TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Quote:As a population, growing numbers of us are forsaking print information for online sources when it comes to classified ads. A new survey from research firm Outsell finds that 48% of Americans say they used eBay, Craigslist or similar online ad sites to buy or sell something over the past year. By contrast, only 10% said they bought a print classified ad to sell something in that time.

So newspapers are increasingly interested in moving their commerce sections, including their classified ads, onto the Internet. They may have gotten a little extra motivation recently from indications that Google and Microsoft are tuning up their own online classified offerings: Microsoft with the beta launch of its Windows Live Expo service, and Google Base with its test of an automated online payment system...

Oodle’s aim is to help content publishers to distribute their classified ads to the widest audience, thereby maximizing their own value to advertisers. To do that, the company arranges to scrape ads from a wide range of newspaper sites as well as spidering prominent Web sites...