Froogle Links At Top Of Google Web SERPs

[dannysullivan]

Well, to add to the Google madness, I've just spotted Froogle product links being inserted into the top of search results. Look at:

[google.com...]

You should see a Product Search line where directory or news tags often appear, then product listings coming below that.

[scottperry]

I am not seeing it any longer...

[Widestrides]

Yes, Froogle listings have disappeared on the terms I was watching.

But we still have the same Florida SERPS.

I would think that Froogle would take money away from AdWords. I know that AdWords also run on Froogle, but I would think that Froogle would get more hits than AdWords, or the regular SERPS for that matter, because Froogle has a picture, price and description of the product.

So, how does Google make money with Froogle? By eventually charging for the datafeed? That would limit the number of vendors.

Maybe they saw such a sudden and significant drop in AdWords on just this trial run that they pulled it.

[tygerwoodz]

they definitely pulled it - at least for today

[dvduval]

For now I can say that the results for my big keywords are not so good in the Froogle listings at the top. I'm not really worried right now, but ai guess it looks like I need to figure out how to optimize for Froogle. Is there a guide anywhere?

What makes something #1?
What are common mistakes?

[AsleepATheWheel]

marek, I feel exactly the same
>It is there, indeed, and that's quite discriminating for non US merchants, because they can't post their feeds to Froogle :-(

We sell a lot of stuff to the US, this is definatly somthing that seems to discriminate against non US merchants. When is this going to be addressed? Fair enough if they only want to roll it out for people searching in the US to start with, but at least let other countries submit feeds.

[Chndru]

>they definitely pulled it - at least for today

Nope. I am in east coast and i get them.

e.g. [google.com...]

[smokey sterling]

Maybe this explains why there is so much confusion coming from my reps regarding whether or not the top of page ad space is going away totally or is going to be used for top ranking ad words ads or ... is this the third possibility? FroogleWords? I really hate the search results post-Florida, but as i was grumbling to myself about it at the computer a couple of nights ago, my husband chimed in and said he thought there should be two major search engines, one for finding "information" and one for shopping. I realized I may be too close to the situation to have an objective opinion because my first reaction was to say that commerce sites HAVE information. Who wants to look up "running shoes" and get "harvey's awesome running shoe photo gallery"? And who wants to switch between search engines depending on what they want? Is it worth it? Thoughts on this anyone?

[amznVibe]

www-ex is giving froogle listings at the top, www-va is not

[George]

smokey sterling
Many try it, www.edirectory.co.uk for example. The offering is always limited. www.kelkoo.co etc as well in another format.

Both work for some products, not for others.

[ferfer]

Froogle listing at google TOP is RANDOM, hit reload and you will see on/off...

BTW.. I am seeing click-through ratios lowered for 2 days now for some of my best keywords at TOP positions.
Not a wild decrease but may be a 20% decrease in the worst cases.

[nakulgoyal]

Yes. Froogle feeds are there somewhere and not everywhere. Anyways it may be nice for some people. Bit I presume it might be passing a lot of benefit as well as ...... I still see it at some more places, nice and crazy.

[HughMungus]

Maybe they saw such a sudden and significant drop in AdWords on just this trial run that they pulled it.

Or maybe Adwords isn't making as much money as they say it is...not enough for an IPO, anyway...

I feel sorry for Adwords advertisers. I don't see the logic in it unless Google is somehow going to make more income from the Froogle listings than they would have from the people who opt out of Adwords because of the Froogle listings.

On second thought, maybe this is a ploy to get MORE people to use Adwords. People read left to right first, then down...hmm...

[kazonik]

FYI:
Im seeing the froogle results on google.com and Im located in Japan.
Of course no froogles for the same KW's on google.co.jp

Kazonik

[Die_Hard]

Well, I didnt read the entire length of this thread, but I do have this to say:

Froogle, from my understanding has applied to become an affiliate with advertisers through LS, and CJ; yes, this is can be verified.

I warned people a year ago. The writing has been on the wall for sometime. We're all about to get screwed by the biggest search engine company in the world.

[bizsubmit]

We have now seen Froogle listings for snipped in www2, and www3. They are off and on in Google.com. This also happens to be a term where we lost organic listings two weeks ago in the Florida update. We are regaining these organic listings, but they are still at a point where few would see them (top 80). That said, I have no problem with Froogle listings being posted at the top of Google. However, if these listings are going to be posted, Google could notify the public about this opportunity. Unfortunately, they do not charge at all for Froogle, which means it takes a lot of time to get your first data feed indexed (we're waiting 2 weeks for one to get posted), and you can't complain because those listings are not paid for, right? Perhaps a way for Google to clean up their index is by having commercial sites indexed with data feeds, which could control what's legitimate information and what's not. Not a bad idea. However, it could be managed better by Google. And I say if you want to increase revenue before the possible IPO next year, this is a legitimate way to do it. But educate search engine marketers on their options, and the cost/benefits of all possible solutions. Isn't this a better way to operate?

[edited by: DaveAtIFG at 7:31 pm (utc) on Dec. 10, 2003]
[edit reason] No specifics please [/edit]

[incrediblehelp]

Do anyone seriously think they will add Froogle to Google UK unless they offered inclusiuon to UK sites. I think not.

[emoai]

Anyone got any theories to how the three Google listed products are chosen from the Froogle listings?

[Rugles]

>>>Anyone got any theories to how the three Google listed products are chosen from the Froogle listings?

I will be a cynic and say that the listings go to the three biggest adwords spenders.

[kelleybelly]

When I do a search for "widget" froogle listings come up in google sometimes. How do you get listed on the top in froogle since you cannot pay them. Another thing is it is not consistent sometimes when searching for the exact keyword immediately after doing a search , no froogle listings appear. What's the deal. It is just a test? It is very frustrating.

[stargeek]

I'm seeing froogle results on a serp i watch "widgets" but not "widget concentrate" or "purchase widgets"

[vitaplease]

I think they really have to check their geo-targetting.

Getting all these suggested dollar products from the Netherlands..with normal www.google

[percentages]

>I think they really have to check their geo-targetting.

And not just in Froogle. Google don't seem to have a clue how to perform geo-targeting in any of their results.

[SEO practioner]

On a different note here, are any of you guys removing your links pages? I've read in some forums that many people have removed them, since Google will probably abandon that anyway, if it's not done already.

When you think about it, the whole thing didn't make that much sense anyway.

Google will rank a site higher if 'in-text' and in context text is present, instead of the old "I will link to you if you link to me" game.

Your toughts anybody?

[incrediblehelp]

What do you mean by 'in-text'?

[pmac]

>On a different note here, are any of you guys removing your links pages?<

Maybe start another thread.

[nakulgoyal]

Yes......I spent some time studying Froogle! I could not find anything ueseful to optimize listings using datafeeds. Can anybody help?

[philipp]

This place is #1 again for the SERPs competition...