Classified ads might take up a small amount of text in newspapers, but they account for big business on the Web. Just ask classifieds aggregation service provider Oodle, which has recently secured millions of dollars and inked deals with all of the major social networking sites.

Oddle’s latest big deal comes at the hands of AOL Classifieds, a new platform that links consumers to listings within their area. These ads will appear across the AOL network, including the jobs, the personals and real estate sections.

“With the current economic climate, providing consumers with an easy way to buy and sell merchandise and services, or make local connections through classifieds is becoming even more important,” said Chris Spanos, General Manager, AOL Local and Specialty Verticals.

More than 40 million listings will be aggregated from over 80,000 different Web sites. Competitors include the aforementioned Craigslist and eBay-owned Kijij.

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Search queries can be sorted in a similar way that eBay search queries can be, by those items that are ending the soonest, among other filtering options. And while there’s a focus on the social aspects of trooQ, you can still offer feedback on users after interacting with them through buying and selling on trooQ’s marketplace. These ratings will be displayed on a user’s profile.

While this approach creates a different set of trust values than eBay’s ranking system, the concept itself is not new.
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