WebProNews

By now, just about everybody's heard of Craigslist. The classified advertising industry most definitely has. Though now a household name, founder Craig Newmark reminded listeners to his keynote address at PubCon in Las Vegas that his web-phenom had the humblest of beginnings.

WebProNews as usual is in Las Vegas for PubCon, bringing you the latest in online marketing.

Newmark's list covers 32 cities these days, but when it began in 1994 – following a move to San Francisco for work – Craig's list of San Francisco events was sent via email to his friends. His list became so popular, he had to move it to a mail server, and then to the open Web.

The move to the Web was a solid move to bring people in, rather than keep his local scenes list the exclusive province of email insiders.  After a childhood marked by pocket protectors and being last-picked in sports, Newmark legacy becomes one that doesn't exclude anyone.

"When you think about the net, everyone is included," he said.

And it's still free to everyone to this day – a winning model that hit one million page views per month way back in 1997. After all the site's success, Newmark says his company continues to espouse the original open philosophy.

"We're just doing what feels right. Everyone seems to believe in the notion that you treat people like you want to be treated."

Keeping with a simple, straightforward style even in his speech, Newmark forwards that open philosophy to the Internet as a whole. Perhaps reflective of his pro-Network Neutrality viewpoints (where an open Net promotes opportunity), Newmark says, simply, "The Internet is everyone's printing press."

WebProNews Managing Editor Mike McDonalds contributed to this article.