Google Launches Shopping Site Called Froogle

About Froogle

Froogle is a new service from Google that makes it easy to find information about products for sale online. By focusing entirely on product search, Froogle applies the power of Google's search technology to a very specific task: locating stores that sell the item you want to find and pointing you directly to the place where you can make a purchase.

Amazing stuff. Google is pumping out new products at a blistering pace.

No more will you have to go to several sites to shop for competitive items. Just go to Froogle.

More on this MarketingFix scoop here.

And stay tuned here for more on this exciting announcement.

UPDATE: Additionally, as pointed out to me by Olivier Travers, one of the MarketingFix crew, it may not be all it's cracked up to be:

Well, I'm not losing sleep over it. It's simply useless. You can quote me: the current implementation (for books anyway) is garbage. It demonstrates they don't even have a clue about what taxonomy is about (this we already gathered from their use of the ODP, a piece of garbage ...) And sorry but this "frugal" thing is the negation of commerce. It's simply laughable.

Here's froogle on Asimov:
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=asimov&cat=239

Amazon on Asimov:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-
keywords=asimov&search-type=ss&bq=1

Scifan on Asimov:
http://scifan.com/writers/aa/AsimovIsaac.asp

That's right: Froogle is (basically) useless.... This is as stupid as Deja turning into a shopping guide.

Well now, there you have the real truth.

UPDATE II: More in depth commentary from Olivier on MarketingFix.

UPDATE III: My own initial take on this, barring Olivier's very insightful comments, is that Google may have a good product here even if it isn't a complete one. It's simplicity and the fact that it will be present on the Google home page will make it immediately known to everyone who uses the Internet. And you know most people, unlike the hard core users, gravitate to these mass market, all- in-one, simple interface approaches. Google is a very familiar and very friendly interface. I look at Froogle as a simple starting point for an online shopping excursion. From there, I can quickly drill down to other shopping sites from within the search results. Will it be the most complete listing of available products within a category? As Olivier claims, no it will not. But, for my simplistic mind, that is OK at the start.

UPDATE IV: Juicy comments pro and con on this whole Froogle thing. Read what the MarketingFix editors think as well as others.

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Written by Steve Hall    Comments (0)     Dec-12-02