The two charter members of Oodle’s Partner Network will use APIs to connect to Oodle’s index of classified advertising and display those search engine results.
Oodle promises increased exposure for publishers appearing in its index when partners who signup and use the APIs start displaying publisher ads on their sites.
“By broadening the base of our search platform, classifieds publishers in our index can receive even more qualified traffic through Oodle,” said Craig Donato, co-founder and CEO of Oodle. He has also noted they eventually want to make the API publicly available.
Lycos now has a dedicated presence called Lycos Classifieds. Users of Lycos sites can post ads for free at Oodle and gain exposure within and outside the Lycos community.
Village Voice Media’s BackPage, an ad site based in Phoenix covering some 40 metropolitan areas, will include Oodle results in its classified listings. The Backpage website described itself as a group of community sites operated by local media outlets.
With the Oodle API, classified publishers can then both highlight their inventory of listings and allow users the option to see what’s available on other local sites. “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.”
Ferrer also noted to Classified Intelligence that BackPage exists to help local media compete with Craigslist. BackPage uses a similar approach to that competitor in its look and feel. The Oodle partnership will start with six of its outlets before expanding.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
