Oodle Introduces the ''Oodle Index''

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Oodle^TM announced the launch of the Oodle Index, a free comprehensive real-time pricing guide for classifieds. The Oodle Index makes it easy for consumers to quickly identify great deals in their local market. At launch, it will provide pricing data for cars, real estate and apartment rentals.

Shopping with classifieds can be difficult and time-consuming. Local listings are typically spread across hundreds of sites with widespread differences in asking price, even across similar goods. For example, in San Francisco, prices on a 2004 Honda Accord in good condition with 30,000 miles on the odometer range from $16,000-$24,000. Moreover, the average price in San Francisco is a thousand dollars more than the average price in Washington, D.C.

The Oodle Index helps shoppers by providing them with pricing data that is comprehensive, timely and local. Data is based on a detailed analysis of hundreds of millions of local classified listings that flow through Oodle. The Index is updated daily, with pricing analyzed by local metro, city and neighborhood. Existing pricing tools fall short in that they typically are based on small samples of data or depreciation tables, are updated infrequently, and don’t take into account the vast differences in local pricing.

Data from the Oodle Index is displayed within an interactive tool in Oodle Search. Users simply click on a link for “Pricing” at the top of a search results list. A user searching for a two-bedroom apartment will then see both the average price for that city or neighborhood as well as current and historic inventory levels. By clicking on the interactive graph, users can view listings available in a specific price range. If few are available, they can use historic data to estimate how often similar deals are likely to be available and use Oodle Alerts to be notified when new ones are posted.

“Oodle’s mission is to provide a great shopping experience for classifieds,” said Craig Donato, Oodle CEO and founder. “When users begin to shop on classifieds, they spend a lot of up front time trying to understand pricing. With the Oodle Index, they can quickly see what’s happening in their local market and make well-informed buying decisions.”

“By providing this tool, Oodle should make it much easier for users to understand the value of what they’re considering,” said Peter M. Zollman, founding principal of Classified Intelligence. “Tools like this provide great value for people looking to buy a car or home, or rent an apartment.”

About Oodle

Oodle provides consumers with a great shopping experience for classifieds covering every major classifieds category: cars, real estate, apartments, jobs, merchandise, pets, tickets and personals. Launched in April of 2005, Oodle (http://www.oodle.com/) provides the largest and freshest index of classifieds with more than 20 million listings from over 75,000 sources.

Oodle also powers the Oodle Network – a number of newspaper, broadcast, yellow page and Internet sites that incorporate Oodle’s market leading search capabilities. To learn more about Oodle or Oodle’s Partner Network, please contact partner@oodle.com