Oodle, a search engine for local classifieds, announced on Tuesday that Lycos and Backpage are charter members of its new Oodle Partner Network. Oodle released a new programming interface (or API) and is working with partners to incorporate its search experience into their respective sites.

Partners in the new Network program can display results from Oodle's search index, highlighting their own inventory and showing users what's available on other local sites. Publishers' listings appear in the Oodle index, giving partners listings increased exposure. When a consumer sees results from Oodle on a partner site, the results link directly to the publisher.

Oodle search results are being incorporated into Lycos' new classified marketplace, launching this week at lycos.oodle.com, and into backpage.com, a group of free community classified sites operated by local media outlets including newspapers, radio and television stations in 40 metro areas. This week, results were introduced in Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Tucson, Boston and San Antonio.

"We're excited to include Oodle's results in our local marketplaces," said Carl Ferrer from VP of backpage.com. "If our users can't first find it on Backpage, we're happy to direct them to other resources where they can find what they're looking for."

Oodle is possibly the nation's largest index of classified listings with more than 10 million classified listings from thousands of sources. Craigslist, in which eBay owns a 25 percent stake, bars Oodle and other aggregators from indexing its search results.

Classifieds publishers can learn more about the Oodle API by contacting the comopany via email at partner@oodle.com.

http://www.oodle.com