Most of your locale newspapers still have their own classified ad sections and many of them have useful online sites. The fictional Sherlock Holmes used classified ads to solve many a mystery and while I don't think people read the general personal announcements any more, they're still information specific tools because of their regional specialty and because the need to pay weeds out lots of spam.

Unfortunately many of the newspapers and other ad publishers do not allow links to external web sites for more information, limiting their value.

Craigslist is an internet first sort of ads page.

Craigs also has discussion forums, event calendars and other content which in many ways approximates the alternative tabloid publications, their personal "desperately seeking susan" spots, and merging them with the "penny page" used car listings and the more respectable job and apartment listings in the larger daily newspapers.

Craiglist's classified ads pages lay out categories clearly and easily, showing multiple category tiers visiable at once minimizing the number of clicks you need to make. I find clicking on category choices easier in a rush than dreaming up questions and Craigs layout and the speed of the pages with few banner ads make the process quick and painless.

Craigs system uses email verification and site visitors to flag spam abuses: a trust system with incentives not to get on the wrong side of the law or lose privileges to the free service The 10-day listings also provide a good means of eliminating old data, more important to classified ads but an interesting way of weeding out irrelevant or outdated data that search engines would have a hard time judging by algorithm.

By allowing quickly viewable user links and preview copy Craig expands the web in ways beyond just newspaper contact information does.

Other large web-sites are reluctant to be so open (or try to hide or make link information dificult) Most people or small businesses can post without charge in an appropriate Craigs category although it might take them some diligence to do so and might make corporate controls at large companies queezy to have employees"ad libbing" online.

Because Craigslist has a policy that both allows free links and yet has checks on who how often and if they'll remain there, the list provides an end-run of drivabilty to sources that might otherwise not be able to reach people due to complications of search engine rank, directory qualification etc.

Other services like EBay and amazon providing online auctions can be thought of as classified sites, and certainly many trade and topic magazines have their own that might be more useful in ubying a a back hoe, than craigs list.

Look around if craigs doesn't work, but don't forget to give it a try for jobs, used cars, or to find your romantic partner.