(lots!) more details on Google Base...

Lots of new information tonight on many blogs, I thought I would highlight some of it here with an eBay-ers perspective in mind.  Most of the blog folks look at it from a technical or search perspective which is interesting, but many eBayers are wondering "what does Google Base mean for me".  Let's dig in.

<Note you may need to zoom in on some of these images using the little zoom box in the bottom right if you are using IE>

First, some new information - the default drop-down category options for a new item are (anything in parens I have added as commentary).

1. Course Schedules

2. Events and Activities

3. Housing

4. Jobs (goodbye monster/hotjobs)

5. News and Articles

6. People Profiles (dating?)

7. Products (kind of broad)

8. Reference Articles

9. Reviews

10. Services

11. Travel  (hmm, not sure how this will work, expedia shouldn't be worried - yet)

12. Vehicles (eBay Motors)

13. Wanted Ads

Next, there are many new screen shots that reveal much more about the offering.  These shots come from internal screen shots that are on the "about Google Base" page you will see lower what I mean.

Login screen-> http://blog.outer-court.com/files/google-base/7.gif

This is much like the screen that circulated earlier, but notice the inclusion of some popular items.  Notice the vehicle and genome (they seem to be kind of obsessed on the scientific possibilities, but they feel stretched).

Google Base Search results-> http://blog.outer-court.com/files/google-base/6.gif

• Pretty standard results page with thumbnails

• Note the refine your search (by attribs/labels I'm guessing)

• Also note under the title, the attribute/labels - kind of a neat solution using free-form tagging to the search problems that eBay has

• Report item - so it looks like the community will somehow self-police.

Item preview-> http://blog.outer-court.com/files/google-base/5.gif

• Notice the payment area is mysteriously blank here.

• Check out the cool google map inclusion.

Edit item-> http://blog.outer-court.com/files/google-base/8.gif

• Note the payment piece is interesting.  Paypal?  Credit Card?  Just an edit field?

• Items expire in 0-31 days - much like an eBay store.

• The picture service looks basic, but functional - 10 images is good for most items, but probably not enough for cars.

Item management screen-> http://blog.outer-court.com/files/google-base/9.gif

• Nice clean interface.  Note the parens around the user's login information - could this be a feedback system?

• Here we see some items that do not expire, but the item page seems to imply nothing larger than 31 days.

Bulk upload screen-> http://blog.outer-court.com/files/google-base/10.png

• Not much exciting here

Program policies-> http://blog.outer-court.com/files/google-base/1.png

• This one is very interesting.  There are "program" (don't list organs) and editorial guidelines (be honest and no !!! marks) that you must abide by.

• posts for products must ship throughout the USA- so much for local!?

• fPrices and language in English/$US

• What's not allowed - a significant list of items not allowed follows, that is very ebay-like!

• No affiliates - sorry CJ/LS

• Then the rest of the items are all items you will find in eBay's ToS.  Thanks eBay!

Terms of Service-> http://blog.outer-court.com/files/google-base/2.png

• Lots of legalese

About Google Base-> http://blog.outer-court.com/files/google-base/3.png

• ok this page is pretty sparse – the screen shots are pulled out above.

• The "how it's different" blurb - different than what? Hmmm.  I do like the attributes

• This says the interface is in English, UK, DE

Editorial guidelines-> http://blog.outer-court.com/files/google-base/11.png

• This is going to be hard for eBay-ers to live by - no exclams or excess capitalization.  How will we live without NIB, NWT, ******L00k***** and things like that?

Comments

[ebauu]

Yeah i agree

[Tim]

I was browsing this website http://www.edirection.com..
It seems Google Base is a copy of www.edirection.com!
Since google is a goliath (in this case) and edirection is David (in this case)... can this be a battle of David VS Goliath? And we all know who won. :-)

So, hey eBay just partner with edirection and let it do the task instead of dirtying your hands!

[Jon]

The name Google Base sucks IMHO.

[Mike]

go check it out www.naket.org =)

[Dave]

It all makes sense but this secret launch, partial launch...opps we did not mean to launch to get all bloggers talking is genius.

[Bob Oliver Bigellow XLII]

It may also be worth noting that Google Base and Google Purchases aren't the ONLY new features coming soon. There is also a Google Videoblog service, among other search engine enhancements, as mentioned here: http://bigellow.blogspot.com

[ebay startpage]

Ithink that if ebay did not exist wierd homebodys like us would have no place to purchase all the things we need to live life in our own little self created matrix.

[Scott Magoon]

Google Base is a pretty logical extension of Google's twin strategies. Their stated goal is to make all the world's information accessible (not just searchable). But they are also a fine-tuned money-making machine by serving relevant ads with search results. The most relevant ads are often for local products and services. So I see Google Base as a continuation of Google's strategy of getting more local. Notice the Contact and Location data fields. Google is approaching the ecommerce market from the perspective of peer-to-peer, face-to-face commerce. An extension of the local community bulletin board. They are not going to build a marketplace like eBay has, but they can carve out a chunk with search and payment services. And beyond commerce this is another way to get more information online.