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When was craigslist.org built?

Analyzed 8 November 2026. Re-analyze

Estimated launch

December 1998

Medium confidenceLikely range: June–December 1998

There's good evidence for the year, but the exact month is less certain.

BuiltWhen verified that craigslist.org launched in December 1998 (71% confidence), with domain registration recorded in September 1997.

Website age
~28 years
From estimated launch
Domain registered
September 1997
Not the launch date
First evidence
December 1998
Internet Archive (Wayback Machine)
Current version
No clear redesign
A possible change is in the timeline

History at a glance

The domain and the website have separate lives. Website age is measured from the launch, not from registration.

Domain registeredLikely launch rangeWebsite onlineMajor change

Timeline

  1. September 1997

    Domain registered

    The domain was registered. This is not the same as the website launching.

    Confirmed

  2. June–December 1998

    Estimated launch

    Based on: first archived copy of the website.

    Medium confidenceView evidence

  3. After August 2005

    Changed since the last archived copy

    The page layout changed a lot. Homepage title changed.

    Not certainLast archived copy

  4. November 2026

    Current website

    “craigslist: frederick jobs, apartments, for sale, services, community, and events”

    ConfirmedVisit

Built with today

Detected on the live homepage. Select a technology to see the evidence.

No common technologies were detected with enough confidence to report.

Why we think it launched in 19983 pieces of evidence, each linked to its source
  • First archived copy of the website: December 1998.
  • Domain registered: September 1997 (15 months earlier).

  1. September 1997

    Domain registered

    The domain's current registration began on this date. A website can only launch after this, but often launches much later.

    Sets the earliest possible dateRDAP registry dataView source

  2. December 1998

    First archived copy of the website

    The earliest successful snapshot of the homepage showing real website content in the Internet Archive.

    The estimate is based on thisInternet Archive (Wayback Machine)View source

  3. November 2026

    Homepage Last-Modified header

    When the server says the current homepage file last changed.

    Background onlyHTTP headersView source

What we checked

  • Domain registry (RDAP)Checked
  • Internet Archive indexChecked
  • Live websiteChecked
  • Archived page comparisonChecked

77 months of archived homepage copies; 5 compared in detail. BuiltWhen estimates from observable evidence and can be wrong. How estimates work

Domain registrationRegistered September 1997 · MarkMonitor Inc.
Registered
11 September 1997
Registration expires
10 September 2028
Registry record updated
14 August 2026
Registrar
MarkMonitor Inc.
Nameservers
ns1a.craigslist.org, ns2a.craigslist.org, ns1f.craigslist.org, ns2f.craigslist.org, ns9a.craigslist.org, ns9f.craigslist.org

Public registry data via RDAP. Registrant details are never collected.

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