The Internet is one of society’s key tools for sharing social information.  Today, web users can easily access events, activities, jobs and other social listings for any city in the country, but information such as this was not always as accessible.  In the early 1990s, one man pioneered local classifieds on the web.

On this day, April 6th, in 1995, Craig Newmark launched Craigslist for the city of San Francisco. The project initially began as a way for Newmark, a newcomer to San Francisco, to learn about events happening in the city.  In a short period of time, subscribers to Newmark’s emailing list skyrocketed.  Upon realizing the potential of Craigslist, Newmark began craigslist.org in 1996.  The site featured social event positions and job positions.  Craigslist was incorporated in 1999.

By 2000, Craigslist expanded beyond the city of San Francisco and included Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and Sacramento. Presently, craigslist serves over 500 cities in 50 countries worldwide and includes a much wider variety of classified categories.