Plugged In: Sacramento man launches national blog about Craigslist

While Craigslist has drawn millions of Web users like flies to its personal ads for everything from concert tickets to cars to casual hook-ups, there has not been a comprehensive blog about the innovative site – until now.

And it comes not from the mind of a Silicon Valley executive but from Sacramento's own Tim White, who conceived the idea and officially launched the site this week.

Called craigslistblog.org, the site offers White's commentaries and links to news stories about craigslist.com.

"Google has at least 50 of their own corporate blogs, and Yahoo, it seems like for every one of their products, they have a blog," White said Wednesday while driving across the Bay Bridge en route to Sacramento. "I found it really interesting that Craigslist doesn't even have one."

He noted that there are some regional blogs, such as one for Chicago, but his effort represents the first national blog on the Web site that has changed the way Americans buy and sell things in cities across the nation.

And White has big ambitions for the blog. He plans to create a historical record, with links to news stories going back to the 1995 founding of Craigslist.

"There's a ton of interest about Craigslist out there," he said. "It's a phenomenon. They truly have changed things. I think it's exciting and interesting. If they're not going to (set up a blog), someone should. … There are 10 to 15 news stories every day that involve Craigslist. Someone should be covering that."

Consider it done.

White's blog has scores of clickable topic listings down the right side, with photos and headlines taking up the main portion of the page. He has hired one person and is looking for others to help find news stories from the past and comment on them. The blog will then link to many of those stories.

White started an upscale travel blog called Vezeo.com last November. He spends a lot of time in San Francisco working on both blogs but also works in a Rocklin coffee shop, where he brainstormed the sites.

The 38-year-old is one of many refugees from Intel Corp., where he worked in the late 1990s in Folsom before venturing off into the Internet wilderness.

College wireless use up

College students continue to use mobile wireless devices in increasing numbers, as a recent survey of freshmen at the University of Virginia illustrates.

The survey, taken last fall but just recently released, shows an inexorable trend toward Apple products. Some examples:

• One in four students has an Apple laptop, up from one in five last year.

• Three out of four have an iPod.

• 95 percent of students have mobile phones.

• Only 5 percent have "smart phones," but the most popular is the iPhone, after being on sale for less than 90 days at the time of the survey.

• 99.5 percent of computers are laptops, rendering desktops nearly extinct.

• A surprisingly low 7 percent brought video game systems.

The university has polled virtually all of its freshmen for each of the past 11 years. This marked the fourth straight school year that saw a sharp increase in the number of Apple laptops and iPods. Ownership of Apple computers had increased almost eightfold in the past five years, the university said.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Mark Melnicoe, (916) 321-1976.