Google Base Replaces Froogle Merchant Center

[humbads]

Looks like Google Base replaced Froogle Merchant center this morning. Uploads to hedwig no longer work, instead one has to upload the file to uploads.google.com. From the FAQ, it seems that they will accept the old Froogle product feeds without change. However, to conform to the Google bulk upload specs, the fields names in the header line have to be changed. As of right now, trying to log into the Google Base website is giving a 403 Forbidden error. However, uploads.google.com does seem to be accepting uploads by FTP.

It also looks like Google Base will have an interface where you can add/edit your products directly online. A lot of Froogle feeder tools may become useless.

[Chico_Loco]

I've been getting these 403 Forbidden errors, and other kinds of errors from the Google site for over 18 hours now. This is completely unlike Google... What happened to testing before going live - and after it's live?

[vincevincevince]

403 here too :(

[netmeg]

Nice of them to send us a notice!

[ecommerceprofit]

Mine seemed to work fine to old address

[SilverLining]

It's working now. Had a Forbidden 403 before, when trying to add an item. Google Base [base.google.com]

[vincevincevince]

The single item interface is up by the multiple item interface (i.e. for feeds) is still showing 403 errors.

[arnarn]

Does anybody have any new information?

getting tired of the 403's (I'll bet they have a problem with their conversion and/or processing feeds)

To keep things from getting worse, it looks like they're preventing any froogle logins.

Has ANYBODY been able to access their Froogle account?

[arnarn]

Has anyone tried to look up products on the new GB?

When I looked for the types / brands of products we sell, only one (monster mall site) showed up for all products within the brand. Not only that, they were dated May 31.. meaning that, as usual, the big corporate interests are being served (after all, they can get THIER products in and they can access THEIR site)

Hmmm? and who said G played fair. Its all about $$$ and nothing else!

[panic]

Hmmm? and who said G played fair. Its all about $$$ and nothing else!

Considering that Froogle & Google Base are currently free, I don't see how.

But yes - I can no longer log in to my FTP on hedwig.

[axgrindr]

I got an email from G this morning:

Your existing account and product information has already been transferred and is now viewable in Google Base.

Please note that Google Base has replaced the Froogle Merchant Center.

[legallyBlind]

Considering that Froogle & Google Base are currently free, I don't see how.

Nothing is for free :)

Free services are about collecting demographics and statistics as well as not guaranteeing the elongated existence of such a service.

[biking4jesus]

it is now working, try logging in. i was able to upload products via a bulk file.

[mrblond]

Yup, I'm in too.

It appeard that the GBase uploaded filelike was processed pretty fast, in about 15 minutes or so. My GBase items skyrocketed from 0 to exactly 3,000. Amazingly, my Froogle listings fell from 45,000 items to 50 just as quickly.

Now I have 3,000 items on GBase, and the 50 items on Froogle. Hopefully the GBase products will appear to Froogle soon. Luckily it's almost the weekend.

[ciscoforum]

Check your feed, you can only show 3000 items as far as I can see.

[Hubie]

does this mean it is safe to say froogle is now worthless (or will be within months)?

or should sellers submit to BOTH froogle and base?

[ciscoforum]

Try and login to froogle, it redirects to base....

[Conard]

With all of the new data fields that are available it looks like a major re-build of our feeds are in order.

I hope it's worth all of the effort.

[netmeg]

I got an email notification this morning (finally) from Google, feed is now replaced by base.

[BananaFish]

Does anyone know if the original froogle file format works on gbase?

[eWhisper]

Google is centralizing their feed structure. This is a good overall change (if the uploads work properly...) as it will allow more centralized and consistent feed exports to be built for base.

Froogle is not going away though. If the base feed contains products, they will appear on Froogle.

If the feed contains local businesses, they will appear on Google local/maps.

If the feed contains other items, then they will be used in a variety of ways on Google base, Google search results, and other properties/features that Google builds.

The functionality of feeds doesn't change, just the consolidation of sending info to Google.

However, there has been issues in the past of submitting feeds to base and not really knowing timelines for that information being sent from Base to their other properties, and current status issues.

It would be very useful if Google added more info on the feed status and information acceptance.

[biking4jesus]

With the limit of products (3000 active of my 12k I uploaded) this transition period is very painful. I am having difficulties getting my prices to display as attributes. When I search for products we sell I see the prices of products for competitors, but not for my products, what gives? Also about half of the products that I uploaded are disapproved because they do not meet guidelines. I think that Google could not access all my urls becauase it hit our site so hard.

[wmuser]

Confirmed here too

[vorapolpanya]

confirm here again.

i was doing good with froogle but with only 3000 active items, there is no good any more.

[mrblond]

I'd been uploading feeds to both BASE and FROOGLE before this happened. Now I've got both feeds into Base, and they're both reflected on Froogle - for a total of 90k+ products. Base only shows 3,000 products.

Obviously I've got duplicate listings, but I don't wanna kill one and then hurt the other one.