Gumtree.com : Celebrity spotting, The Guardian

Monday, March 12, 2007

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Spotted: Branson and Murdoch in Starbucks
by James Silver

When the hip New York gossip site Gawker enhanced its long-running, star-spotting feature, Gawker Stalker, by publishing the precise location of each celebrity encounter using Google Maps, George Clooney, among others, failed to see the funny side. His subsequent call to arms for fans to "flood their website with bogus sightings" resulted, predictably, in a global publicity coup for the site and a 50% spike in traffic.

Two weeks ago the UK's rather more down-at-heel version of Gawker Stalker arrived. Gumtree.com, which began life in 2000 as an online noticeboard for backpackers looking for bar work and flatmates, has since become Britain's biggest website for "local community" classifieds, and has launched a section on which users can post details of celebrities seen in London. But whereas Gawker regularly features A-listers like J-Lo, Matt Dillon and Jake Gyllenhaal, the celebs posted on Gumtree are perhaps a little lower-rent.

"[Footballer] Sean Wright-Phillips was in the que [sic] in front of me and bought £400-worth of PS2 and Xbox games at PC World in Catford," reports one user, with rather a creepy eye for detail.

A second feels the need to share the news that he "spotted BBC London presenter Mike Ramsden waiting to get cash from the Abbey machine by Archway station on Saturday night." While another wag - in a biting piece of media satire - claims he saw Rupert Murdoch and Richard Branson in Hammersmith Starbucks "arguing over the last muffin".

A spokeswoman for Gumtree, which was acquired by eBay in 2005, says the celebrity-spotting section, far from being inspired by Gawker, actually came out of feedback from their users. "Our community categories on the site are very, very big, and we were looking for new categories we could launch that would encourage our readers to post and interact with one another. It all sits very nicely with Gumtree's irreverent sense of humour."

Next month Gumtree will start using Google Maps technology. Nevertheless she says they are not bracing themselves for a George Clooney-style celebrity backlash amid allegations of invasion of privacy.

"I don't envisage that happening. It's all very tongue-in-cheek. If there is anything that people feel shouldn't be on the site they can report it to us and we will review it. It's for the community to police, and we won't be making a stand [on the privacy issue]."

However, whether many of Gumtree's three million monthly visitors can bring themselves to care about where former Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins was spotted buying cat-food (Kensal Rise) is another matter.

"I like this site," writes one user, "but this section is the biggest waste of space. You have to be a real loser to paste who you have seen in London on here."

(The Guardian, March 12th 2007)

Posted by James Silver - On Monday, March 12, 2007

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