> Think about the problem as this: A worker sets up a website offering services. A potential customer is looking for a local purveyor of that service to hire. How does the customer find the website? If there are 25 local workers willing to do the job, how does the customer choose between them?
Right, but these issues that the Web currently faces (discovery, signal-to-noise ratio for example) will plague any given open marketplace after a critical mass is reached as well.
> If the customer wants to pay with a credit card, how does the worker get the money?
There are numerous payment systems that aren't terribly difficult to implement for small transactions (PayPal, Stripe, et al). Sure, a little HTML, JS knowledge might be needed, but that is really nothing difficult to do after a small amount of reading.
Right, but these issues that the Web currently faces (discovery, signal-to-noise ratio for example) will plague any given open marketplace after a critical mass is reached as well.
> If the customer wants to pay with a credit card, how does the worker get the money?
There are numerous payment systems that aren't terribly difficult to implement for small transactions (PayPal, Stripe, et al). Sure, a little HTML, JS knowledge might be needed, but that is really nothing difficult to do after a small amount of reading.