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Google Base To Replace Froogle
An anonymous reader writes "Google plans to introduce a new shopping feature in time for the holiday season. Soon products on Google Base will be searchable via the regular search box. Simultaneously, Google intends to de-emphasize its own Froogle shopping search engine; Google intends for Froogle to no longer be a standalone Web site." From the article: "When people search for products on Google.com, the system will present them with another search box so that they can refine their query, according to Bear Stearns & Co analysts. After people refine their query, Google takes them to a second page populated with product results from the Google Base listings service. 'Ranking will be determined by the attributes that the sellers listed for the product as well as by relevancy,' the analysts wrote. Currently, Google has no plans to monetise this product-search capability with display ads or listing fees, but that could change, they wrote. "
according to Bear Stearns & Co analysts
I need some sleep, I read that as "Stern Bears Analysts" and thought, man that must be a tough firm to work for!
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
All your Google Base are belong to us...
(sorry)
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
That seems like it would be important imformation to include in the summary, but, oh well. There it is. The "Why."
Merry Christmas.
The heavens do not fall for such a trifle.
I gotta say, I love all things google, but froogle is absolutely horrible. It just gives you too much unrelated junk, and sort by price never works because of that. Try searching it for cheap iPods. You gotta first sort through 30 or 40 pages of iPod cases...with no real way to remove 'em all. It's best to just stick with sites like pricegrabber or even pricewatch unless you know VERY specifically what you want.
At least for me. Whenever I tried to use it the results I got weren't that great at all. By searching a few other sites I was often able to find cheaper prices than those found on Froogle. I'm not sure what the reason for that was, but it just didn't seem to find me the best prices.
Plus, on top of that it's search wasn't accurate enough. For instance, if I searched for "television" and "LCD" then it would throw in a bunch of peripheral items that I would then have to search through. Doing a search for that now seems to be a bit more accurate than last I checked though, perhaps they are making it more accurate.
Either way, combining it with the regular search engine would be a great idea in my opinion. That'll make it more efficient to do searches.
Justin - Don't be afraid of my blog, it won't bite.
This makes sense to me, honestly. Lets face it- Google wants to pull in more business. What's better then getting everyone's sales and stuff on the same search. If I, for instance, Search for 'Wool' and come up with sweaters for sale- as well as what I was looking for, maybe I'll buy a sweater along with my research on Wool. And No. I won't tell you why I want to search for wool.
I already get a bunch of shopping links whenever I search information on products. I use Google less and less because I can't find information relevant to anything BUT shopping.
Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
Nerd thought balloon: "I wonder if this Google base is better than getting to third base..... if I ever get there"
Engineering is the art of compromise.
just don't touch fark's foobies
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
"Google has no plans to monetise this product-search capability" Wrong, Google makes money when people buy things with the google checkout. They are creating a whole "buy it now" ebay type site with a single checkout. Fees are lower than paypal, and the checkout process is quick and easy. Google even gives you an anonymized email address during the checkout for each store. If only enough vendors would jump onboard, the site could really rock.
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
After blowing cash on the Froogle brand, which nicely derives cachet from the Google brand while also implying that it is for frugual users, thereby it must save users money, to then run to a product called "Google Base" is stupidity. What does the "Base" mean? It has zero positive associations with shopping and price, and except for its association under the Google umbrella, zero assocation with anything else. Google has to grow up and stop change for the sake of change, when it wastes shareholder's money and ditches valuable brands for senseless no-brands.
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
This is very old news. Those of us who have been using Froogle were notified about this transition about 6 months ago via email. Ho hum.
EVERYBODY PANIC!
(text placed to avoid filter)
Which holiday season? We've just had summer. Is it Christmas already?
mod parent back up, 'the base' is the literal translation of Al-Qaeda.
Google seems to be overextending itself recently. Honestly, I'm all for Google, but it seems that Google has too many projects going on and, sadly to say it, it seems like this will be a flop for Froogle.
Do they actually expect any non-tech savy (read, the average ebay user) to be able to use this system effectively? Yes I realize it is in beta and likely to change and improve, but as it stands now, it isn't worth my time.