SO THERE

Things aren't going so great over at the Silk Road. Where are nerds going to order their Molly now?! [Telegraph]

Now any old rando can shell out for promoted tweets. Please, please let's not start using this to promote resumes. [Ad Week]

Craigslist can no longer spook startups like Padmapper with threats of prosecution for copyright infringement: A judge has ruled the company has no such ownership of its users' listings. [Forbes]

"When he woke up, he found that Path had gone on a rogue mission early in the morning, texting and robocalling an unknown number of his contacts, including his grandparents." [The Verge]

Apparently authors still bother getting pissed at bloggers. [Daily Dot]

(Photo: Craigslist)

When last we heard from Craigslist, they were filing suit against a scrappy little startup called PadMapper and yanking their listings from Google to keep PadMapper from aggregating them. It was kind of a dick move. But at least now we have a motive!

Craigslist is apparently working on a map tool of its own. Oh, and while it's doing its best to discourage web openness, it's also using an open crowd-sourced platform to build out Craigslist maps. Hey, maybe they're hoping PadMapper will join in the effort to collect location info?

Talking Points Memo reports that Craigslist is quietly testing maps for apartment listings in Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The company is using OpenStreetMap, an open source alternative to Google Maps, that offers "free and reliable location data compiled by volunteers around the world."

As TPM put it:

Craigslist was widely criticized by tech bloggers for its move to prosecute the two startups, all the more so because the company, which launched in 1995 and incorporated in 1999, has for most of its history been heralded as a beacon of Web openness and user-friendliness.

So there’s a certain irony to Craigslist suing other companies for creating maps with Craigslist ad data — claiming a breach of proprietary content — then turning around and using an open, crowd-sourced mapping solution to create its own maps.

We'd totally quit using Craigslist just to spite them, but then where would we post our missed connections?

U mad? (Photo: Idea Mensch)

When last we checked in on the escalating tiffs between Craigslist and Padmapper, the ugly-as-a-mud-fence classifieds site had filed suit against the scrappy startup. Now comes another skirmish: the Verge reports that Craigslist has yanked its listings from Google and other search engines, which is the data equivalent of just ripping out all the wires that make PadMapper go. 

Earlier today, the data provider 3taps (which provides the API that PadMapper uses to get listings onto that snazzy Google Map) tweeted:

At about noon on Aug 6, it seems CL may have instructed all general search engines to stop indexing CL postings - effectively blocking us...

— 3taps (@3taps) August 7, 2012

...We are sorry CL has chosen this course of action and are exploring options to restore service. We may be down for an extended period.

— 3taps (@3taps) August 7, 2012

The company also has a pop-up statement on its homepage:

At approximately noon on Sunday August 5th, Craigslist instructed all general search engines to stop indexing CL postings -- effectively blocking 3taps and other 3rd party use of that data from these public domain sources. We are sorry that CL has chosen this course of action and are exploring options to restore service but may be down for an extended period of time unless we or CL change practices. As soon as we know more, we will share it here and on our Twitter account.

That sounds pretty dire for 3taps, and, given the importance of Craigslist to rental markets like New York City, it doesn't sound great for PadMapper, either. (Fortunately, the startup already has PadLister, a product for landlords and brokers to list their properties across multiple platforms and likely part of what so irks Craigslist.)

Of course, as the Verge points out, Craigslist may very well find it's cut off its nose to spite its face, as the move is likely to impact the site's incoming traffic.

We've reached out to both Craigslist and PadMapper for comment and will update if we hear anything back.

In the meantime, that peace sign looks increasingly ironic.

(Photo: Top News)

Marissa Mayer is reportedly getting straight to work Googlifying Yahoo. She officially made the food in the Valley HQ free again, much to the delight of the company's starving engineers. [AllThingsD]

Speaking of Ms. Mayer, Dave McClure thinks she should focus on transforming Yahoo into a female-oriented company. Unfortunately, he called his blog post on the idea, "Pink is the new Purple." [500 Hats]

Craigslist is stifling innovation by suing PadMapper. [New York Times]

Companies actually listen to your online reviews. Rejoice, asshole Yelpers! [Wall Street Journal]

Presented without comment: "Mr. Blodget now presides over Business Insider from a makeshift standing desk in the middle of a 50-person newsroom in New York, where he barks questions ("Is it cool?" "Can we clip that video?") at his reporters." [WSJ]

U mad? (Photo: Idea Mensch)

Remember the good old days, when Craigslist was a granola-crunchy, free-wheeling sort of place, filled with back alley studio sublets and questionable masseuses and sweaty old men with foot fetishes? Ah, those were the times.

But now the little Craigslist that we all love and rely on so much has grown into a corporate overlord, moving to squash a tiny startup focused on continuing to innovate on the local listings concept. Oh Craig Newmark, why hath thou forsaken us?

GigaOm reports that, following Padmapper's "dickish" decision to continue to include Craigslist apartment listings on its visual mapping tool (despite a cease-and-desist letter), Craigslist is sue Padmapper and its API provider 3Taps. Not exactly an "embrace the free Internet" move there, Craigslist.

Writes GigaOm:

In a complaint filed in San Francisco, Craigslist is accusing PadMapper and “one stop data shop” 3Taps of a slew of infractions, including copyright and trademark violations, and is demanding the court issue a preliminary injunction to stop them from using its listings.

Dare we say that this move makes Craigslist look vaguely...assholish? Perhaps PadMapper wouldn't be so successful at visually mapping Craigslist data if Craigslist itself didn't have a UI that looks like it was built by a drunk college freshman during Geocities' heyday. And most sections are so overrun with spam that it's impossible to navigate through detritus to find apartments that actually exist. As DigitalTrends put it (via GigaOm), "Your interface is an exercise in torture."

So there you have it. Craigslist's UI = waterboarding.

Considering PadMapper founder Eric DeMenthon's sizable cojones in the startup sparring arena, we suggest making some popcorn and cozying up to watch the next round unfold.

Mr. DeMenthon (Photo: Google+)

A couple weeks ago, apartment finding map service PadMapper received a cease and desist letter from Craigslist demanding that they remove Craiglist listings from their maps. The move made PadMapper a far less useful tool for apartment hunting, and seemed like a low blow from Craigslist, a site that techies normally hold in high esteem.

But today, PadMapper's founder Eric DeMenthon announced on the PadMapper blog that he's found a way to include Craiglist's listings on the site that's "legally kosher," and plans to re-implement them ASAP. Mr. DeMenthon admits that the move is "somewhat dickish," but decided that he'd rather inconvenience Craigslist than PadMapper's millions of monthly users.

Writes Mr. DeMenthon:

If it takes half of PadMapper’s millions of monthly users 3 hours longer now to find an apartment, that’s over 350 man-years wasted per month, or 5 lifetimes. Sorry for cursing, but fuck that. Seriously, fuck that completely. That really pisses me off....So, effective as soon as I can bring the new code up (almost certainly by the time you read this), I’m bringing the Craigslist search results back.

PadMapper will now use a Craigslist API provided by 3taps.

Score one for the underdog.

UPDATE: Mr. DeMenthon has since edited the post to take out the curse words. "Update: Edited for language, it was immature of me to curse, sorry."