Oodle debuts in U.K. classifieds market

Classifieds search engine Oodle on Monday announced it is launching its service in the United Kingdom at www.oodle.co.uk.

The free online service includes classifieds listings from across the U.K., with 30 towns and cities at launch including Belfast, Bradford and Bournemouth.

Oodle U.K. includes more than 2 million listings from a variety of sources including Loot, eBay and RightMove. When users set up an alert, Oodle e-mails them the minute the item they are looking for becomes available.

SMS alerts also will be available in the future, the company said.

The company is forming distribution deals with a number of other media and Internet sites as it builds out the Oodle Partner Network. Most recently in the U.S., Oodle integrated its results into: a new site launched by Washington Post, www.readexpress.com; Lycos' new classified marketplace; and a network of classified marketplaces operated by Village Voice Media, www.backpage.com.

Oodle launched 12 months ago in the U.S. and has more than 15 million listings from 55,000 sources.

Oodle sends classifieds publishers and their advertisers leads each month. The company also powers the Oodle Network, a collection of Web sites that incorporate Oodle's search capabilities.

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