If there is one thing I absolutely love doing, it’s buying cheap crap on the internet. But I feel bad about this; I worry about overconsumption and our planet — not to mention the effects on my own wallet.
Which is why I love Facebook Marketplace. It scratches the itch for mindless consumption in a more sustainable way. I’m simply virtuous — my place in Heaven secured! — for buying a used 8-by-10 rug in good condition for $75 instead of a brand-new one.
I probably spend more time browsing Facebook Marketplace than I spend on lots of other interesting and popular things. My iPhone’s screen time tells me that I spent more time on the Facebook app last week than TikTok, Slack, or Bluesky. And you’ll have to just believe me when I tell you that I spent a lot of time on those other apps.
However, I have a very specific and very real gripe.
Facebook Marketplace shows me listings for items located across a body of water — even if the items are within my specified distance radius.
Let me explain: For local listings, you can select a distance range of a set number of miles — just a few, or even farther, say 50 miles. Facebook Marketplace will then create a perfect circle of that search radius, giving you as-the-crow-flies distance in every direction.
But in reality, 10 miles to the east isn’t always the same as 10 miles to the west. Especially in cases where a river or body of water is involved.
Let’s say I’m in downtown Brooklyn. If I search a 4-mile radius, Facebook Marketplace will show me items for sale deeper into Brooklyn, easily accessible by car or subway, and it will also show me results in lower Manhattan (more annoying to drive to) — and worst of all, it will also give some results in New Jersey.
This is by no means a knock on the great Garden State. In fact, I’ve often observed in my Marketplace searching that New Jersey has some of the most desirable furniture and other items. But it is a massive pain to get from Brooklyn to New Jersey just to pick up a used end table— the tolls alone make it not worth it.
Consider searching around suburban Connecticut, where things are more spread out, and 20 miles of driving isn’t unreasonable. However, this creates a big enough search radius that it extends across the Long Island Sound, into the northern tips of Long Island. Do you have any idea how long it takes to drive from Bridgeport, Connecticut to Huntington Station, New York? Long enough to drop dead, that’s how long.
This isn’t just an East Coast problem, either. In fact, for Meta employees, this should hit close to home. Menlo Park, California — where Meta is based — is located along a body of water. That makes it quite annoying to get to the land on the other side of the bay, either by public transportation or car.
I have a proposed solution here: One option could be that instead of making a perfect circle of a search radius, you could draw your own search shape with your finger. Zillow has a version of this that it uses for its home search.
Another option — and my preference — would be to factor in driving distance or public transit access. It would be great to say, “Show me all the coffee tables within 30 minutes driving distance,” instead of a perfect circle on a map.
When I asked a representative for Meta if they viewed the water issue as a problem, they seemed slightly puzzled and asked if I was seeing things that were actually errors — results outside the specified range.
Currently, Meta doesn’t really directly profit from these in-person Marketplace transactions — when you show up at someone’s home and hand them cash for their stuff. (Meta does take a cut if the monetary transaction is completed on Facebook, typically for shipped items.) It may not be a big profit center for Meta, but it definitely is important.
Marketplace is a cornerstone of Facebook’s strategy for young people. Despite its sometimes fuddy-duddy reputation, Facebook is actually growing its Gen Z user base. So, improving Marketplace is important to Facebook’s overall health. Many young people tend to live in urban areas near bodies of water (rivers, bays, oceans). No one wants to have to drive over a bridge to buy a couch.
My plea to Mark Zuckerberg is to take a break from the kickboxing and focus in on this important issue. End the Marketplace search that goes across water boundaries!
The post Facebook Marketplace needs to stop showing me results that would make me cross a body of water appeared first on Business Insider.
