Facebook Marketplace is a joke

For a long time I used Craigslist more or less exclusively to find used stuff, but over the last decade people have been slowly trickling over to Facebook Marketplace. Having deleted my Facebook account years ago, I created a new one with almost my real name and no friends so I can use Marketplace.

It is shockingly incompetent. I’ve been thinking of buying a small sailboat for puttering around local lakes and the calmer parts of the Bay. Here’s my experience with Marketplace.

I type “sailboat” into the search bar, then set a filter to show results within 40 miles of my location and under $3000. After a few results nearby, I start to see listings for sailboats in Santa Cruz, Ukiah, Redding, and listings for powerboats, kayaks, etc. which do not contain “sail” or “sailboat” in them at all.

I change the sorting order from “Suggested” to “Newest first”. The top results are then, in order:

• a ‘foil board’
• a kayak
• a jib sail
• a set of davits
• a windsurfing sail
• an electric bicycle
• an actual legitimate sailing dinghy
• a surfboard
• more windsurfing sails
• a kayak
• a stand-up paddleboard
• two more kayaks.

Further down the page I see horse saddles and a propane water heater, before Facebook eventually gives up and just shows dozens and dozens of bicycles.

Does this work well for other people? It seems to be mostly an engine for making sure lots of listings end up on your screen, whether or not they’re relevant to your query. I assume I’m seeing things like kayaks and surfboards because they have some over-zealous thing that pulls in results for words which are kinda associated with whatever you actually typed.

It’s incredible how much better Craiglist is in every respect, still. For starters, when you go to sell a boat, it actually prompts you for relevant information like length overall, propulsion type, etc. Facebook just has you upload your photos, mash in some idiot grunt like “works good no lowballers”, and blast your posting into oblivion, where perhaps it may some day be found by somebody querying something totally different.