The availability of fast radioactive beams offers the possibility for studies ofE1‐strength in projectiles via Coulomb excitation. Theoretical calculations predict that a significant fraction of this strength is shifted towards lower excitation energies in neutron‐rich systems (e.g., [1]). At the NSCL, virtual photon scattering was used to probe the discrete structure of both18O and20O for levels in the region between 1 and 8 MeV. Two 1−levels at 5.35(10) and 6.85(5) MeV were observed for the first time in20O [2]. The observed &ggr;‐ray spectrum for20O is, in fact, dominated by transitions resulting fromE1 excitations to these states. The extractedB(E1) ↑ values of ∼0.062(16) e2fm2and ∼0.035(9) e2fm2for the 5.35 and 6.85 MeV levels, respectively, are larger than shell model calculations predict [3, 4]. Such large dipole strengths are not observed for low‐lying 1−states in18O, indicating a shift of dipole strength towards lower energies as one approaches the neutron drip‐line. © 2003 American Institute of Physics