Published: August 05, 2007 03:58 pm            

Monica Green: Online proves easier?

Today I didn’t feel like washing the dishes so I went online to find someone to do them for me. OK, I didn’t really, but I could have if I wanted to.

Domystuff.com is a Web site where “employers” can list jobs they need done and accept bids from “assistants.” The site’s set-up is similar to eBay; however, you list and bid on services rather than goods.

The categories range from household — helping someone with a move or mowing the lawn — to creative — building a Web site or helping write something like a song.

The site provides a secure online escrow system to make sure that assistants are paid for the jobs.

Now, like all online services, there are some off-the-wall requests. A 49-year-old man from Mansfield is requesting help finding a girlfriend. Several have responded, promising to help him find true love for a certain price. There is a similar request from Sacramento, where a girl requested help finding her brother a wife.

In Oxford, Mich., a man requests assistance applying sunscreen. He is in a strongman contest and can’t put on the sunscreen himself because it would make his hands slippery.

On the private message board, someone asks if he has a wife or girlfriend to do this, and he replies “I’m working on getting a girlfriend.”

I even posted on there. I am requesting help finding a house. I’ve had three responses so far, but I’m waiting for more.

Another Web site that allows users to post tasks or sell items is Craigslist.com.

An online classifieds system, there are groups set up for certain areas all over the world. Users can post items or services for sale, jobs, housing and community events.

Craigslist is where I found this job! I’m also using it to find a puppy and hopefully a house. I check everyday for new listings in Cleburne but there are few. So, I go back to the newspaper to search daily.

Many sites offer a quick and “easy” way to do things. Are these ways really easier? Not if you ask my mother, who would spend all day looking for something one of my siblings and I could find in five minutes. This is just because we’re more technologically advanced.

I made a search on Google for “online classifieds” and was given about 144 million results. Now eBay has even created an online classifieds, Kijiji.com. How can you even keep up with that many different sites?

While I find Craigslist.com and other similar Web sites handy, there’s still just something about picking up a newspaper and reading the classifieds. Maybe that’s just me?



Monica Green can be reached at 817-645-2441, ext. 2338,

or features@trcle.com.

        

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