Froogle

sonnie · #1 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 08:34 PM

OK, where do we go to talk about Froogle?

Keimos · #2 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 09:09 PM

To go to Froogle visit http://froogle.google.com/

sonnie · #3 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 09:24 PM

OK, so nobody wants to talk about it. Notice the changes Google has made? Yes friends, contact Froogle support and the response is from Google support, or at least they want us to believe this. Started to address some of the issues, ie; pages spidered by googlebot returning some incorrect pricing information, etc.

minstrel · #4 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 10:41 PM

I'm not sure I understand your question and/or point(s).

If you want to discuss something related to Froogle, or Google, this probably would be a good place to start.

You do understand that Froogle is a "subdirectory" of Google, right?

sonnie · #5 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 11:32 PM

Well gosh yes, I believe I do. Listen, everyone is wondering if this is just google bullshi.. I believe you have to get on the ground floor. You snooze you lose. You might be no closer to Wyoming. But, you never know. Why not take the chance and be included.

janeth · #6 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 11:41 PM

To start with Froogle at this time is only for business out of the US and it is the google "shopping search engine".

So not all web sites would fall into this

minstrel · #7 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonnie

Well gosh yes, I believe I do.

Then why are you surprised that a question about Froogle is answered by Google support?

Quote:

Listen, everyone is wondering if this is just google bull

What is? What is "this"?

Quote:

I believe you have to get on the ground floor. You snooze you lose. You might be no closer to Wyoming. But, you never know. Why not take the chance and be included.

Included in what?

I'm sorry but I have no idea what point you are trying to make or what question you are trying to ask. If you can find a way to clarify, maybe you'll get the answers you seek...

bmchild · #8 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 05:12 PM

Janeth, don't you mean _in_ the US. And as far as getting the prices right, etc... that falls into the hands of the site owner. You can update your product lists as often as you want by doing it manually. Can't rightly remember how to do that, but if I can do it anyone can.

janeth · #9 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 05:30 PM

Hi bmchild,
Yes you are right some times my fingers can not keep up with my thoughts so they just make things up.

sonnie · #10 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 06:52 PM

The Google home page now has a direct link to Froogle. Is this what many have been waiting for? I have been data-feeding Froogle for quite some time. This is almost to the day one year after Froogle was introduced I believe. I'm going to be watching my sites carefully to see what happens. May I have any of your opinions?

Thank You
sonnie

bmchild · #11 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 09:59 PM

I don't really see froogle being very big. One application that might be nice is using it as an internal product search for a web site but I can't really see it being the first place people go when they need something. Perhaps further down the road it may be...hard to tell with these things.

No worries Janeth, happens to the best of us. ;)

janeth · #12 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 10:51 PM

I agree bmchild,
I do not think it will ever amount to anything.

I also figure Google is going to have a hard time being #1 after this year.

kjohnson5576 · #13 (**permalink**) 12-15-2003, 03:31 PM

I put myself on Froogle for about 3 months earlier this year. It took a lot of time to make up a file that included all my products, prices, URL's to products, URL's to graphics and so on. Plus, when you change or add items, it takes time to do it all over again.

So in three months (and I was listed on the first page in most catagories) I got...Ready...3 hits. I decided my time would be better spent updating my site, finding real advertising areas, etc. Now it looks like we all may be forced to use Froogle to keep our ecommerce sites up in the rankings.

greeneagle · #14 (**permalink**) 12-19-2003, 03:39 PM

I don't think I have ever seen 2 consecutive posts on a WPW thread I could disagree with any more!:

bmchild wrote:
I don't really see froogle being very big. One application that might be nice is using it as an internal product search for a web site but I can't really see it being the first place people go when they need something. Perhaps further down the road it may be...hard to tell with these things.

No worries Janeth, happens to the best of us. ;)

Janeth wrote:I agree bmchild,
I do not think it will ever amount to anything.

I also figure Google is going to have a hard time being #1 after this year.

____________________

Let's hear from FROOGLE users - How about your experience:

Do you use FROOGLE to shop?

Do you own an on-line store, mall or other business that is strictly B2C commercial?

If so, have you listed with FROOGLE?
If so, has it helped your sales?
Is anyone using FROOGLE?

Let's hear your voice! - Let us know!

Ken

ultimatewatermassage · #15 (**permalink**) 12-27-2003, 03:53 PM

Hi,
I uploaded my product list about 40 items when froogle was first offered, kept the listing current for about 3 months, got a couple of hits a week. Main general google hits well over 100 per day. Due to the lack of impact for time invested let froogle updates sit on the back shelf. Just updated froogle feed with new product and description about 120 products getting a hit or two a day, still not really worth the effort in my category.

achronister · #16 (**permalink**) 12-29-2003, 07:56 PM

I currently am providing a data feed to Froogle. In the beginning it was very time consuming, but we now have an automated script that runs daily to make sure prices are correct (market driven industry, prices change frequently).

At the SES conference in Chicago the other day, I heard rumors that Google would be showing some Froogle results at the top, similar to where they show news results on a main Google search.

In my opinion, it's something to consider on that. As far as Froogle usability, I like it and use it. The only problem I ever see with it is too many duplicate items at the same price from different stores, but of course it's still in beta so we'll see where it goes.

I for one am going to stay in there, doesn't hurt.

Aaron

ronniethedodger · #17 (**permalink**) 12-29-2003, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by achronister

I currently am providing a data feed to Froogle. In the beginning it was very time consuming, but we now have an automated script that runs daily to make sure prices are correct (market driven industry, prices change frequently).

Aaron - What kind of traffic does this get you? I mean, does it appear that a lot of people are using Froogle...or not?

kjohnson5576 · #18 (**permalink**) 12-29-2003, 11:51 PM

Yeah aaron, I'm interested in traffic also. Plus, your script? does it take a text file and run it to Froogle? How does it work?

achronister · #19 (**permalink**) 12-30-2003, 10:45 AM

As far as traffic amount, at this time not much. I'd estimate around 2% of total traffic (we average around 5000 unique hits per day) comes from this but that is a fairly good number, and conversion rates are higher than on the other engines.

The script is a little more complicated. Our DB engineer designed it so it queries our servers and checks on if we have inventory, the lowest priced ticket, and updates the froogle file. Then it's a simple batch file to ftp the file to froogle.

The technical side of it eludes me since I don't really have time to disect it, but it took him about 2 weeks to write (6 load balanced servers and around 25 ODBC data sources linked).

Aaron

ronniethedodger · #20 (**permalink**) 12-30-2003, 12:09 PM

Thanx Aaron.

I was curious about that part of it. I don't provide a feed for Froogle, but I see some hits from them time to time. They are usually for the same product and Froogle has the wrong price listed for the product.

Your 2% sounds pretty good to me...better than my Netscape traffic...hehehe. The time for the work you put into the script will come back to you in the long run...and if Froogle does not catch on, I am sure the script will still be useful for some other purpose.

achronister · #21 (**permalink**) 12-30-2003, 12:12 PM

No Problem. Traffic has dropped off quite a bit though. Google previously had that "Shopping? Try Froogle" Link on their home page. They have since removed it so searches on Froogle probably dropped.

For a long term strategy though I'm sticking with it.

sonnie · #22 (**permalink**) 12-05-2004, 01:01 AM

Oh boy, this is an old one. Guess those of us who bought into Google when they went public (which has doubled) are going to do OK. I know I have.

Mr Mustard · #23 (**permalink**) 12-13-2004, 07:43 AM

Hi Guys,

New to posting on the forums, great site by the way.

Froogle has now launched Beta in the UK too (for the past couple of months) I have added a customers site to the system http://www.buythis.co.uk They are a relatively new site which is not yet properly in google (listed but no PR) and gets most of its traffic from PPC schemes through the likes ok Kelkoo (UK version) etc.

Its a bit of a pain to set up in the first place but as long as your products are database driven its not hard to write a script (php's great for this) that writes either an XML file or a tab delimted one that froogle will recognise. You can then build into the script ftp functions that will upload to your f