By Sharon Hill

We were somewhat startled to see a local Patch.com editor  announce yesterday that Patch.com classifieds were no more – temporarily, for an undisclosed time period. See the graphic below.

What we found in our own investigation was that Patch classifieds were still around, though the bulk of them are aggregated Indeed.com Job ads, moved from a now-removed Marketplace tab to the More tab. We found no invitation to Post a classified ad, however. Other local Patch sites had a few real estate, lost and found and service ads, too. Again, no prompt for new listings.

We inquired of Patch.com, asking as well if AOL Classifieds were to change. A Patch spokesperson confirmed quickly that the rumor was wrong – Patch.com classified ads weren’t down temporarily. They were just down temporarily.  Hmmm….. We were told there was nothing to talk about, except that they wouldn’t comment on any ongoing improvement plan or process.

She followed up with this statement:

“There’s nothing going on here. It’s a simple, course-of-business product tweak. The best way for us to empower and improve support buy/sell/trade scenarios is to first remove the old experience altogether. We’re working hard to improve the existing UX and maybe even develop a simpler way for neighbors to buy/sell/trade, ask questions, share ideas and photos etc. There’s no connection to, or impact on, any AOL platforms.”

Well, of course, if something was there then, is not there now, and something different will be up later, there certainly is something going on here, though the cat had clearly not been expected to leave the bag. What we asked of Patch, MapQuest, Indeed, and CareerBuilder, are what features and product functions the changes might enable.

Indeed.com offers social media connections for job candidates via LinkedIN’s Insider connections capability, so why not on Patch?  CareerBuilder powers AOL Jobs, so an affiliation with Patch would bring the latter a powerful set of job tools including its new BranchOut social networking functonalities. MapQuest could bring mapping to categories such as garage sales and homes for sales. But number one, let’s say Classifieds big and bold, on the home page. No more hiding under the More or even Marketplace tab.

The only response  so far from our mutiple inquires beyond Patch was from Indeed, whose spokesperson said little except:

“Indeed continues to power job search on Patch (under the “More” tab on the navigation bar, there is a “jobs” link). We’re not aware of any plans Patch may or may not have for their classifieds. ”

Whatever “non-changes” Patch has on the drawing board for its classifieds, it would be a shame, for its traffic and revenue, if it doesn’t take advantage of AOL’s in-place classified relationships, and in the case of MapQuest, a sister product.