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04.20.07
Froogle Shops For A Frugal Experience
 By
David A. Utter
Google has rebranded their moribund shopping engine from Froogle to Google Product Search, and changed its look to match other Google pages.
White background, Google name on top, search box in the middle, one or two buttons next to the box.
That's pretty much the trade dress for a Google product finding its way into a browser window, and as of now it's a look shared by the service formerly knows as Froogle.
Google's shopping and product search now goes by the more descriptive name of Google Product Search.
Google's Marissa Mayer blogged about the name change, saying the Froogle name caused confusion for some people.
We liked the Froogle name, a mild play on the word "frugal." Frugal Google, find stuff for sale on Froogle. Even though it may look like a missed opportunity, Froogle never really caught on with people and had been one of Google's low-trafficked services.
Now it's being recast as a pipeline into Google Base, with a helpful link to Information for Sellers on the Product Search page.
Google also touts its Checkout service at the same link. Upload your stuff, set up a payment process, and wait for the buyers to arrive.
The seller is also invited to create AdWords ads for their offers. That's the real aim of Product Search, since search advertising is virtually all of Google's revenue.
Something that we aren't seeing at press time is Product Search results appearing in regular Google searches.
Doing a query on Google for something showing up as an item "recently found with Google Product Search" doesn't bring up a OneBox of shopping results. We expect that will change as Google finishes the switch away from Froogle.
About
the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
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