Tech : Oodle Says Craigslist Is a 'Cesspool of Crime,' Craigslist Explains What Oodle Is

There's a nasty war of words brewing between Craigslist and Oodle, a rival classified ads site. Yesterday, Oodle posted a report claiming that last year, 330 crimes (including 43 violent crimes) were connected to Craigslist, which the company described as a "cesspool of crime." The report, which Oodle put together with research firm AIM Group, also featured an infographic titled 'Mayhem on Craigslist,' along with an image of an assassin holding a knife.

Not surprisingly, Craigslist is pretty irritated by Oodle's characterization. In a retaliatory blog post, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster deemed the report a "false (and defamatory) paid-for editorial," noting that 300 crimes is only a small part of the "BILLIONS [sic] of human interactions" that his site facilitates every day. Buckmaster also took the opportunity to take a swipe at Oodle, which he explained in great detail "since few have heard of it."

But Oodle isn't the only classified ads site looking to characterize Craigslist as a den of crime and corruption. Last Spring, eBay made a point of describing its revamped classifieds platform as "family-friendly," and boasted that users would find no "adult-related content." And yesterday, Silicon Alley published a profile on a startup called StorkBrokers -- a site "for parents who are scared of Craigslist."

So far, though, this tactic hasn't put much of a dent in Craigslist's commanding market share. According to comScore, Craigslist attracted more than 53 million unique visitors in January. Oodle, by contrast, brought in just 3.5 million.