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Just to float a guessing, since Web search is essentially looking for information and froogle for products, it would be handy for G to promote froogle, (when it appears in the G's homepage).
Web search might be to search for reviews/trouble-shooting/information of products and Froogle might be to actually a tool for product hunting and serious buyers.
Along these lines, consider a kw "buy widget". The regular serps shows pages that have the keyword "buy widget". Unless you click on that page, the price/specs/availability etc wont be revealed. As you might have noticed, when you do a search for buying products, you look around several results, to gather more information. On the other hand, a froogle search might be able to provide those information readily (since you can sort by prices/image display etc).
maybe, i am just thinking aloud here
Emphasis on *might be able..* When I look at Froogles results for the particular widgets I sell, I see page after page after page from the same company. I think, before that information is really any good, they are going to have to find a way to stop the obvious spam in that index. There's nothing to prevent me from listing every item in my catalog for a penny, ensuring I get to the top of a list sorted by price. And I can sell those items for a penny too, but the shipping charges will be outrageous.
Froogle certainly could become the "Amazon" of internet shopping, if they can find a way to provide a broader range of selections to the user.
There's nothing to prevent me from listing every item in my catalog for a penny, ensuring I get to the top of a list sorted by price.
The people at Froogle supposedly check for that. And it would be easy to make Froogle automatically check for it.
And I can sell those items for a penny too, but the shipping charges will be outrageous.
But you wouldn't have a whole lot of repeat business.
When I look at Froogles results for the particular widgets I sell, I see page after page after page from the same company.
That's a good point, and something for them to think about. Some searches return one result per store, and some return more than one. But I'm sure they're trying to balance it out in a way that works best for everyone.
I think, before that information is really any good, they are going to have to find a way to stop the obvious spam in that index.
But just because the same company shows up over and over in a single serp doesn't necessarily mean it's spam. If I sell 20 *different* pink and purple widgets, and everyone else is selling pink-only widgets, why shouldn't I show up a lot?
all I can say is Froogle got to be the lousiest product search I've seen on the web.
Care to qualify that, Heini? Lousy compared to what, and in what way? I think it looks like more than a working beta, and competes well with Yahoo P.S.
When I look at Froogles results for the particular widgets I sell, I see page after page after page from the same company.
I think they will work this out, or maybe already have. How many different stores on Froogle are selling your type of widget?
Yahoo does this by showing all results if there aren't many stores selling the product, but if lots of places do they only list one and have a tab saying how many other matching results they have and letting you see all of that vendor's matching results with a click on the hyperlink.
In my KW areas, Froogle appears to be doing the same thing.
Search with 31 matches total: all shown.
Search with 107 different stores selling it (only about 10 stores): one item per store, below listing is hyperlink saying "More from www.storename.com."
MQ
But just because the same company shows up over and over in a single serp doesn't necessarily mean it's spam. If I sell 20 *different* pink and purple widgets, and everyone else is selling pink-only widgets, why shouldn't I show up a lot?
Thats a valid point. Spam came to my mind because that's what it looked like. It may well be that the company I was looking at is the only one providing a regular data feed. I know I'm listed in Froogle (without ever having provided a data feed) - listed being a relative term here. You need to know what (and who) you're looking for to find me.
But as I looked at those results, I was struck by this thought: I've got the same products; will my potential customers have to sift thru 5 pages of nearly identidal listings before they spot me? I saw no diversity in those listings.
