Friday, August 25, 2006 at 2:41 PM
By Michael Adelberg, Strategic Partner DevelopmentOne of the most satisfying parts of what we do is work with Google's content partners, because that's a win-win situation. Let me explain.
Google Base offers tremendous value for content providers large and small. Before Google Base, there was simple web crawling which involved indexing the content on a website. But there were challenges: sometimes the web crawler could not find all pages on a site, and, even if a page was crawled, it was often difficult for a computer-based system to understand the meaning of the content.
So we created Google Base. Anyone with content to distribute can send their information directly to Google, and do it in an organized and structured format. Google is able to leverage these structured attributes to present information that exactly matches a query. Content providers win because their information becomes more accessible, and reaches people who are looking for exactly what they offer.
At the same time, Google Base makes it easier for users to find specific content and listings that often are located deep within provider sites. A great example is a search for the perfect recipe on Google. Now it's easy for cooks to narrow their search attribute by attribute (i.e. cuisine type, main ingredient, meal-type, and so on) until they find the results that match exactly what they want. For each listing, Google presents a link directly to the page on the content provider's website with full information, saving time and helping people find exactly what they need.
