Lycos Inc. Monday joined the ranks of Internet services offering virtual greeting cards, announcing it had made AmericanGreetings.com the exclusive provider of online greetings on its service.

The two companies plan to create a site that will feature both free and fee-based cards from American Greetings.

Lycos will also sell advertising to generate additional revenue from the site, and plans to integrate the card service throughout its extensive network of online properties.

Cleveland, Ohio-based American Greetings is the world's largest greeting card maker and already provides online greetings on its own Web site.

The agreement with Lycos follows closely on the heals of the news that Lycos'rival ExciteAtHome Corp. would buy BlueMountain.com, the most popular online greeting card site which has also become one of the most visited e-commerce site in any category.

Amazon.com Inc also entered an agreement earlier this year to offer online greeting cards.