> They can and do. That's why it's beneficial to set your user agent to Google Bot when browsing news sites.
Jonathan, you can't be serious about this one. Why on Earth would you go on a public record and suggest someone to illegally impersonalize another company? Don't you know it may be a jailable offense, if Google (or any other company in that matter) decides to go after you??
> It takes effort to provide the service that Craigslist does. Claiming that you have a right to that data is wrong [...]
It is equally wrong to claim you have no right, just because it takes effort to provide Craigslist-level service.
> There is a reason Craigslist doesn't make that data available - it would reduce the utility for sellers of their website, reducing their revenue and potentially drying up their business. Trying to squeeze it out of Google's cache is still copyright infringement.
Uhm, providing one company data in a different template would reduce said company revenue? Excuse me, but under which rock have you been living for the last 20 years? You ever heard of "social sharing"? "like" button? Does "API" ring any bell?? Why do you think most companies provide those?? Most would die for other developers to actually spend their time and effort to build front gates based on their data. I hope you are not working on any startup bro, because you seriously have a shitty point of view!
> Yes, it does. By scraping craigslist in an attempt to undermine their platform [...]
What do you mean by "undermine their platform" ?? Why would you automatically assume that all the OP wants to do is to kill or undermine someones business?? Further, he would have to be retarded to do so! Why would he work on a project that the core is based off of external data and the same time wanted to... kill that data source?? You lack logic here, again.
> By scraping craigslist in an attempt to undermine their platform you are eliminating their site's relatively utility for buyers, which eliminates the impetus for sellers to list there
Yes definitely -- A website where I could see all the pictures of furniture posted on Craiglist on one page which gives me an easy access to scroll down in less than 2 minutes (to actually see what I want to buy), versus spending 45 minutes clicking on each and every post on the original Craigslist website -- yes, definitely because that evil website stealing Craigslist data made me save 40 minutes I will never use Craiglist as either buyer or seller ever again.
Holy shit, is this satire? If so, this is a perfect imitation of some of the commenters who go around here pretending that the entire world agrees with their minority viewpoint that neither property nor effort have any established value.
If this isn't satire, well all I can say is i hope you build something awesome one day. I presume your above manifesto can be construed as an invitation to insert myself between you and the userbase you invested so much to accumulate?
If I have a product and a set of users, and you have a way of increasing both my revenue and my users satisfaction by inserting yourself between us, please do. The OP's point is that undermining Craigslist makes no sense for Padmapper, since that's where the data comes from. If people who list apartments get them rented faster because of Padmapper, they like it. If people looking for apartments find them faster because of Padmapper, they like it. If it increases Craigslist's revenue, they like it. If all of these points are positive, it's hard to understand why Craigslist would be against it.
Please recognize the distinction. I'm not saying they're outside their rights to deny this access or that Padmapper is somehow within theirs by violating the ToS, just that if it's a win for everyone, shutting it down doesn't make sense.
Disintermediation -- getting your users used to coming to my site to look at your data is the first step to making you irrelevant and forgettable. PM knows who the renters and the listers are; it's a small step to convince some listers to list with PM first. Maybe PM will agree to repost on CL as well, but as long as listers come to PM first, the relationship between PM and CL is flipped.
Eric might protest that all he wants is to save apartment hunters from minutes of work. The reality is that PM's long-term viability depends on him getting acces to some of that listing fee cash, which almost defintely means reducing CL's revenue. Unless you think he's going to convince agents to pay twice to get in front of an overlapping set of viewers.
> PM knows who the renters and the listers are; it's a small step to convince some listers to list with PM first.
You need to learn a little bit about Craiglist. Every single section of the site has been copied over and over again, including big names like Angie's List, Ebay, etc. But yet its been so many years and Craiglist traffic and revenue continue to grow.
CL has such an incredible solid network effect that me and most users couldnt care less how awesome the website to quickly browse CL photos grow. The moment they go solo and decide to disconnect, the moment I come back to CL to post/browse. Simple.
I still think it would be possible to work this out with a more creative ToS. Problem one could be managed by making it part of the ToS that you won't aggregate from other sites. Problem two could be managed either by making it part of the ToS that you don't post your own listings, or by making you pay to have them listed at Craigslist at the same time.
Jonathan, you can't be serious about this one. Why on Earth would you go on a public record and suggest someone to illegally impersonalize another company? Don't you know it may be a jailable offense, if Google (or any other company in that matter) decides to go after you??
> It takes effort to provide the service that Craigslist does. Claiming that you have a right to that data is wrong [...]
It is equally wrong to claim you have no right, just because it takes effort to provide Craigslist-level service.
> There is a reason Craigslist doesn't make that data available - it would reduce the utility for sellers of their website, reducing their revenue and potentially drying up their business. Trying to squeeze it out of Google's cache is still copyright infringement.
Uhm, providing one company data in a different template would reduce said company revenue? Excuse me, but under which rock have you been living for the last 20 years? You ever heard of "social sharing"? "like" button? Does "API" ring any bell?? Why do you think most companies provide those?? Most would die for other developers to actually spend their time and effort to build front gates based on their data. I hope you are not working on any startup bro, because you seriously have a shitty point of view!
> Yes, it does. By scraping craigslist in an attempt to undermine their platform [...]
What do you mean by "undermine their platform" ?? Why would you automatically assume that all the OP wants to do is to kill or undermine someones business?? Further, he would have to be retarded to do so! Why would he work on a project that the core is based off of external data and the same time wanted to... kill that data source?? You lack logic here, again.
> By scraping craigslist in an attempt to undermine their platform you are eliminating their site's relatively utility for buyers, which eliminates the impetus for sellers to list there
Yes definitely -- A website where I could see all the pictures of furniture posted on Craiglist on one page which gives me an easy access to scroll down in less than 2 minutes (to actually see what I want to buy), versus spending 45 minutes clicking on each and every post on the original Craigslist website -- yes, definitely because that evil website stealing Craigslist data made me save 40 minutes I will never use Craiglist as either buyer or seller ever again.
What a bullshit!