Is it really so easy for the Facebooks and Wal-Marts of the world to use a national platform like Oodle or LiveDeal to successfully launch classifieds? Jay Schauer, a friend who runs Ad2Ad.com, doesn't think so. (Among other services, Ad2Ad…
LiveDeal, under new management, has moved away from its roots in Yellow Pages and classifieds, and begun a strategic focus on high-end SMB services. As part of its strategy, the company has been selling off many of its directory-related accounts,…
Oodle has been describing itself as a “social classifieds” platform for some time, extending its reach via deals with local powerhouses such as AOL, Comcast, Cox, Media General, Freedom and Wal-Mart. Now, it is set to make the hype more…
There is a certain magic with coining a far-out name that really sticks, like “Google” or “Yahoo.” Apparently, the new folks running eBay Classifieds, however, don’t think that “Kijiji” has made the grade. Kijiji, which is Swahili for “village,” is…
Earlier this week I went to hear an economist offer his take on the current economy and how soon it would recover. Long story short, I believe the speaker, who had outstanding credentials, was overly optimistic. (I really believe he may…
Cablevision bet big on synergy (and ignored the CW about the newspaper industry) when it bought Newsday from Tribune Co. last summer for $650 million. Today, less than eight months later, it concedes that it has written off $402 million…
Cazoodle, a new listings-based service, has launched from the incubator at The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (yes, Marc Andreeson’s former territory). The site currently crawls for apartment listings and shopping. Additional vertical categories such as events are anticipated, notes…
AOL Local has teamed with Oodle to launch AOL Classifieds in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, AOL is launching a U.K. classified site at the end of the week. Oodle aggregates listings from more than 250 partner sites (including…
Yesterday, Trulia announced it was replacing Classified Ventures’ HomeFinder.com as the real estate search provider on WashingtonPost.com. Today, the paper seems to have reaffirmed its ties to CV via a new deal with CV’s HomeGain. The deal with HomeGain provides paid…
The Washington Post is switching its local real estate search from Classified Ventures’ HomeFinder.com to Trulia. The switch takes place in April, and is being announced just after CV's introduction of the HomeFinder brand, which replaces the HomeScape brand. The…
Multiple Listing Services are generally seen as technologically backward sites restricted to Realtors. But this may change, if a new consumer-facing model takes off. Specifically, Local Matters, the social media vendor launched by MapQuest founder Perry Evans, has teamed with…
Oodle, the mega classified platform company, has raised an additional $5.6 million from its existing investors, which include Greylock Partners, Redpoint Ventures and JAFCO Ventures. The company has raised $24 million in total. Noting that Oodle has recently signed companies…
The old maxim says that when new cars are down, used cars are up. And when house sales are down, apartments are up. We’ve heard from some publishers that they are seeing more apartment advertising. But prices have been hurt by…
Events for newspaper industry executives are clearly challenged right now. Today, I learned via Vin Crosbie’s Facebook thread that the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum had to “postpone” their annual conference, which was set for March 22…
We’ve just announced the lineup for our Marketplaces 2009 conference, which is March 16-18 at the historic (and excellent) Century Plaza in L.A. We hope you find it as compelling as we do. It is probably a “must attend” event by any…
We’re out with our predictions for 2009. But what’s the final word for 2008? Truly, it was a very stimulating and thoughtful year for our local media and commerce industry. But speaking for myself, it’s hard to say whether it…
The local media industry is so fragmented that it seems increasingly essential to aggregate local classifieds from a number of sources. Google Base and Oodle go a long way in this regard -- the latter having recently signed Facebook and MySpace…
The Wall Street Journal has been making some bold statements in its recent coverage. A couple of weeks ago, The WSJ’s Emily Steel pronounced Yellow Pages “extinct.” This week, a new article by Steel noted the “tapering off” of ad…
The embrace of social media by the real estate and apartment communities has been strong, with many sites displaying videos of units and the community (or linking to YouTube), writing blogs, and participating on social sites such as Facebook and MySpace.…
Facebook will give up preliminary efforts to build its own classified service and will have classifieds powered by Oodle’s network instead. The effort, announced in Oodle's blog, will launch by Q1 2009. With the signing, Facebook joins MySpace, Wal-Mart, Media…
