A reader just informed me that Froogle no longer shows up on Google’s homepage. Not sure if this is a test. Not sure if Google Base will replace Froogle. Just sent an email to Google to find out.
Maybe Google agrees with the comments I made last week:
Froogle is no longer SKUing up/normalizing its listings. This change makes absolutely no sense to me. Part of the beauty of most shopping comparison engines is the ability to see a standard picture and description for an item and quickly scan the merchants who sell that particular item. That’s no longer possible with Froogle. A consumer now has to scroll through pages and pages of non-normalized listings which makes it hard to understand if one product is like the next. In the search for ‘ipod nano white’, for example, every listing on the first page has a different product title and description. How does a consumer know he’s comparing apples to apples.
I’ve heard numerous stories of results (traffic, sales) through Froogle tanking since the non-normalized format was implemented a couple months ago.
Merchants? Channel Advisor? Channel Intelligence? Performics? Anyone want to share what you’re seeing? It’s funny that a ton of time was spent in the shopping search tactics session yesterday discussing how merchants should submit to Froogle because it’s free. Well, if the site doesn’t get any traffic (yes, Onebox listings are still up, but without a link from the Google homepage traffic should drop significantly), does it really matter if it’s free?
A little clarification. While no longer on the homepage, clicking the ‘more’ button on Google.com will provide a link to Froogle.
Related Posts:
From Google Blogoscoped – Google Video Added to Google Homepage – August 10, 2006
Froogle Changes – July 31, 2006
Google Checkout Update – August 6, 2006
Google Base, Froogle, and Google OneBox – July 26, 2006
Time to Submit your Froogle Data Feed – April 3, 2006
Froogle & Google Base – The Happy Couple – December 30, 2005
Cleaning up Froogle – One Post at a Time – December 8, 2005
Froogle is up on the homepage again – seems to have been a glitch (or a test!)
I think we should learn more about the ‘tanking traffic and sales’.
First of all, Google is running some new DHTML layers on their site, effectively putting Froogle (Below the Fold) on a very short home page.
I heard whispers at SES in San Jose that the Froogle (via GoogleBase) listings are to be folded into the organic results, this movement “below the fold” could be the first step.
-Rob
Well I guess I was wrong…very disappointed in Google and am not looking forward to the drop in traffic and sales through Froogle. Would have been nice to hear about this from Google…
Any confirmation or added insight on the effectiveness of Froogle listings being in organic results would be wonderful, heard the same whispers but haven’t seen it deliver
I personally think google prefers getting paid by comparison engines than giving merchants free priority.
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