Google wants your car listings, events

In a move that could put Google in competition with eBay, the search giant is testing a new service that would allow people to post and make searchable any type of content, a Google spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday.

A screenshot of a page for "Google Base" gives as examples of items that can be posted to Google's server: "description of your party planning service," "articles on current events from your Web site," "listing of your used car for sale," and "database of protein structures."

"This is an early stage test of a product that enables content owners to easily send their content to Google," a Google spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail. "Like our Web crawl and the recently released Google Sitemaps program, we are working to provide content owners an easy way to give us access to their content. We're continually exploring new opportunities to expand our offerings, but we don't have anything to announce at this time."

Other screenshots show sample pages, including an entry for a Thai Glazed Chicken Lettuce Wrap recipe. One page includes policies including "posting is not permitted for the promotion of body parts or human remains" and terms of service that give Google the right to "reproduce, modify, adapt, publish and otherwise use, with or without attribution" the content on the site for promotional purposes. It also says the Google Base interface is currently available only in English, U.K. English and German.

Some bloggers speculated that Google Base was the precursor to an e-commerce site that would go up against online auction company eBay.

"Google's just launched 'Google Base,' a service to insert and share all types of content: events, housing, jobs, products, second-hand vehicles," a blogger called "Dirson" wrote on New Google Blog.

"The information will be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local," Dirson wrote. "We expect that 'Google Purchases'--the new micropayments service among users--will be also introduced as a complement to 'Google Base.'"

"Is it time to forget crawlers for certain types of content? Will the typical user take the time to send material directly to Google? What about eBay? Just some of the MANY questions, no answers, and Google isn't talking," wrote Gary Price in his blog on Search Engine Watch.

"This sounds big and immensely interesting," wrote Philipp Lenssen on his Google Blogoscoped blog. "Is Google putting a layer in between dynamic Web sites and their databases, replacing MySQL/PostgreSQL/MS SQL, and creating a new GoogleSQL...possibly, with their ads in it? I can't wait to try it."

A reader who posted to a Dutch blog called Seweso predicted Google Base would be a "death knell" for both eBay and Microsoft.

"There is much more to this than an "ebay/craigslist" killer. This is the first part of Google putting ALL YOUR INFORMATION on line that you currently have lying around on your desktop. Before there was no way of doing this other than creating a website which most people are too lazy to do," wrote a reader identified as "Lone Deranger." "Oh, and guess what, once you have your documents uploaded on Googlebase, in a few months they'll roll out Google Office and you'll be able to edit them right there!"

Also on Tuesday, Google began hosting a three-day off-the-record confab called "Zeitgeist '05: The Google Partner Forum," with 400 invitees, including prominent members of the mainstream media.

[TV James]

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

I love that base.google.com and www.google.com/base return a 403 "forbidden" error and not the usual "Page not found" error (example: www.google.com/tv).

Although I guess they're not really saying that it doesn't exist, just that it's not ready for primetime yet.

[TV James]

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

I love that base.google.com and www.google.com/base return a 403 "forbidden" error and not the usual "Page not found" error (example: www.google.com/tv).

Although I guess they're not really saying that it doesn't exist, just that it's not ready for primetime yet.

[Roman12]

Google wants your car listings, events, etc.

Wow, if this really is going to go vs. eBay, then eBay may one day be forgotten. This type of service with Google's name on it would push out all the competition, I think anyway.
__________________________________
R.K.
http://www.Remove-All-Spyware.com/

[Roman12]

Google wants your car listings, events, etc.

Wow, if this really is going to go vs. eBay, then eBay may one day be forgotten. This type of service with Google's name on it would push out all the competition, I think anyway.
__________________________________
R.K.
http://www.Remove-All-Spyware.com/

[spytrdr]

Hosting

It certainly would be nice if Google offered traditional hosting services (shared and dedicated), like Yahoo has been doing for some time. I can't wait.

[spytrdr]

Hosting

It certainly would be nice if Google offered traditional hosting services (shared and dedicated), like Yahoo has been doing for some time. I can't wait.

EBay competition ?

I feel it is almost an expected move on Google part to try and capture some of the market share currently held by eBay. The simple idea of placing a medium for buyers and sellers to complete online tractions in a somewhat safe environment was a great idea. Google already has the installed base of loyal users and could easily make a transition into online sales between users while collecting revenues from the transactions.

Things for Google to consider before jumping to quick:

EBay is starting to loose much of their original loyal user base because of the take over of this marketing medium by retailers. I am in no way saying this is a bad thing for eBay because it has to be the largest centralized retail outlet that is currently online and it works for eBay.

In the US, the government?aka the IRS is now stepping up their efforts in collecting monies from average users that are selling their unwanted items on-line. This is fine for retailers because they are already able to deduct the cost of what they had to pay for the items verses what it sold for. An example of this the issue I see for the average user would be this:

A man goes to a retail store and purchases a jacket; he paid retail plus any sales tax from the local and state governments, lets say $69.95. Now, he and his wife get into an argument and the wife decided to get rid of his jacket on eBay as a way to get back at him. The jacket is placed in a 5 day auction and it sells for 29.95 that would be by my figures a loss of $40.00 to the couple from said dispute.

Now the government eyes that sale of $29.95 as a profit and now would like to see the couple add that to their income tax statement at years end in the other column as earned income and taxable. What?s the moral of the story? Don?t **** your wife off.

Is there room for Google in this market share? Absolutely! My advice to you guys is to come in slow while keeping your eyes wide open to the big overall picture of what?s actually taking place in the market. Concentrate on what your actual end user is looking for in the way of services as you have done in the past. You guys provide a great service ?keep up the good work and good luck on this new venture.

EBay competition ?

I feel it is almost an expected move on Google part to try and capture some of the market share currently held by eBay. The simple idea of placing a medium for buyers and sellers to complete online tractions in a somewhat safe environment was a great idea. Google already has the installed base of loyal users and could easily make a transition into online sales between users while collecting revenues from the transactions.

Things for Google to consider before jumping to quick:

EBay is starting to loose much of their original loyal user base because of the take over of this marketing medium by retailers. I am in no way saying this is a bad thing for eBay because it has to be the largest centralized retail outlet that is currently online and it works for eBay.

In the US, the government?aka the IRS is now stepping up their efforts in collecting monies from average users that are selling their unwanted items on-line. This is fine for retailers because they are already able to deduct the cost of what they had to pay for the items verses what it sold for. An example of this the issue I see for the average user would be this:

A man goes to a retail store and purchases a jacket; he paid retail plus any sales tax from the local and state governments, lets say $69.95. Now, he and his wife get into an argument and the wife decided to get rid of his jacket on eBay as a way to get back at him. The jacket is placed in a 5 day auction and it sells for 29.95 that would be by my figures a loss of $40.00 to the couple from said dispute.

Now the government eyes that sale of $29.95 as a profit and now would like to see the couple add that to their income tax statement at years end in the other column as earned income and taxable. What?s the moral of the story? Don?t **** your wife off.

Is there room for Google in this market share? Absolutely! My advice to you guys is to come in slow while keeping your eyes wide open to the big overall picture of what?s actually taking place in the market. Concentrate on what your actual end user is looking for in the way of services as you have done in the past. You guys provide a great service ?keep up the good work and good luck on this new venture.

[b2bhandshake]

First it was about taking on Microsoft

...and now eBay; what next?

- MB
http://www.garamchai.com/mohan

[bobby_brady]

Because Google has more talent than Microsoft

Microsoft is a big bureaucratic company that can't change.

[b2bhandshake]

First it was about taking on Microsoft

...and now eBay; what next?

- MB
http://www.garamchai.com/mohan

[bobby_brady]

Because Google has more talent than Microsoft

Microsoft is a big bureaucratic company that can't change.

[jamie.p.walsh]

This is more likely to affect Craigslist and Wikipedia

I see this more comparable to Craigslist. Imagine being able to post your car for sale...for free...and how many legitimate buyers would see it through Google Local. I love the recipe idea.

I like blogs and recipe blogs in a standard format would be sweet with the laptop we have in the kitchen.

[stevemur]

Recipe sharing sites go further than text...

Text indexing is fine, but if you want to do things like resize recipes up or down, or find recipes that have ham and egg in them, with less than 250 calories and are not spicy, you need to have a little more structure in the database. And if you want to be able to drag and drop items onto a shopping list or meal calendar and have it make sense of the data underneath, it needs to be structured.

I love Google for many things, but in the world of recipes, my own site, BigOven (www.bigoven.com) is one of several recipe exchange sites that will continue to go a bit further than standard text-based recipe posting.

[jamie.p.walsh]

This is more likely to affect Craigslist and Wikipedia

I see this more comparable to Craigslist. Imagine being able to post your car for sale...for free...and how many legitimate buyers would see it through Google Local. I love the recipe idea.

I like blogs and recipe blogs in a standard format would be sweet with the laptop we have in the kitchen.

[stevemur]

Recipe sharing sites go further than text...

Text indexing is fine, but if you want to do things like resize recipes up or down, or find recipes that have ham and egg in them, with less than 250 calories and are not spicy, you need to have a little more structure in the database. And if you want to be able to drag and drop items onto a shopping list or meal calendar and have it make sense of the data underneath, it needs to be structured.

I love Google for many things, but in the world of recipes, my own site, BigOven (www.bigoven.com) is one of several recipe exchange sites that will continue to go a bit further than standard text-based recipe posting.

[bobby_brady]

Don't hurt my Craigslist!

I love Craigslist! No ads, no fluff, just the real meat! I hope Google understands there is a very loyal user base for Craigslist. While I feel loyal to Google, I feel more loyal to Newman's creation!

[bobby_brady]

Don't hurt my Craigslist!

I love Craigslist! No ads, no fluff, just the real meat! I hope Google understands there is a very loyal user base for Craigslist. While I feel loyal to Google, I feel more loyal to Newman's creation!

So Google finally catches up with classifieds

Terry Semel was right in saying that Google is trying hard to become a portal, something that Google always said it is not. It feels like the investors have pumped too much money into a company run by bunch of copycat rookies. Where is the innovation? Not to mention that there search engine is gradually decaying and PageRank will soon be completely irrelevant.

So Google finally catches up with classifieds

Terry Semel was right in saying that Google is trying hard to become a portal, something that Google always said it is not. It feels like the investors have pumped too much money into a company run by bunch of copycat rookies. Where is the innovation? Not to mention that there search engine is gradually decaying and PageRank will soon be completely irrelevant.

And Google is a crazy

company that hires 10 bodies a day and opens one office every month.

And Google is a crazy

company that hires 10 bodies a day and opens one office every month.

[brothe]

Innovation

They are still a search engine. So what if you can now "Find" something to buy or "Find" a news story...

Of course, to use Google Base, you will need a Gmail account... if you have a gmail account you will probably customize and use Google as your home page.. and you will use that to blog or share pictures or sell your stuff or instant message or chat or make a phone call...

Anything that I want or need, google is delivering.

[brothe]

Innovation

They are still a search engine. So what if you can now "Find" something to buy or "Find" a news story...

Of course, to use Google Base, you will need a Gmail account... if you have a gmail account you will probably customize and use Google as your home page.. and you will use that to blog or share pictures or sell your stuff or instant message or chat or make a phone call...

Anything that I want or need, google is delivering.