Media General classifieds have come a long way, baby – UPDATE
Oodle launches Marketplace iPhone app
Think of it as a sneak peek at things to come: Oodle announced the launch of its Marketplace app for the iPhone, combining the mobile, social and buy-sell experiences of both Oodle and Oodle-powered Facebook Marketplace.
Oh, and you can also use it to peruse listings from Craigslist. Continue reading
Oodle taps 4 to executive positions
San Mateo, Calif.-based Oodle has hired four industry veterans to its executive staff.
Tod Harmon joins as CFO from social-media platform Six Apart where he was CFO. Prior to that, he was CFO at HomeGain (acquired by Classified Ventures in 2005).
Jenny Rutherford is VP of marketing for Oodle Pro. She’ll will lead Oodle’s efforts to market to small businesses. She comes from Intuit.
Stephen Feltner leads direct sales as VP of sales, focusing on the rentals, real estate, cars and jobs categories. Feltner joins Oodle from Move.com, where he was president of new homes and rentals business.
Charlie Engel is VP of real estate. He’ll work with Feltner to engage the real estate industry. He joins Oodle from NCI (The Real Estate Book, Apartment Finder) where he was director of bizdev and national director of sales.
“I’m very excited to welcome four industry veterans to the senior team at Oodle,” founder and CEO Craig Donato said on the company blog. “Oodle is growing very quickly — we’ve seen traffic and revenue more than double in the last year. It’s wonderful to bring in a seasoned group of executives to help us step on the gas.”
EveryCarListed vehicle listings on Oodle
SuperMedia just announced that its video-focused EveryCarListed.com has reached an agreement with Oodle to list vehicles for sale from its 12,000 auto dealerships on the Oodle Network. Sites such as MySpace, Facbook, Military.com and Walmart will now carry EveryCarListed.com and SuperPages.com vehicle listings, with priority placement.
Oodle offers not only a geographically-robust classified network but a social experience with sharing and recommendations among friends. SuperPages.com delivers additional millions of unique monthly visitors to the Oodle Network.
“This alliance with Oodle brings consumers throughout the country added convenience in finding used and new vehicles, and brings our clients expanded reach for their in-market automobile sales, services and parts,” said Scott W. Klein, CEO of SuperMedia, in the announcement. “With it, we continue fueling commerce through connecting buyers with sellers, especially those who use social networking sites as their preferred marketplace.”
The Oodle Network of online marketplaces delivers than 15 million monthly unique visitors including Oodle.com and Facebook Marketplace.
MySpace moves classifieds, goes more social
MySpace has moved its Oodle-powered classifieds into its Apps Gallery, making it possible for MySpace users to place the Oodle-built application on their personal home pages. It’s better positioning than where it used to be: nearly undetectable, tucked away in a sub-directory tree accessible from MySpace’s footer links.
Classifieds, along with other personal-use features, are being moved to personal-use applications, a strategy that seems to fit in with MySpace’s renewed emphasis on social networking around entertainment. The one-time leading social site’s traffic has been sinking fast against Facebook — off 20 percent since June. Focusing on entertainment — music, movies, games, live venues and the like — was something MySpace does better than its rival. It makes sense to emphasize your compentencies. Classifieds was never a core activity.
The move comes with some pluses and minuses. On the minus side, you might not know MySpace has classifieds unless you happened to be perusing the Apps Gallery or if one of your MySpace friends had the app loaded on her or his home page. On the plus side, you might be more interested in what your MySpace friend is selling or seeking than you would a total stranger. It’s precisely that social aspect of classifieds Oodle has been working to instill. It’s done so rather brilliantly on Facebook, and MySpace’s changes make it possible for Oodle to apply some of the Facebook functionality to its MySpace product.
So far, more than a half-million MySpace users have put the Oodle-powered classified app on their home pages. Only 64.5 million to go.
To find it on MySpace, from the top nav bar, pull down “More.” Click the “Apps Gallery” link. On the page that comes up, click the “Shopping” link in the left navigation rail. You’ll find the “Classifieds” app fourth from the top. Unfortunately, the default ranking on this page is “recently popular” rather than “most users.” There are more than 584,000 users of this app, and in round figures, about a half-million more than any other application in the category. Someday, MySpace will get it right.
The bookmark: www.classifieds.myspace.com still works, too.
Facebook Marketplace powered by Oodle
While Facebook Marketplace has been around since 2007, it’s just recently that Oodle took over its transition from classifieds to robust classifieds with conversation. Private individuals can still post their classified listing in Facebook to sell a car, give away puppies, or sublet an apartment, for example. But what they can also now do is talk to their friends about what they see listed, what they have for sale, what they bought, or whether a potential employer is a good choice. They can talk to the seller, or reach beyond their circle of friends to the Facebook wall that surrounds the listing.
The next evolution of this Oodle-enabled Marketplace will provide tools for businesses such as auto dealers and real estate agents, which will offer lead capture and reporting functions. “We’ll transmit leads to a landlord who has rentals listed, for example,” Oodle Craig Donato told AIM Group. “The reports will include the number of listing viewers, the number of clicks, and the number of conversations that occur around the listings.”
Describing social networking as word of mouth on steroids, Donato said that Oodle was ultimately trying to facilitate word of mouth. While it’s not the only community-focused classified platform the combination of the Oodle aggregation and Facebook’s popularity may serve advertisers well.
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