One of the new beta services we got to see at the recent B2B Refocus Summit in Mountain View was Google Product Search.
This free service takes a product data feed from a brand manufacturer or online seller and pipes it into organic search results with a link to buy online.
Several advertisers are using it now with good success http://www.google.com/base/help/ps_quotes.html.
This service is part of Google Base and unlike Froogle years ago, this has the ability to have much more impact because it displays in-line with normal search results… no need to click away to see shopping results.
We’re recommending it to clients that not only sell online, but sell collaboratively with their retailers (i.e where the purchase starts on the brand website and gets fulfilled by a network of local retailers). Complete coverage is the key here.
Google Product Search is also further recognition of how and why consumers use online search. Searching for product information is a core “pre-buy” activity. We conducted research in 1996 that proved this and began adapting our websites to address this need. Froogle sought to tap into this activity — albeit in a separate area with an obscure name. Now its improved and part of mainline organic search — right where consumers want it.