Pune360.com is a classifieds website that you should check out. I am aware of (at least) twenty different classifieds sites in India but this is the one, which seems to stand out the most. It has a pleasant user interface, it’s design is simple & uncomplicated and I found it extremely easy to use, search and navigate. All these classifieds sites have borrowed ideas (in varying degrees) from Craigslist, but Pune360 has added some innovative features to the basic Craigslist model, which makes it’s design uniquely refreshing.

The classified section allows users to post free ads for Pune city (based on geography) in various categories. The interface where the listings show up, is in the form of a table, showing the date, the title of the ad, the category and the location. This allows you to quickly run your eyes down the list and narrow down to anything of your interest. In my opinion, the ability to navigate easily is one of the key drivers for a successful classifieds site, and on that count, Pune360 scores much better than other classified sites.

I think Pune360 is actually transitioning from being just a classified site to being a city based portal. For, it has separate sections titled ‘The Writing Wall’, ‘News’ and ‘Real Estate’. The ‘News‘ section covers local news & events in Pune city. The ‘Writing Wall’ is actually a blog and has a collection of useful articles (though not necessarily about Pune). The ‘Real Estate‘ section is a new section and currently has information about various upcoming real estate projects in the city.

Pune360 plans to have similar sites for other Indian cities pretty soon.

I spent some time browsing through the site and here’s some quick feedback that I have for the Pune360 team.

– I think some of the categories in the classifieds section have far less relevance to an Indian audience (e.g ‘Man seeking Man’); it might make sense to ‘Indianise’ the category structure completely
– The location of the search bar at the bottom of the homepage seems incongruous to me; it should probably be at the top of the page, for maximum eye-contact
– There seems to be some overlap between the ‘Writing Wall’ and the ‘News’ sections..

Overall I think, Pune360 is a ‘refreshing’ departure from the cluttered mess that characterize Indian classified websites; I look forward to its launch in other Indian cities.