Craigslist site for Fresno, Calif., grows in popularity.

Byline: Sanford Nax

Jul. 14--Fresno has become one of the fastest-growing markets for Craigslist, the Internet bulletin board that has developed an almost cult following.

Of the 30 most popular Craigslist city sites, Fresno ranked second in percentage growth for the week ending June 26, compared with the same period a year before, according to Hitwise, an Internet research firm. The Fresno site debuted in June 2004.

The Fresno site's 422 percent increase in visitors was second to San Francisco, easily outpacing more wired -- and much larger -- cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. San Francisco had the largest one-year gain at 2,345 percent.

Craigslist is an online community that offers an eclectic mix of information, from job postings to personal ads. You can buy a car or join the 50-plus discussion groups.

Much of the content is free. Craigslist collects revenue from help-wanted ads in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Craigslist has been compared with eBay, which owns 25 percent of the company, but its offerings are much greater, said Bill Tancer, vice president of research at Hitwise. Newspaper classified ads are the closest competitor to Craigslist, Tancer said.

Founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark, an IBM engineer and computer programmer, Craigslist has grown from a site about cool things in San Francisco to 2.5 billion page views a month. Craigslist accounts for 3 percent of all Internet visits, according to Hitwise.