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Google Base Retail Rumours Confirmed
kaufmanmoore writes "According to an MSNBC report, the head of Google's European arm has said that Google wants to use Google Base for brick and mortar stores to submit lists of goods and prices in order to create an online presence." From the article: "Google would index and package the information into a consumer-friendly search engine, giving its users a virtual supermarket across a number of retail brands. Mr Arora said: 'Google Base is going to have a huge impact on retailers," adding that the move reflected internal research, which found many leading European retailers did not feel they were competitive enough online.'
All your base are belong to Google... Really!
Check it out, at least, at aws.typepad.com
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Am I the only one who (for a second) thought that google were actually beginning construction of their other base
Seems like there should be a joke that I could make about Google Base... and how everything will belong to them...
Google: All the retail is ours.... No that's not right...
Something really obvious...
Google: We own you... No...
Oh well. Maybe someone can set me up the joke...
No? OK....
So they will index deals submitted by stores.
Who is going to collect the funds?
Who is going to deal with the fraud?
Who is going to be responsible for the accuracy of the information presented?
Will google police stores that advertise one price but sell at another (or just bury more profit in S&H?)
Sounds like a high tech flea market. Without any guarantees this could devolve quickly into a disaster. Is Google prepared to vouch for the information, if not how will they convince people to use a service they won't stand behind?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
And the Google Countdown to Evil continues... Don't get me wrong, I love Google, but they really need to make sure that they're using their powers for Awesome.
FYI, Google Base is still under development. Most likely the service will give retailers access to hundreds of millions of Google users. You can visit it at base.google.com.
When I'm searching for something online, I'm usually looking for a single item or a set of related items. This usually makes Froogle a good starting point; I search for arcade pushbuttons, and I get links to stores that sell them along with other arcade console items. Poking around a few sites usually leads to one with good prices on the things I want, and I make a purchase.
Really, I don't see the benefit of aggregating content across stores. How often does someone go looking for a doorknob, a picture frame, and a KVM all at once? Online shopping is fundamentally different than shopping at a physical store, but it's not that different: I want to find a competent supplier of each thing, not a one-stop-shop where I have to wonder about the quality of service and related issues. And if they're just showing me info from three different places in a single search, but I am actually making three orders, what's the advantage?
Color me unimpressed
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I think it is very similar to Froogle. But I am sure someone in Google has noticed that fact also.
What I think is interesting is how Google payments works with Google base and not Froogle.
I think when retailers go for Google base, there will be a pre-built e-commerce rig waiting to go.
Froogle will be for the rest of us punters.
-- I doubt, therefore I might be.
It is sort of like froogle without the screen scraping. Because the content provider enters the information about the item, there is all kinds of neat attributes that can be used to narrow the search. For example a honda civic can be classified by price, make, year, color, model, engine, mileage, door count, and body style. You can actually search for a used 2000-2002 civic sedan with 50-75k miles that costs less than $12,000 and is less than 100 miles from your house. It appears that cars.com has put all their car classifieds into the system which means that any car advertised in the washington post is in the system. If the car dealerships started to add their inventories it would be really cool. I'm not sure if it will take off because it of the desire of businesses to keep their prices from being compared.
then you have the ultimate in Mom-and-Pop competitive advantage to big corporate box retailers. I'd love to be able to find just the right product at a shop down the street than have to go to Best Buy or Amazon.com. Increasing the ability to find their inventories will help immensely.
This is where the moronic book publishers get things wrong - by Google helping consumers actually FIND the crap they sell, they DRIVE business TOWARDS your stupid company. Oh, and ISPs get it wrong too. The only reason we pay monthly fees to get IP service is because companies like Google provide compelling reasons to do so. Otherwise, I'd take up windsurfing or something...
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
The name comes from Banks. During US expantion in the 1800's, Banks held a lot of cash and were the only buildings in town to be built with "bricks and mortar".
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5