You would’ve been forgiven if you say you’ve never heard about Gumtree before,  but just like Craiglist was more well-known for the people who were living in the US, Gumtree is very much an online household name for people who live in the UK.  The site has helped many individuals and businesses to offer their goods or services, and for others (potential buyers) to find things they need.  That includes myself.  I found this flat (apartment) that I’m living in now, through Gumtree :)

How These Were All Started

Gumtree started its live 10 years ago, at the start of the millenium.  Back then the intention was to create a community website to help people who just came to London to find accommodations, jobs and meeting new people, for free (still is).

Gumtree.com Circa 2000

Then it grew to include not just London but also other major cities in the UK and a few other European countries.

Gumtree included more cities

Today, Gumtree is a very much thriving local community classifieds website with 1 million visitors every month.  They share office with eBay UK, in one of the most picturesque location in London, that has a dedicated game console room, fuss-ball and ping-pong table, and two Dr. Who style Phone Boxes (don’t ask).

[The first 2 photos on the set above are attributed to @benjaminellis]

10 Years On

This year is the 10th anniversary when the first time Gumtree was created, and it finally comes of age.  Last week some of us had opportunity to meet some people who are responsible behind the success of Gumtree, where we had a presentation on not only about the new website, but also into some insights on what the future might hold for Gumtree.

Here you can see the current website and the new one side by side:

Current Home Page (Click to Zoom)	New Home Page (Click to Zoom)
Current Individual Ads Page	New Individual Ads Page

As you can see there are a few cosmetic changes that have been done, but skins were not the only thing that they have overhauled.  There are some new features that they have added, such as:

1. More cities, and areas inside an individual city, which affects the search as well.  You can now search as wide as the whole UK, or as narrow as an individual Postcode.

Local Search

Current Area Search

New Area/Postcode Search

2. More filters on search, and next to each category item is now shown the number of the particular search result.

More Filter

3.  Google Map feature is now interactive.  You can click on the ‘Enlarge this Map’ link and it will give you a bigger map which you can move around.

4. Interactive Photos Viewer.  Click on the ‘Enlarge Picture’ and a pop-up Interactive Picture Viewer will be shown.

API Is Coming

Apart from the changes above, Gumtree also said that they are developing an API (Application Programming Interface), which immediately caught my attention, and several other web developers among the audiences.

An availability of a public API would mean that Gumtree is willing to open up it’s data to the public for their perusal.  We have already witnessed what happens with Twitter, for example, when they open their data via the API.  The result is often astonishing.

Nevertheless when asked how this API will work, Gumtree answered that they were still not sure which type of API they would like to choose, whether to open it for developer in general (ALA Twitter) or just for Affiliates.  I will be eagerly waiting for either (or both).

It’s always good to know that your favorite website always tries to improve itself, and these changes couldn’t come at a better time because as a matter of fact I am on the market again looking for place to move :)

Lastly, you can visit this blog post to get access to the new site.  Don’t worry, you can always go back to the old one.

Let me know what you think.

Today, 9th of December 2008, Le Web 2008 started its 2 days conference in Paris. Le Web, the fifth in the series now, is an Internet/Technology Conference that allegedly the biggest in Europe. This year, judging from the programs, it seems that they are concentrating on the current recession and how some of the companies/startups cope with it.  They have some sessions also on Social Media and a Startup Competition.

But one thing that is really great about this conference is that, you don’t really need to go to Paris to follow the sessions, because Le Web provide us a Live Video Streams for ALL the main sessions and another 2 stages.

I really love it when Conference Organisers decide to ‘share’ the material like this with all of us.  Talking about the real spirit of the Internet.  Other conferences that have similar scheme are Web 2.0 Summit and Carsonified Organised Events.

Congratulations to Loic Le Meur and friends for organising this fantastic event, and for letting us to be part of it !

You can watch Le Web Video Streamin in the main Le Web site or at UStream (which is the provider of this stream).

If you want to watch the recorded video clips of the sessions, you can also subscribe to this Feed.

Or, you can watch the main stage here:

Live Broadcasting by Ustream