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Google Base Launches
An anonymous reader writes "As announced on the Google Blog, Google Base has finally launched. According to Google, Google Base enables content owners to easily make their information searchable online. Anyone, from large companies to website owners and individuals, can use it to submit their content in the form of data items. We'll host the items and make them searchable for free."
I tried publishing something and it told me I published over 200 articles already. Then I clicked 'save draft', and it gave me an error.
God spoke to me.
The company I work for has been participating in this for a few months now. We upload content once per night. Data items that were in the feed from the night before are removed if they aren't in the most current feed.
Data is expired if there is no activity on it after a period of time. There is also an expiration date.
http://base.google.com/base/base_policies.html/
The list of banned content is great!
Hacking and Cracking Sites - Posting is not permitted for the promotion of hacking or cracking. For example, items must not provide instructions or equipment to illegally access or tamper with software, servers, or websites.
Aids to Pass Drug Tests - Posting is not permitted for the promotion of products such as drug cleansing shakes and urine test additives.
Too much!
This is more or less what was done with companies wishing to have their product database indexed within Froogle.
It was actually a nice implementation for a complicated process, and it only took them a week to approve our data feed and begin listing our items.
We upload a new feed as frequently as we need to.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
Think of this as a different API for the search application. Google base often points to data outside of google. The only requirement is that everyone labels their data and gives the labels to google.
Going through cars, there are pull down menus to select the year, price range, etc.. Previously, you could either 1- go to google.com and hope you get lucky or 2- Go to every listing service and do searches of their databases
The main advantage is that this gives access to the deep web or the hidden web. It gives the google user the ability to search databases that were previously invisibile.
It would be useful if they actually provided some simple notification of updates to the services they provide, possibly just some small blurb on search result pages or something.
You could always join the Google Friends newsletter:
http://www.google.com/contact/newsletter.html
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
I have a google account and have played around with it a little. Part of the integrity bit seems to be using spam filtering techniques to prevent you creating SPAM entries in the database. See below thier editorial guidelines.
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The most effective item communicates a clear message to a targeted audience. Once you determine whom you want to reach and develop appropriate text, you need to create an item that will inform users. The Google Base Editorial Guidelines will help you create effective items to meet your goals
Underlying all the Editorial Guidelines are two simple principles:
* Be honest, accurate, and factual.
* Clearly and accurately describe your message.
Our ultimate goal is your success, and we believe that providing a great user experience is the best way to ensure it. To submit items to Google, you must adhere to these guidelines.
Use Standard Punctuation
* No repeated and unnecessary punctuation or symbols.
* Your title may not contain an exclamation point.
Use Standard Capitalization
* No excessive capitalization such as "FREE" or "GOOGLE BASE."
* Capitalization of the first letter of each word within a URL is permitted.
No Repetition
* Avoid gimmicky repetition.
Use Correct Spelling
* Check that you use correct spelling.
Use Proper Grammar
* Your item text must be in relevant, logical sentences and must contain grammatically correct spacing.
* The use of symbols, numbers, or letters must adhere to the true meaning of the symbol.
No Unacceptable Phrases
* Your item cannot contain universal call-to-action phrases such as "click here," "link here," "visit this link," or other similar phrases that could apply to any item, regardless of content.
* Use a call-to-action unique to the information you provide.
No Inappropriate Language
* Your item cannot contain offensive or inappropriate language.
Adhere to the Program Policies
* As a business, Google must make decisions about where we draw the line in regards to the items we accept. We, therefore, may not accept items containing some content or relating to certain products or services. We reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the items we accept on our site, as noted in our terms and conditions. Please note that the decisions we make concerning items in no way affect the search results we deliver. To learn more, please review our Program Policies.
The bikini - security through obscurity since 1943
Er, did you even bother reading their website? They use the Jabber protocol.
It's not limited to products and prices? As in, it's a totally different thing? It may be based on the same tech though, hardly surprising since it's from the same people.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
Of course, there are a number of services that have been offering free image hosting with virtually unlimited bandwidth for some time. Mostly every blogging service does, but images hosted by ImageShack have been popping up everywhere, because it's freakishly easy to host an image with them - registration is optional, for one thing. I doubt Google will clamp down on it, I'm sure they were aware of it when they started (the beta of) Base.
So really, image hosting isn't what's new about Google Base. In fact Google Base instantly reminded me of ImageShack, it's (close to) the simplicity of IS applied to not just images, but article style content. Of course IS has really taken off because people have needed space for their images forever - to post them in internet forums, mostly. I'm not sure people have the same need for article hosting - probably not in the example of internet forums, but maybe in other contexts. Of course, as you and other folks have pointed out, with an API this is much more interesting. And even without, it's still a really cool service. There's also this whole (I hesitate to use the word) "folksonomy" thing they have pulled off with their labels/attributes thingie. I'm sure that will make some people foam.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
A problem is that these services usually have limits on file sizes, or delete unaccessed files after a while, or don't accept unusal formats such as camera raw images. This means they are not very good for archiving original images. My experiments with Google base suggest that it also has an image file size limit: I tried to upload a 620k jpeg image and it was rejected with a vague error message.
What if the article I wish to publish addresses the problem of child pornography? Guess what, when I tried posting said article, I got an error: "word not allowed: child pornography".
Is this like a subsection of the search engine, or an informal free webhosting service? I'm just not sure of what this is or why it's necessary.
The important details I'm getting from Google's own site are:
- You can post existing item types like Products, Recipes, Jobs, Want Ads, Vehicles, Reviews, Reference Articles, People Profiles, and more. Think of it as you're posting an entry with specific attributes (Product: Price, Quantity, Condition, Brand...) and keywords (anything you can think of), along with a description.
- When you search Google Base, you have the normal Google search interface, but you can also toggle specific keywords on and off with a single click. This is something that would be impractical in Google's normal web search, but can be done in a highly structured database.
- You can post anything you want (they screen out spam), but it's mostly text and no more than ten pictures--minimal multimedia. Bulk uploading is possible using RSS. Google becomes your free content host, but (again) you're limited by the highly structured types of data you can publish. So it's no replacement for a webpage-hosting service.
Or you could subscribe to the Google Blog Feed and get all those news the day they are made available, instead of once a month