Craigslist May Finally Update Its Crusty Website

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Jared Newman / TIME.com

Useful as Craigslist is, it has pretty much looked and acted the same since the turn of the century. That may change soon, as Craigslist looks to hire a senior user-interface engineer.

A job posting from the company — posted to Craigslist, of course — seeks a candidate to “improve the user experience — faster, friendlier and easier” and “develop new products and features that will have CL users swooning.”

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To see how little Craigslist has changed over the years, check out the Wayback Machine’s archive of Craigslist in November 2000, compared with the site of today. Aside from minor changes in formatting, the new event calendar and the addition of more categories, the site looks almost exactly the same.

There’s something to be said for Craigslist’s what-you-see-is-what-you-get home page, but it could use a fresh coat of paint and a proper mobile site for smart phones. (Mobile app design is one of the job’s recommended skills.) Some personalization features would also be helpful, like a built-in alert system or a customizable home page.

As TechCrunch notes, Craigslist isn’t likely to make any drastic changes to its look and feel. The site is largely unchallenged as the premier place for online classifieds — it clocks 30 billion page views and 50 million ad postings per month — and major redesigns tend to upset people. Here’s hoping Craigslist can keep the regulars happy while giving newcomers and occasional visitors more reasons to return to the site.

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