Sites Spar to be like Craigslist

Advertising—with chalk and on sidewalks—as “Harvard’s Craigslist.com” might seem primitive, but for tech-savvy students, it might signal the fastest way to finding information on jobs, forums, campus life, and course resources online.

Hulist, pronounced “Who-List,” has thrilled many—but after posts to House lists recently began appearing on its Web site, the Harvard-specific site drew its critics.

Created this past summer by John “Trip” Adler ’06 and Jared D. Friedman ’07, Hulist is an internet classified ad site that is designed to streamline student information usually scattered in many different locations such as the House e-mail lists and Facebook.

Hulist’s primary competitor, Crimsonstuff.com, offers a similar service of buying and selling. Entering its fifth semester since creation, the Crimsonstuff site claims to have moved 153 items valued at $4,722 already this fall.

Crimsonstuff co-creator Kevin M. Bombino ’08 said he likes the design of Hulist but still prefers his own because it doesn’t require a log-in. He is also curious of Hulist’s practice of “scraping” certain House-list e-mails into their own lists.

Adler acknowledged that Hulist had received a complaint about House list posts appearing on Hulist, but he defended this practice as redistributing already public information.

Hulist offers more than a buy-and-sell forum, giving access to job listings, event calendars, housing information, academic resources, and other open discussion boards. Users must register, but can only do so with a valid ‘Harvard.edu’ e-mail address, ensuring privacy, according to Adler.

He and Friedman, both self-proclaimed entrepreneurs, have a number of projects in the works, including a publishing Web site, but they have no immediate plans to expand Hulist.

“We are not concerned about making money at this point,” Adler said.

As of now, the site is advertisement-free.

Adler said that he and Friedman just wanted a better way for students to communicate, adding that money has never been the incentive.

Since its conception, Hulist has recorded over 10,000 hits with an average of about 200 hits daily.

“So far, everyone I’ve talked to seem to have liked the concept,” Adler said.