eBay generally focuses on helping things get sold. But it has never had a “wanted” section. Now it has tipped its toes into “wanted” via a new partnership between eBay Classifieds and Rewarder.

Rewarder, a San Francisco-based expert network, was founded two years ago by former Intuit/StepUp executive Kendall Fargo and backed by Granite Ventures. It has recently been written up by my colleague Mike Boland. The network now has 750,000 experts, who “have a passion for helping people , but don’t want to do it for free,” says Fargo. “It’s an extension of the ‘sharing economy'” pioneered by AirBnB, Uber and others, he suggests.

While there are plenty of free expert resources, they don’t provide you with the detail you need, and they are not a personal solution, Fargo says. Things you want to own, such as cars and products, receive the most “wanted” queries. And the queries are very sharable via social media and other sources.

Mobile also plays a big role in the network. A lot of it is impulse. More than 200,000 people are using the mobile app. Would I use it to find a cat hotel during a car trip this summer? No. That’s more of a social survey. But you’d use it to learn how to start a cat hotel.

Here’s how it works: Rewarder receives the query, including reward amount; sends out alerts to the expert solution; and sends out a payment to the winning solution. Rewards vary widely but many are in the $10 to $50 range. A reward for finding a lost poodle was posted for $100. Another person posted a $50 reward for building a travel itinerary for Sydney, Australia. More than $14 Million worth of rewards are currently posted.

Fargo notes that 30 percent of queries are settled within six hours. “It is a matching and mashing system,” he says.

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EBay’s newly branded “eBay Classifieds” — formerly known as Kijiji — is being repositioned to better leverage eBay’s capabilities, according to U.S. GM Martin Herbst, who spoke to us for a new report that we’ve just issued in BIA/Kelsey’s Marketplaces program.

EBay potentially brings its vaunted user feedback system to the table, as well as its expertise in buyer protection and shipping advice. Integration with eBay is also expected to provide a major promotional boost. EBay is one of the most search optimized sites on the Internet. The SEO will be paired with high-level promotion of the site on eBay’s heavily trafficked home page. The promotion appears just underneath the search bar.

The site will also work directly with eBay Motors, a separate organization, to “cross-pollinate traffic and listings,” says Herbst. “A post on eBay Classifieds will provide exposure on either platform. They are very similar classifieds products.”

For the first time, eBay is also seeking to directly complement its core auctions with classifieds. Auctions that don’t sell can be shifted into classified listings — an effort that was just introduced via e-mail and online promotions to eBay members.

“Some items just work better on classifieds than on eBay,” notes Herbst. These include furniture, sporting goods and equipment. Other items that work better in classifieds include those that have slight defects or are secondhand.

“Users don’t want to hurt their eBay ratings” with imperfect items, says Herbst. “With classifieds, they can check it out in person.”

One thing that won’t change, is the ability to use eBay Classifieds without registering as an eBay user. Many people will want to shop classifieds, or post comments about listings, without signing on, Herbst says.

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More than a year after it became apparent that it would do so, eBay has finally killed the Kijiji brand in the U.S., and rebranded its efforts as “eBay Classifieds.” The rebranding, which does not affect more established Kijiji-branded sites in several international markets, is accompanied by a cleaner interface and some new features, including a mobile app, better spam filters, improved customer support and easier cross-sells and buying with eBay’s main auction/buy-it-now site.

Unchanged is eBay’s value proposition of its classifieds as a “safer, easier, friendlier” classifieds provider than Craigslist and others. The mobile app might especially gain leverage against Craigslist, which doesn’t have one, claiming its unencumbered site loads so quickly that it isn’t necessary. Top categories for eBay Classifieds include motors, pets, goods, services, housing, jobs and personals.

EBay has chosen to refocus on classifieds instead of launching major new local hub sites that would fully integrate eBay Motors, auctions, classifieds and PayPal. This, in fact, was its tentative plan a couple of years ago. In addition to the eBay Classifieds/Kijiji sites, eBay owns a number of leading vertical/classifieds sites in the U.S. and abroad. Most of its classifieds operations are based in Europe.

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