Local classified search engine Oodle has announced that Lycos will integrate its classified search function into the Lycos home page. The company said it will also syndicate ads to Backpage.com, a group of free community classified sites operated by local newspapers, radio and TV stations in 40 metro areas, including the Village Voice, Long Island Press and SF Weekly.
The Lycos portal will use Oodle’s open application programming interface to add search to a new Lycos classified marketplace on its site. In addition to its own portal, Lycos operates such Web sites as Hotbot.com, Tripod.com andWired.com.
The Lycos feature will be branded as “Lycos Classifieds Powered by Oodle” and will use the Oodle search filtering capabilities that let users specify full details of what they’re seeking: a 2004 Nissan Sentra in blue, for example, or a two-year-old male Highland terrier for sale within a 40-mile radius.
The Backpages properties will append Oodle listings to their own classified ads. “So if you’re looking for an Acura TL, Backpages will show you the listings that they have on their site. But they will also show you listings that are available in other local marketplaces through Oodle, such as classifieds on Cars.com, CarsDirect.com or perhaps the local newspaper,” said Oodle founder and CEO Craig Donato.
Initially, Oodle results will be served to Backpages client papers in Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Tucson, Boston and San Antonio.
Oodle itself does not sell classified listings but publishes summary links to ads sold by other sites, such as autos at Cars.com, real estate listings from ZipRealty, and newspaper classified sections. Users can search Oodle.com for items available in more than 100 U.S. metro areas, and then click through to the host Web sites for more detail. With more than 10 million listings from thousands of sources, Oodle claims to be the country’s largest index of classified ads.
While Oodle has signed deals to provide classified ads to Web sites, “Most of our partnerships have occurred on the back end,” Donato said. “These are the first two companies that we’ve worked with where we’re now increasing the front-end exposure for Oodle search.” He said the company expects to sign other high-visibility distribution deals.
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