Google "Trusted Store" rating service for ecomm sites

new service launched by Google

[OMZen]

Google has launched "Trusted Store" rating service for ecommerce sites TODAY.

[googlecommerce.blogspot.com...]

[MrFewkes]

Driller - I am afraid there are millions of utterly thick people out there who would hand over the data..... millions of google sycophants.

It has taken me 10 years to realise just how stupid many site owners really are. I gave them far more credit than they deserved. Maybe I too am thick - with it taking me 10 years to realise, but not thick enough to hand over tx data.

The mind boggles.

[slimcat]

I think it is useful to know how people are saying about you to rank :)

[jwolthuis]

I think it is useful to know how people are saying about you to rank

Agree. Many ways to do that, and many don't involve adding G-code to your home page. The G-code displays a div that can drive traffic to G (that's their whole reason for doing this, right?), and potentially away from your site.

The better question is, "do you let G tell potential customers what others are saying about you? Or do you do it yourself?"

Avoid the whole G-mess, and post your own great metrics; ship-days, inventory turns, low shipping rates, etc. Make a sweet-looking badge, add an informative div to let shoppers know how great you really are. Why involve G?

[CPC_Andrew]

Google can't even enforce it's on product feed requirements for what shows up on Google Product Search. Why should merchants enroll in a Trusted Merchant Program if they can't even police what's accurate or not on their own site?

All of this Google enforcement seems arbitrary and only connected to what Google wants, when they want it and how they want to get it.

[dickbaker]

This has an odor about it.

The example of Google Products was mentioned before. I remember--and this was just a couple of years ago--when the information you submitted to Google Products was displayed to the customers: product name, price, thumbnail photo, brief description, link to your site, etc.

Now it's just your site name and a link, and you're lumped in with 200 other stores. However, Google is demanding that merchants supply increasing amounts of data in order to be included in the Google Merchants program. Shipping weight, manufacturer product ID, Google Product Category, etc.

Why? Why would Google need all of this additional information just to direct visitors to various ecommerce sites?

I've been suspecting since Panda that Google wants to cease being the middleman and become the merchant (without having to actually handle the product). I think the Trusted Store rating is just one more step in that direction.

[skibum]

Agencies will take this to their clients and say look at this great new program Google is offering, we can try it out free and get to display a seal from Google on the site. It'll be hours the agency will bill for as well as all the meetings and such until the site is all setup with this. Once it is up it will probably never come down. If agencies don't take it to their clients then Google will probably go direct to push it. Hopefully companies are starting to get concerned about all the data they are giving Google but I wouldn't bet on it, especially when it is presented as a 'FREE' service.

[lorax]

They may get concerned skibum but I'd be willing to bet that 80% of them haven't even thought about it. Most of the people I see signing up for this small to mid-size businesses. And finances are so tight that a free service with the name and reputation of Google will be hard temptation to resist.