We don’t allow personal ads, which are often used to solicit prostitution and engage in human trafficking. We don’t allow guns to be sold, nor do we permit drug transactions. And all ads on Geebo are reviewed before being published, a step that’s meant to keep suspicious activity off the site.

  Now, we’re taking another step to further ensure that the online transactions that appear on Geebo are conducted safely. We’ve partnered with WeGoLook.com, an Oklahoma-based start-up that offers a service to physically inspect an item for sale and provide the buyer with a report that offers a true, independent evaluation of that item.

  It’s a concept that’s a perfect fit for what Geebo is striving to create: a safe haven for online classifieds ads. The “lookers” who perform the inspections for WeGoLook are located across the country, ready to visit a seller and take a look at the “vintage” car, the “luxury” boat, the “slightly used” computer or “rare collectible” to truthsquad the description in the ad.

  In any other scenario, a buyer seeking some reassurances about such a deal would either have to incur the expense of visiting the seller to inspect the item himself – a potentially costly approach – or find a friend who lives near the seller and is willing to check it out.

  The WeGoLook service provides a remedy for a pain point in online transactions, trying to figure out if the product being sold on the other end is really what the seller says it is. Is “vintage” another word for “old and rusty,” when it comes to describing a car. And when it comes to the “luxury” boat, the buyer and seller might have different definitions of what “luxury” really means.

  There’s a certain amount of trust that goes into conducting an online transaction with a stranger but, as we’ve seen in too many unfortunate incidents, the person on the other end isn’t always the most trustworthy. Geebo has worked hard to make the Internet a safer place and the partnership represents an important step toward making the online marketplace safer.

  I’m excited about connecting Geebo customers with WeGoLook and hope that many of them find the service to be an invaluable tool that makes their online shopping experience that much better.

  View more documents from WeGoLook.com

   

• My challenge to craigslist: Keep criminals off your site

  7:23 am on March 16, 2011 | 17 Comments » Permalink | Reply
  

  Last week, I penned an open letter to my counterparts in the classified ad business, challenging them to follow me in imposing new policies to make their sites safer. (Press release)

  Not surprisingly, none of them has yet to respond to my letter. After all, the changes that I’m suggesting are not easy ones for the site owners to make. Ridding their sites of personal ads and other adult-oriented categories that run amok with criminal activity could impact their bottom lines.

  But those changes could also save lives. And in my opinion, saving a life is more important than making a buck.

  Of course, this is not a new effort. The horn has been sounded many times in the past as the leader in these sites – craigslist – has been put into the spotlight over the criminal activity that has been prevalent on that site, with only a tool for others to “flag” posts as a means of keeping the site safe. Just a few weeks ago, the AimGroup, publishers of the Classified Intelligence Report, called craigslist a “cesspool of crime” and posted details of the crimes that have been linked to the site – from murders and assaults to robberies and prostitution.

  It may be easy to point fingers at craigslist, seeing how the site is the biggest in the online classifieds business, but it’s not the only one turning a blind eye to some of the criminal activities on its site. Change.org recently called out backpage.com for reports of teenage prostitution that originated on that site.

  For several years now, I’ve been that “crazy guy” in the corner screaming about the elephant in the room. But, now that there is a conversation going on about Internet safety, the time is right for this “crazy guy” to once again wave his red flag. It’s not enough to warn users to be careful while interacting with people they meet on classifieds sites. Site owners need to do their parts to deter criminals from making it so easy to lure in victims.

  My goal is to get other classified site owners to join me in an effort to establish best practices in consumer safety. In the long run, it’s good for the industry. But more importantly, it’s good for the consumers. These are our users. Without them, we don’t have a business and we don’t have any income.

  The Wild West days of the Internet are over. It’s time for those of us who operate sites on the Internet to take responsibility for what we’re allowing on our sites. More importantly, it’s time for us to fix the areas that are broken, to allow our humanity to supersede our economic interests so that we can collectively save lives, prevent robberies and rape, halt human trafficking, and stop other scams and illicit activities from occurring.

  Anything less is unacceptable.

  And while the owners of the other classified sites out there – craigslist included – have chosen to ignore my cries for change, I’ll continue to stand on that soapbox – just as I’ve been doing for years – trying to bring some responsibility to the online classified ads business.

  I’d rather be the “crazy guy” in the corner who can sleep at night knowing that I’m doing everything I can to make the Internet a safer place than to be the guy who collects the money at the expense of the innocent victims who found themselves at the hands of a killer – a killer who had a key to an unruly place on the Internet where criminals are welcomed.

   

• Cowboy Up

  5:49 pm on February 4, 2011 | No Comments » Permalink | Reply
  

  Do you ever blame traffic, existent or fabricated, when you are late to a meeting, to work, or to dinner with your family? Sure. It doesn’t hurt anyone to transfer the fault of your delayed arrival to someone or something else. No harm. No foul. No repercussions.

  I hate this mentality. Unfortunately, I occasionally subscribe to this notion because it prevents me from upsetting my wife, my co-workers, and my friends with the reality that, yes, I stayed to work late, met with someone else first, or simply took the long way home to clear my head. Is that so bad? No. It isn’t. The failure is my inability to admit and take responsibility for my actions.

  It has become a codified practice to blame our shortcomings, failures, and mistakes on someone or something else before personally accepting responsibility. What is most disgusting is that this practice has infiltrated all levels of our existence. Politicians blame our nation’s teachers for the dismal performance of our schools but are simultaneously unwilling to allocate more money to education out of fears over jeopardizing their kickbacks or their likelihood of reelection. Instead of taking responsibility for such actions they blame their Congressional opponents or utilize the ultimate scapegoat, and silencer, national security. But we need national security… and now the crisis of accepting responsibility has been averted because the tax-paying constituents are on to a new subject.

  Office gossip is another example. “Did you hear Meg slept with James? No? Well…you didn’t hear it from me but here are all the details I know…” When Meg confronts you later about your willingness to share her intimacies, how will you respond? Obviously the safest option is to act surprised by the accusations and suggest that perhaps someone else, *cough* James, is sharing their indiscretions. Congratulations on avoiding the workplace drama that would likely ensue…but what kind of person can’t accept the repercussions of their actions? Most people. It is a pathetic reality that I am sick of both being a part of and witnessing.

  Daily, we make decisions through our actions and communications that affect one another. We hold an immeasurable amount of power that, like Superheroes, can either be used for good or evil. Regardless of what end of the spectrum you find yourself on, own up to the things you did, said, or failed to. Are people going to be upset by your candor? Possibly, but perhaps that is a good thing. If you cringe at the thought of accepting the consequences of your less than impressive behavior, holding yourself accountable may help you think twice before you speak or act.

  Cowboy up, people. It is about time.

   

• Tis the Season…

  9:07 am on December 23, 2010 | No Comments » Permalink | Reply
  

  This is a chaotic time of year. Between work and familial obligations, life seems to speed by when the holidays are upon us. We move so fast from one activity to the next that the adventure in getting to the destination fades into the background with last year’s must-have gadget. Is this hustle and bustle the antithesis of the holiday season? I used to think it was but have changed my holiday-inspired tune as of late.

  Starting in November and lasting until January 1st, I constantly hear people saying “tis the season.” They may be purchasing an extra expensive gift, ordering an extravagant dessert, or emptying their pockets into a collection jar when they spout off this holiday homonym. Such a sentiment used to bother me because it seems silly to only do or make over-the-top gestures once a year. Why not indulge in July? Or splurge in March? Why should a month and a holiday dictate when one chooses to treat themselves and their loved ones exceptionally special? The answer is easy…tis the season!

  You are busy the whole year through but only between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day do we cram a multitude of family-oriented holidays requiring big meals, big spending, and big patience within a six week timeframe. A recitation of “tis the season” is the opportunity to acknowledge such an undertaking and appreciate the moment. The more “tis the season” moments we can have while prepping for the holidays, the better.

  I know the whole “tis the season” comment can seem and sound very cliché when used in practice. The beauty of this mantra, however, is that it doesn’t require an oral admission, just a silent pause for reflection and understanding for the greatness you are experiencing. It can be anywhere, at any time, with anyone, and about anything.

  The other great power of “tis the season” is that it can transcend religious and cultural barriers. If you think “tis the season” is about Jesus, it is. If you think “tis the season” is about the Maccabees, it is. And if you think “tis the season” is about togetherness and love, you are right too. Whatever season you feel like celebrating, “tis the season” fits.

  My wish for you all is to have plenty of “tis the season” moments in the coming days and in the coming year.

   

• Hold Your Applause

  1:41 pm on December 19, 2010 | No Comments » Permalink | Reply
  

  Craigslist’s recent decision to quietly remove the adult category from their international locations is not one to be celebrated…yet. Though the category is gone, the problem is not. The issue is not having a specific category to post ads for prostitution within, it is about the absence of a review process that would prevent such solicitation from being published.

  Like many of Craigslist’s decisions, this one should raise a few suspicions. Why now? Why so quietly? When Craigslist suspended their U.S. adult section a few months ago they went to great lengths to make sure it was known. Placing the word “Censored” over the section caused quite a media stir. This time, unless you religiously read tech blogs, you are likely unaware that their adult category was nixed internationally. Perhaps their silence is quite a loud admission. They know they are not doing enough and they are not doing what is necessary to stop the illegal activity their site fosters.

  Craigslist’s decision comes on the eve of a U.S. House vote on the Senate-passed Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act. This is a fantastic piece of legislation that will establish pilot programs to provide counseling, education, and basic support for sex trafficking victims. Additionally, this bill will mandate participation by all levels of law enforcement, including educating officers and prosecutors on how to identify, investigate and prosecute human traffickers. Craigslist is hoping to insert itself into this progressive conversation and ride the positive coattails of this pending law without implementing anything consistent with the law’s intent. This is not okay.

  This move by Craigslist also comes right before the Lifetime movie “The Craigslist Killer” debuts on January 3rd, 2011, at 9pm eastern. My guess is they are attempting to generate as much good press, though not deserved press, prior to their site’s reality being brought to life and into millions of homes for the public to truly see.

  You can’t cure a disease without acknowledging and treating the symptoms. A submission review process is the ONLY way to combat the presence of human trafficking on a classified site. Craigslist can remove as many categories as they want but until they employ a thorough review procedure that prevents ads from automatically going live on their site, nothing will change. Today on Craigslist, the sex trafficking continues…

  We at Geebo, albeit preemptively, removed our personal ads section so as to guarantee we would never have a problem with sex trafficking. We did this in conjunction with our thorough and manual review process that has been employed since the beginning. The extra time it takes is worth the lives of our users. This should be a no-brainer for any classified site.

  For Craigslist the decision to remove the adult category throughout the world is more about strategy than security. This is not a mentality to encourage.

  Hold your applause until Craigslist does something worth clapping for.

   

• Cheers to the Bold

  8:04 am on December 5, 2010 | No Comments » Permalink | Reply
  

  Geebo has a lot to be thankful for. In the past year we have remained dedicated to our mission of providing an accessible, community focused classified site that prioritizes customer safety and security. Consistent with this pursuit, we preemptively removed our personal ads section more than two months ago. As a result of our thorough and comprehensive review process we had never had an issue with human trafficking, prostitution, or violence…and we never wanted too. Removing the personal ads section was the only way we could guarantee our users the type of security they have come to expect and the kind of safety we believe they deserve. Call us old fashioned but customer satisfaction, continued patronage, and life, is something we are thankful for.

  What else are we thankful for? We are glad you asked, and even more thrilled to answer. Olx.com, a widely popular international classified site, has joined Geebo on the short-list of sites that have removed their personals section. While Olx.com denies that their decision to terminate their personal ads is a result of sex trafficking or solicitation, their rationale for confiscating this category is not particularly relevant. What is important is that Olx.com and its worldwide audience is safer. For that, we are thankful.

  Geebo is also thankful for the optimism that Olx.com’s decision brings. Far too often classified sites proceed down the path of least resistance in the hopes of rising to a widely trafficked destination. Traffic is imperative to a classified site’s success…but the human trafficking that permeates sites similar to Craigslist.org and Backpage.com is intolerable. Every site that reforms their practices or begins with precautions in place renews Geebo’s faith in the power of social responsibility. Slowly, but surely, perhaps the “right” decision will become the only decision for classified sites.

  This holiday season Geebo would be honored for you to join us in raising your class and toasting the decisions of those, like Olx.com, that are bold enough to do what is right. Where reason fails to exist, the decision to act is what matters. Cheers!