The latest news, tips, and resources
straight from the Google Base team.
Introducing the Google Merchant Center
Monday, September 28, 2009 at 8:44 AM
Today, we're excited to announce that we're launching the Google Merchant Center, which will replace Google Base for those of you submitting Product-type items to Google. If you submit products to Google, Google Merchant Center is now the place to upload your feeds, check on the status of your items, and get information on the performance of your listings. Google Base is still available for other types of structured content, but the Merchant Center provides a better, optimized experience specifically for product listings. The Merchant Center is where we'll continue adding features and improving the tools for uploading and managing product listings.
In general, the Merchant Center interface is very similar to the Google Base interface, so we hope it's easy to transition. Sign in to the Merchant Center using the same Google Account information you did for Google Base. Your existing data feeds, items, FTP settings, etc. will be there for you.
For any non-product items you've submitted to Google Base, those will remain there and you can continue using Google Base to manage those items and settings. If you used the same account to submit both product and non-product items, you'll need to go into Google Base and reset your FTP settings. There's more info in the FAQs about this and other questions you may have.
As part of this launch, we're switching to a new blog as well. Please join us at the Google Merchant Blog, which will replace this blog and cover both Google Base and the Merchant Center. Be sure to subscribe to the new blog and change your bookmarks!
Posted by Ioannis Kalafatis, Product Manager, Google Merchant Center
Google Base Undergoing Maintenance
at 12:58 AM
Google Base is undergoing maintenance and will be unavailable for the next few hours. During this time you will not be able to access your account, and some items may be temporarily disapproved. We apologize for the inconvenience and will post again when Google Base is back up.---
As of 11:30 AM PST, we've completed planned maintenance on Google Base and you should be able to access your account as normal. Thanks for your patience.
Posted by Ioannis Kalafatis, Product Manager, Google Base
When You Just Can't Wait: Helping Users Shop Offline
Friday, September 11, 2009 at 2:15 PM
A few days ago, a friend of mine needed to get a protective sleeve for her brand-new laptop. She found an online retailer, but didn't want to damage her laptop while waiting for the sleeve to ship. So she used Google Maps to find the retailer's nearest store location, and got her sleeve the same day. She's not alone - most shopping still occurs in-store, where you can interact with items in person, pick up bulky products, and avoid shipping charges. So to help users find merchants who have store locations, we've launched the "nearby stores" feature in Google Product Search. For retailers that have stores close by, users will be able to get more information on the nearest store locations. They can then call a store to make sure the item they want is in stock and buy that last-minute birthday gift - or that laptop sleeve.We're going to continue refining this feature in the next few weeks, so check it out and make sure you submit your local store information if you haven't already - the instructions are in this blog post. Additionally, please consider submitting the online only attribute, to let us know which items you only sell online and do not stock in stores.
Lights, Camera, Action!: YouTube Videos in Google Product Search
Wednesday, September 09, 2009 at 4:54 PM
Video product reviews are getting a lot of buzz right now, as shoppers increasingly turn to the web to help them figure out what to buy. We're excited to announce that we are including relevant and high quality YouTube video reviews on a number of our product pages in Google Product Search. Videos include reviews from sources like USA Today, Wired, and Digital Trends, and they appear above the "Similar Items" section of the page. For example, see the product page for this Nikon D90 camera.We'll be periodically reviewing content for inclusion in this feature. While we can't guarantee that submitted videos will be selected, please do the following if you'd like a video to be considered:
- Add the "youtube" attribute to your data feed. In this attribute include the YouTube video ID for each one of your products with a related YouTube video review. Video IDs are the values that follow the 'v=' in the YouTube URL of the video.
- Include UPC, ISBN, brand, and MPN information in the tag of your YouTube video review.
Posted by Paul Lee, Business Product Manager, Google Product Search
New Policies for Marketplaces & Aggregators on Google Product Search
Wednesday, September 02, 2009 at 3:58 PM
Today we're happy to introduce multi-client accounts as a solution to help aggregators and marketplaces manage feeds for multiple sellers under a single account. By allowing marketplaces better control over their sellers' product data, shoppers get more accurate and relevant information when they search for things to buy on Product Search, and individual sellers don't need to submit their own feeds. The multi-client accounts allow aggregators and marketplaces to consolidate and manage data feeds and reporting for sub-accounts, submit changes more rapidly, and get more accurate Google Checkout badging at the seller level. Marketplaces and aggregators will be required to use multi-client accounts to submit and manage their sellers' feeds starting on December 1st, 2009.
As a result of these changes, individual sellers on marketplaces no longer need to submit a feed to Google Product Search. To avoid duplicate listings we will be notifying individual sellers and retiring their accounts. Please see the full Marketplace and Aggregator policies for more information.
Posted by Paul Lee, Business Product Manager, Google Product Search
Linking Your Checkout and Base Accounts
at 9:59 AM
As we announced on July 30th, we're retiring the "One at a time" upload option on Google Base today. If you've been using the "One at a time" upload option, we recommend submitting through a data feed, which allows you to submit single or multiple items quickly and easily. For those providers who want Google to host a page for their item - for example, if you don't have a website - just submit your data feed without anything in the "link" attribute, and we'll create a Google Base page for your item.For those users who are interested in selling items hosted on Google pages, we're making it easier to link your Google Base account to Google Checkout, our payment processing solution. When you sign in today, you'll notice a new page in your "Settings" tab called "Checkout." If there's a Checkout account linked to your Base account already, you'll see it listed on this page. If you're not already linked to a Checkout account, or want to add a different account, you'll be able to do that by entering the Checkout Merchant ID. Any Checkout accounts added in this manner will need to be verified in Google Checkout, so your payments information is secure. We hope you find this expanded functionality useful.
Request for High Quality Images and New "Online Only" Attribute
Monday, August 24, 2009 at 5:15 PM
When you're considering purchasing an item online, it's helpful to know what that product looks like, with as much visual detail as possible. Images that are very small, like thumbnail pictures, don't help customers as much as larger images that show more product detail. While a small image is better than no image at all, we'd like to ask that when submitting a product feed, you include links to the largest images you have. (We prefer images that are at least 300x300 pixels, but please don't re-size the image to be larger - just send us the highest-quality original you have.)
Additionally, as we begin to experiment with showing local store locations in Product Search, we want to make sure we're using the most accurate information. For that reason, we've added a new optional attribute to our Feed Specification. The new "online only" attribute is used to indicate items that are only available for purchase online, and not available for purchase in-store or for in-store pickup. For more details on formatting the "online only" attribute, please see the Feed Specification. If you have local store locations and are not yet submitting those to Google Product Search, please follow the directions in this blog post.
Posted by Janna Salinas, Google Base Support
Shipping Costs in Product Search for Germany
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 4:17 PM
Shopping online lets you find great deals, but it's important to know the full cost of what you're planning to buy. That's why we're happy to announce that we've started displaying shipping costs in Google Product Search results for Germany. So that users get the most accurate price information, we strongly encourage you to start including shipping data for all your products submitted for Germany if you haven't done so already. Please make sure that both your item price and shipping price are VAT inclusive, and ensure that your display name conforms to our editorial guidelines by removing any tax and shipping information.
Posted by Paul Lee, Business Product Manager, Google Product Search
Shipping Attribute now available for Germany
Wednesday, August 05, 2009 at 4:31 PM
In response to the July 16th German Supreme Court ruling concerning shipping costs in comparison shopping engines, and to provide consumer with more accurate price information, we're pleased to announce that we've launched the "shipping" attribute in Germany. The "shipping" attribute allows you to specify shipping values for your items on Google Product Search. For more details on formatting the "shipping" attribute, please visit this German Help Center article.
We'll provide an update on this blog once we begin displaying shipping information in Google Product Search results. In the meantime, we strongly encourage all merchants submitting items for Germany to include shipping information in the new "shipping" attribute as soon as possible. Please make sure to include VAT, both in the item price and the shipping price.
We'll provide an update on this blog once we begin displaying shipping information in Google Product Search results. In the meantime, we strongly encourage all merchants submitting items for Germany to include shipping information in the new "shipping" attribute as soon as possible. Please make sure to include VAT, both in the item price and the shipping price.
Retiring the "One at a time" Feature
Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 8:49 AM
Over the next few weeks, we're going to be making some changes to Base in order to better serve you, our users. We're announcing these changes early so you can get a head start in adjusting your upload processes if necessary.
We've found that our "One at a time" upload option isn't heavily used - most providers submit multiple items at a time, using our data feed or API upload options. As a result, we're planning on retiring this single item upload functionality in Base in a few weeks. But don't worry - if you'd like to continue to submit items to Google Base, it's easy to use our data feed option.
We've found that our "One at a time" upload option isn't heavily used - most providers submit multiple items at a time, using our data feed or API upload options. As a result, we're planning on retiring this single item upload functionality in Base in a few weeks. But don't worry - if you'd like to continue to submit items to Google Base, it's easy to use our data feed option.
To keep our listings fresh, items older than May 1st, 2009 with no expiration date or an expiration date far in the future will soon expire. Additionally, draft items and items uploaded through the "One at a time" option will be deleted after expiration. Once you've switched over to uploading items through a data feed, we encourage you to submit as often as necessary to keep the information in your listings accurate.
Posted by Ioannis Kalafatis, Product Manager, Google Base
German Supreme Court Decision and Google Product Search
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 11:03 AM
As you may know, on July 16th the German Supreme Court ruled in a lawsuit concerning shipping costs in comparison shopping results. We're aware of this decision, and are working hard on a solution for our German merchants. We will report back as we make progress.Thank you for your patience.
Posted by Ioannis Kalafatis, Product Manager, Google Base
Video: Product Search for Webmasters
Thursday, July 09, 2009 at 3:05 PM
As a member of the Google Developer team, I filmed a video about Google Product Search for our webmaster community. In it, I discuss the benefits of Product Search, suggest best practices when submitting a feed, and answer frequently asked questions such as:- Do listings expire after 30 days?
- How often should I submit a feed?
- How are different sites sorted in search results when there are multiple results for the same product?
- Why doesn't Google badge PayPal accepting merchants as well as Checkout?
- Does it help search rankings to add custom attributes to my product feeds?
Posted by Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead
Reminder: Submit Your Store Locations
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 at 5:50 PM
We posted a few weeks ago about an experiment we're working on to display store locations to consumers on Google Product Search. If you have local stores and haven't already submitted your information to the Local Business Center, there's still time! As a reminder, here are the instructions: First, go to www.google.com/lbc. Then:
- If you're able to verify ownership of your store locations by receiving a phone call or a postcard at each location, please add and verify your stores individually by using the "Add new business" option.
- If you have 10 or more stores, or if you're unable to individually verify all of your locations, you can bulk upload your listings as unverified data by choosing the "Upload a data file" option. Then, fill out this form to help us associate your Local Business Center data with your Google Base account.
New Data Feed Interface Improvements
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 1:42 PM
Last week, several members of the Google Product Search team went to the Internet Retailer Conference & Expo in Boston, where we had a chance to meet with some of our content providers. We got some great feedback about Product Search and Google Base at the conference, from success stories to feature requests. This sort of user feedback is a crucial part of the development process at Google - it directly impacts focus areas for our engineers and product teams. For example, a top request from our merchants has been for more information about their data feeds, and I'm happy to announce that as a result of that feedback we've launched a new data feed interface in all Google Base accounts.
You can see this new interface in the "Data feeds" section of the "My Items" tab. First, you'll notice that we now show the number of inserted items for the feeds you've submitted in the "Last upload data & status" column. Also in that column, you'll see a link called "View errors and suggestions." This link takes you to a page which details feed-level and item-level errors and warnings, so you can more easily take action to get all your items submitted, with all relevant attributes. If you haven't seen these new features yet, sign in to your Google Base account and check them out today.
Posted by Chris Azalde, Google Base Support
Local Business Information and Store Locations
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 1:09 PM
Usually, I do my shopping online - I can browse from the comfort of my home or office and compare across multiple stores before I purchase. Occasionally, however, when I'm heading out on a trip or I have to buy a last-minute birthday present, I don't have time to wait for a product to ship. To help users with this problem, we've begun experimenting with exposing store locations in Google Product Search, and we'd like to invite you to participate. We think this will help users find nearby store locations, and help merchants get foot traffic into their stores.
To participate in this experiment, all you need to do is submit your store locations to the Google Local Business Center, which allows business owners to control the content of their business listings as they appear in Google Search and Google Maps.
Submitting your store locations to the Google Local Business Center is easy. First, go to www.google.com/lbc. Then:
- If you're able to verify ownership of your store locations by receiving a phone call or a postcard at each location, please add and verify your stores individually by using the "Add new business" option.
- If you have 10 or more stores, or if you're unable to individually verify all of your locations, you can bulk upload your listings as unverified data by choosing the "Upload a data file" option. Then, fill out this form to help us associate your Local Business Center data with your Google Base account.
Regardless of which method you use to submit your data, use the same email address you use to log in to Google Product Search.
As a bonus, the Google Local Business Center just released the Local Business Center dashboard, a completely free feature that allows business owners to view a range of information about how Google users find their business listings on Google - from the number of clicks your listing received to the zip codes from which users are driving when they request directions to your store. Currently, this dashboard is only available to business owners who can verify each store location via phone or postcard.
Condition Attribute Becoming Required for Google Product Search
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 at 10:30 AM
We'd like to let you know about an important change we're making to the Product Search data feed requirements. As you know, you can help shoppers find your products by including high quality, frequently updated product information in the form of attributes. In order to provide shoppers with the most useful information, we'll be making the "condition" attribute required starting on June 30th, 2009, in all locations.
In order to keep your feeds active past this date, please remember to include the "condition" attribute for all of your items if you're not already doing so. Please include one of three values to describe your product: new, used, or refurbished.
For more information, please visit the following help center article:
New Base Terms of Service
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 1:21 PM
Today, we're making some changes to the Google Base Terms of Service. We've also added a section to the Settings tab called "Business Information," which will enable you to associate more information about your business with your listings in Google Base. You will be prompted to accept the new Terms of Service and add your business information the next time you log in to Google Base.
To ensure that we are able to continue processing your feeds and placing your listings on Google properties, please log in to your account and accept the new Terms of Service by June 26, 2009. If you use the API and do not accept the new Terms of Service after logging in to your Base account by June 26th, your API applications may not function properly.
Help mobile users find your offers
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 12:01 PM
We're excited to announce that Google Product Search for Mobile recently launched barcode scanning on Android devices. In order for your product offer to be listed when a user searches using their barcode scanner, you need to include a unique product identifier attribute like a Universal Product Code (UPC) or European Article Number (EAN) in your data feed. For more information on unique product identifier attributes, please see this article in the Google Base Help Center.Introducing Google Product Search for mobile
Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 10:06 AM
Today, we launched Google Product Search for mobile for iPhone and Android-powered devices. When mobile users search for products on the go they can get quick access to product information -- like online product ratings, reviews, prices, and more -- formatted neatly for their phones.
If you've already submitted items to Google Product Search, you don't have to do anything extra to get your product information to show up on Google Product Search for mobile. If your items are not yet listed in Product Search, it's easy: just submit your product information using this guide and keep submitting frequently to keep your listings up to date.
This is also a good opportunity for you to create mobile versions of your landing pages. Although the iPhone and Android browsers can render many web pages as they are, you may want to consider optimizing your landing pages for mobile browsers to improve the user experience.
Here's a video of my colleague demonstrating Google Product Search for mobile at our company store.
Posted by Eiji Hirai, Software Engineer, Google mobile team
