CPC_Andrew - 4:07 pm on Sep 2, 2011 (gmt 0)

Un-googlesque? Hehe, not really. Their shopping channel is completely free for merchants so it makes sense why they choose not to invest a lot of resources into it.

But they do listen to the body of merchants that use the program, and if there is enough of an uproar, they do something. Hence why they pushed back the shipping requirements so more merchants had time to abide by them, but then they about faced and still aren't enforcing the requirement.

I'd say mystery and confusion has been quite the norm for Google Shopping for quite some time, but if you're big enough and pay enough money into adwords, they'll take care of you. A sad but true fact!

The good news is that Google Shopping is not rocket science and unless you dig a pretty deep hole for yourself and get an account banned, you're going to be able to reap some of that free traffic for your own benefit.