Online classified adverts booming

Craigslist is doing exceptionally well in the downturn

The economy may be in the doldrums but the online classified advertising market is booming, according to data from Hitwise.

The monitoring firm found that visits to classified advertising web sites have soared in the past three months, up 28 per cent from December 2008 to February 2009.

"Consumers have embraced free classifieds as a way to generate income by selling personal items, while others take advantage of the deals available at the fire sales," said Heather Dougherty, Hitwise research director.

"Currently, the economy is driving the growth among online classifieds, but satisfied buyers may continue to turn to the web sites when researching purchases."

Hitwise claims that the top search term online in March was for the most popular online classified site, Craigslist, knocking MySpace off the top spot for the first time in three years.

Overall, localised Craigslist city pages accounted for 97 of the top 100 searches for online classified pages.