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Nov-06-2009Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin(topic overview)
CONTENTS:
- In the same way that Google is taking on traditional enterprise search companies with the Google Search Appliance (for searching within your company's files) and Google Site Search opnbrktfor searching your websiteclsbrkt,'' it now wants to replace the older solutions used by web retailers, said Nitin Mangtani, the company's lead product manager for enterprise search. (More...)
- The new features included in commerce search engine include spell checker, query stemming, and synonym recognition. (More...)
- Starting at just $50k per year, Google's latest tool aims to turn online shopping up a notch — to the extent that they're calling it an alternative to advertising. (More...)
- According to a less-than-authoritative study cited by Gizmodo, one in five iPhone owners. (More...)
- Hosted in the cloud, the platform is fully customizable so that clients can tweak search options, the layout of searches, and other aesthetic attributes of the online store. (More...)
- Footwear maker Birkenstock USA is the first customer officially using the product and Mangtani said a "good number" of retailers have been testing it over the past three or four months. (More...)
- Bad economy or no, online radio is poised to boom. (More...)
- Ranking Redundancy: Digg Launches Trending Stories Taking a page from Twitter, social news site Digg is testing a new feature highlighting trending stories that haven' t yet hit the home page. (More...)
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In the same way that Google is taking on traditional enterprise search companies with the Google Search Appliance (for searching within your company's files) and Google Site Search opnbrktfor searching your websiteclsbrkt,'' it now wants to replace the older solutions used by web retailers, said Nitin Mangtani, the company's lead product manager for enterprise search. Retailers just feed Google their catalogs, and the company handles the search experience. In addition to Google's general search expertise, Commerce Search includes a number of features that make it particularly well-suited to online retail, Mangtani said, such as spell checking and synonym suggestions. It also allows merchants to customize the experience to their needs, not just with a nice-looking search interface, but also for example by making sure a particular product always shows up at the top of the results. Commerce Search integrates with other Google products, so you can check its effectiveness using Google Analytics and upload your catalog to both Commerce Search and Google Product Search (which highlights products in Google's standard web search) at the same time. [1] Google Commerce Search recognizes that there are five to 10 variations of a query to help surface the correct product. Mangtani demonstrated a number of these features on the Google Store, which is powered by Commerce Search. Google is welcoming all online stores, but a natural target are the e-commerce stores that already feed their catalog data to Google for the company's Google Product Search service. Best Buy, Sears and Toys R Us are listed on this site, and Google believes Commerce Search will appeal to them. "They don't need to give us another feed or integrate another technology," Mangtani said. "We can integrate their feed and power search on their Websites with all of these additional features and full control of the parametric searches." Google Commerce Search is also integrated with Google Analytics, so retailers can measure changing conversion rates through Commerce Search integration with Google Analytics on their Website.[2]
Search engine users hammer Google, Yahoo and Bing with searches of popular e-commerce sites to search for deals. Girding itself for the holiday e-commerce rush, Google Nov. 5 launched Google Commerce Search to let online retailers power their online stores with Google's search technology. Google will host this enterprise search product on its own servers in the cloud to assuage customers' concerns about handling holiday traffic spikes. To date, many retailers implement their own search technologies to help consumers find products on their sites. Apart from e-commerce giants such as Amazon.com and eBay, which have plenty of engineering talent to build quality search services, most retailers hurt themselves by creating inadequate search technology for their sites. Users are more likely to abandon such sites without making a purchase. Google is launching the service to save the e-commerce world from this problem, aiming to boost the online retailer conversion rate, which is just 3 percent. Google believes this rate could be five to 10 times higher, Nitin Mangtani, lead product manager for Google's enterprise search team, told eWEEK, after speaking to several retailers and searching their Websites.[2]
Google Commerce Search will sell for $50,000 per year, and use cloud technology to provide a faster and more advanced search experience than many retailers are able to offer on their own sites. "Retailers convinced me that there's a need for this type of product," said Google Enterprise Search lead product manager Nitin Mangtani. He said that the product is not intended for top-tier online retailers like Amazon ( NASDAQ:AMZN ) that already have advanced home-grown search technologies.[3] While commerce search is a paid search technology - prices start at $50,000 per year for full listings - the field of search engine optimization (SEO) will be affected as well. Nitin Mangtani, Google Enterprise search project manager, told the San Francisco Chronicle that " ost sites today don't have good search," implying that online retailers could profit greatly from applying thoughtful SEO to their commercial content.[4]
Google Commerce Search will be priced starting at $50,000 per year and will be aimed at the top 1,000 online retailers in each country where Google operates, says Google Enterprise Search product manager, Nitin Mangtani.[5]
SEATTLE, WA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/05/09 -- Mercent(TM), a leading provider of on-demand marketing solutions for retailers, today announced support for Google Commerce Search(TM) (GCS) -- Google's new hosted enterprise site search product. Mercent is the first online channel management solutions provider to announce data feed support for Google Commerce Search -- a powerful search solution that enables online retailers to provide online shoppers with fast, accurate and highly relevant product search results Google is known for, directly through their own eCommerce websites.[6] Google Commerce Search is a hosted service and is integrated with Google?s Merchant Center and Product Search services. With Google Merchant Center (formally called Google Base), online retailers submit their catalog data to be crawled by Google. Once crawled, their items show up on the Google Product search site, which is Google?s shopping search engine.[5]
Google Commerce Search, which the company on Wednesday said it would begin selling at a starting price of $50,000 a year, puts a key element of a retail website's shopping experience in Google's hands: the consumers' ability to find merchandise. Google wants to operate the search capabilities for retail sites on its own computers, using a data feed that the retailers provide of their product catalog.[7] Product Search (formerly Froogle) was blends shopping results with Google search. Google didn't release too many details on its pricing mode for Commerce Search, but a spokeswoman told me that the product will start at $50,000 per year. Beyond that, pricing will be based on the number of products (SKUs) in the customer's database and the number of search queries entered on their site each year. This pricing isn't cheap so obviously this appeals to bigger retailers and e-commerce shops.[8]
The product is aimed at medium-to-large retailers, Mangtani said. (The pricing starts at $50,000 per year, so that puts it out of reach of a small artist or mom-and-pop store trying to establish on online presence.) One of the areas being explored by newer retail search companies such as Like.com is visual search, where you can look for products that have a similar appearance to one you've already found. Asked if Google might incorporate such technology into commerce search, Mangtani said the company would consider it "if we see this as a common requirement from our customers."[1] The commerce search product is the latest example of Google's expansion from Internet search and advertising-based businesses into technology products aimed at corporate customers. Advertising contributed 97 percent of Google's roughly $22 billion in 2008 revenue, but the company has said its cloud-based email and productivity software now generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Google expanded the ad campaign for its software applications globally last month. Gartner analyst Van Baker said a recent study by his group found that very few large Internet retailers plan to make any changes to their basic e-commerce technology. "There's not a whole lot of evidence that they're looking to switch," Baker said, speaking about e-commerce technology in general, and not about search functionality in particular. Google's Mangtani said the commerce search product is not intended for the handful of top-tier e-commerce companies, like Amazon.com Inc, most of which use their own home-grown technology. He said there was plenty of demand from the top 1,000 retailers in key markets like the United States and Western Europe.[7] Google Inc, seeking new ways to make money from its search technology, introduced a service that lets shoppers get faster results when they hunt for items at online stores. The service, which Google will sell to companies for use on their sites, lets shoppers get search results in less than one second, said Nitin Mangtani, a lead product manager for Google. That compares with a delay of two or three seconds on some sites, he said. Google, owner of the world''s largest search engine, is trying to branch out beyond search advertising 'X its main source of revenue. The company is taking its search know-how and tailoring it to e-commerce, which entails sorting through cataloged products, Mangtani said.[9] Google is aiming to extend its search offering into the e-commerce sector with an enterprise product aimed at making it easier to browse shopping sites. The new service is seen as a logical step for Google because it combines its core business area with its bid to establish itself as an enterprise cloud software provider.'' The firm'''s '''commerce search''' product combines Google'''s existing search technology with options to shop by category, price, brand or other attributes, and has features such as synonym suggestions and spellchecking. It also includes an API which allows shopping sites to carry out extensive customisation to Google'''s searches.'' Google says that the lack of an effective retail search service is '''a barrier to online retail growth''', and that the number of visitors buying items when they visit an online store could be between five and 10 times higher.[10] The search giant announced Google Commerce Search, a new hosted enterprise search product that will help customers find products at online retail stores and e-commerce sites.[11] Tonight, Google is making a huge play in retail space with the launch of Commerce Search, a hosted enterprise search product to power online retail stores and e-commerce websites. Google offers a general hosted search product that is used by organizations that want to add customized Google search functionality to their websites.[8]
Google Nov. 5 launched Google Commerce Search to let online retailers power their online stores with Google's search technology. Preparing for the holiday e-commerce rush, Google will host this enterprise search product on its own servers in the cloud to assuage customers' concerns about handling holiday traffic spikes. Smaller companies such as Endeca, Vivisimo, Coveo and Microsoft's Fast enterprise search division already duke it out in the e-commerce search vertical, but now they will have to contend with the goliath in search.[2]
The holiday season is brewing and, poor economy or not, it'll soon be about time to start some serious shopping. With online vendors in mind this winter season, Google introduced a new enterprise product Wednesday night called Google Commerce Search, a powerful search solution aimed specifically at Web commercial retailers.[12] I think every single one of us could share a frustrating online shopping experience, especially one about trying to find a product you know a retailer offers, but doesn't show up in their search results. Google wants to make it easier for all of us with their new enterprise offering, Google Commerce Search.[13] Google Commerce Search will help customers find accurate results extremely fast, to the benefit of retailers and customers alike." Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, Inc., said it's a bit of an odd move for Google. "Well, Google tries a lot of things, and has been trying to make its way in the enterprise with Google Apps, but this is aimed at a vertical -- ecommerce vendors," said Gottheil. "It does seem odd. It doesn't seem strategic to me." Google's main search rival, Microsoft's new Bing engine, has been making online shopping one of its top focuses.[14]
Google has demonstrated great success as a web search engine. They have historically struggled to develop a search application that meets the more specialized requirements of eCommerce organizations. Google's Commerce Search may be an interesting option for small websites doing less than $5 million in online sales, who don't wish to have great control over their online search experience. It will create challenges for larger eCommerce companies that differentiate based on their website experience, and see significant revenue opportunities in giving business users (marketing, merchandising, etc.) control to innovate and adjust the online experience. My company, Endeca, understands the opportunity for eCommerce companies to increase natural search traffic, conversion rates, orders sizes, and gross margins based on their online experience, with search technology as the foundation.[15] With Google Commerce Search -- a service that will cost retailers $50,000 or more for an annual subscription -- the Internet giant will set up a search function on an online retailer's website, which Google says will dramatically improve user experience and drive sales.[15]
Presentation, whether it be real-store or online, matters. Nitin Mangtani, Lead Product Manager for Google Enterprise Search, told me that the Google Commerce Search API allows retailers to fully customize the search experience on their website and add all the bells and whistles they need to make the interface match the rest of their site.[8] "There's a huge gap between customers' expectations and the actual technology that's available to retailers so far," Nitin Mangtani, lead product manager for Google's enterprise search group, told InternetNews.com. "That's why we are building and launching a product that's fully hosted in Google's cloud." Marketing research firm MarketingSherpa estimates that the people who go to shop online spend an average of eight seconds before deciding whether or not to stay on a given Web site and 43 percent of online shoppers say the first thing they do is type the product name or category into the retail site's search box to start their search. "That's the main aspect of this product," Mangtani said.[16] Google, the world's No. 1 search engine for Web pages, can perform searches of a retailer's catalog significantly faster than what is currently available on many retail sites, Google Enterprise Search Lead Product Manager Nitin Mangtani said. "Retailers convinced me that there's a need for this type of product," Mangtani said, adding that sluggish search performance on retail sites can send shoppers elsewhere and hurt a retailer's sales conversion rates. He noted that retailers can also save on infrastructure and maintenance costs since Google's product is "cloud-based" -- meaning the software is hosted inside Google's own data centers instead of on a retailer's computers.[7]
Google Commerce Search brings some of Google's best search innovations to retail sites, and promises to improve an ecommerce web site's search and usability. It allows consumers to quickly find the products they are looking for. They can filter search results by category, price, brand or other attributes. Other great features are Google's spell checker, query stemming and synonym matching. E-store owners can add the new search engine to their web site, customize the interface, and highlight special products or connect related ones.[17] To make holiday season merrier for consumers as well as for retail sites Google launched a new Commerce search. Widening its search pattern with the new search product Google Commerce, search giant aims to pocket in some more revenue in this holiday season when almost everyone spends wholeheartedly for happier shopping. It provide user-friendly spelling options and synonyms and filtering on categories basis enhances shoppers online shopping experience leading to faster shopping.[18] In a move to find new sources of revenue, Google has unleashed a new search tool that specializes in product merchandise. Google Commerce Search will use data from product catalogs provided by retailers, who tend to lose customers because of their slow search function on its own website, according to Reuters.[19]
Visitors spend an average of just eight seconds before deciding whether or not to remain on a website, so having a good search tool is important for turning visitors into buyers. Google Commerce Search is hosted by and uses Google search technology to make online retail searching both fast and customizable visitors to your online store can sort by category, price, brand or any other attribute. E-store administrators can highlight special products or connect related ones so searching is easier for their customers. Google Commerce Search includes a built-in spellchecker and synonyms so if visitors can't remember exactly how to spell the particular toy or perfume or anything else they're hunting for, Google Commerce Search will make some suggestions.[20] Google's first tailor-made enterprise product offers online retailers fast, e-commerce-specific and scalable search. Google claims the services offers "ultra-fast speed" using Google core search technology that has been optimised for retail and product search with filters such as category, brand, colour and price. Retailers can customise the search to match the rest of their site and do not need to display the Google logo.[21] LONDON - Google is attempting to make some cash from online retailers by creating a search service that is specifically aimed at helping shoppers find the goods they are after. Google Commerce Search can be added to retail sites with functions such as shopping by category, price, brand or other attributes. Other features that can be added by a site administrator include a related items search. It automatically includes a synonym feature and a spellchecker.[22] Google's Commerce Search has an eye on scooping up some of the Christmas cash by offering online retailers a search service aimed at helping shoppers. The additional service will be geared to helping direct shoppers to the retail goods they are hunting for with the help of functions such as allowing people to search by category, price, brand or other attributes or offering them a related items search.[23]
Google Commerce Search is hosted in the cloud, meaning it lives online, so e-commerce sites can get up and running quickly. Using a cloud search tool will also help site owners meet the rise in demand from the holiday rush without having to devote extra time or resources to worrying about their capacity or infrastructure. Online retailers are free to focus on their business, while Google focuses on search, and shoppers can find what they need faster.[20] Google'''s new application for e-commerce sites, dubbed Google Commerce Search, comes at the time when the holiday season is right around the corner and the online retailers are gearing up for spikes in traffic.[16]
On the official Google Blog, the engineers behind Google Commerce Search, Alex Dovlecel and Nicholas Weininger, cite research which says visitors spend an average of just eight seconds deciding whether or not to remain on a website. Dovlecel and Weininger write: "Using a cloud search tool will help site owners meet the rise in demand from the holiday rush without having to devote extra time or resources to worrying about their capacity or infrastructure. "Online retailers are free to focus on their business, while Google focuses on search, and shoppers can find what they need faster."[22] Credit: Google. Just in time for the holidays, Google Inc. took the wraps off a new business, one designed to help big online retailers make their websites easier to search.[15]
Google believes the online retailer conversion rate could be five to 10 times higher after implementing the new application. The cloud-based enterprise search application for e-tailers promises to simplify the online shopping experience for their customers.[16] As the Christmas season approaches, Google has offered online retailers new search technology to improve the customer shopping experience.[24]
Nitin Mangtani, lead product manager for Google Enterprise Search products, said that while working on the product he talked to analysts about the state of e-commerce search in the retail space, as well as retailers in the UK and U.S. market. He said that nobody in the retail space actually wanted to build a search technology and wanted to focus on the customer experience, so instead they relied on third party websites and search technologies which he said was '''very expensive'''. He claimed that it was often done '''on premise''', needing both hardware and software, and was very expensive to deploy.[24] The main selling points are that everything that has made Google a dominant company -- vast computing resources, algorithms that provide right results, and even the ability to fix your typos and find what you're looking for -- will help people navigate clunky retail websites that cause a major stumbling block to sales. "Search was the most important aspect of an e-commerce experience," said Nitin Mangtani, a lead product manager at Google.People go to a website looking to buy, say, a laptop, and they search the site for the item they want. "If the users are able to find that laptop easily, they are more likely to buy the product," Mangtani said. "If it takes them eight to 10 seconds, and they can't find it easily, they leave the website."[15] "We're providing a hosted solution that gives users ultra-fast results with all the features like spellchecker and built-in query stemming capabilities." Mangtani said that many retailers implement their own search technologies to help consumers find products on their sites, but with exception of some e-commerce giants such as Amazon and eBay, most online retailers use inadequate search engines for their sites. Such e-commerce sites''' search technologies often require shoppers to click on multiple links to narrow down their search and find the exact product or brand they're looking for. Customers generally abandon such sites without making a purchase.[16] The solution gives merchants the power to reach more than 250 million customers with targeted products, advertisements and promotions through the most popular online marketing channels. Based on a proven and industry-leading platform, Mercent Retail(TM) offers seamless integration with back-end retail e-commerce systems and turnkey data integration with analytics and paid search platforms to give retailers campaign intelligence and the power to change product promotions and offers 'on-the-fly.' Most important, the SAAS platform makes it easy and cost-effective for merchants to increase sales revenue, improve gross margins and optimize their return on advertising spend by promoting and selling the right products with the right merchandising offers on key retail channels. Mercent Retail(TM) helps the world's leading online retailers promote their products across online transactional marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.[6] Mercent is a leading provider of online channel marketing technology and services for retailers. Through its award-winning Mercent Retail(TM) SAAS technology and Mercent Performance(TM) professional services, Mercent helps the world's most successful online merchants including 1-800-Flowers, Bass Pro Shops, Brookstone, GUESS?, L'Occitane USA, Redcats Group, and REI optimize online shopping channel marketing campaigns to drive customer acquisition, revenues, profits, and inventory velocity. Mercent is the single point of integration with a vast online advertising network that includes transactional marketplaces such as Amazon.com and eBay; comparison shopping engines (CSEs) such as Shopping.com and NextTag; affiliate marketing programs such as LinkShare and the Google Affiliate Network; and other product advertising channels including Microsoft Bing Cashback and Google Product Ads.[6]
Google is looking to entrench itself deeper within the ecommerce world as a service provider. They have been successful with Google Checkout for some time, but now look to offer merchants even more to help their ecommerce store with a commerce specific search engine. The product is brand new and there are not a lot of details about the pricing as of yet, but essentially Google wants to offer your users a superior search experience so that they can find what they are looking for right away and do not abandon your ecommerce store.[25] DiDio also noted that, while increased speed and accuracy are big competitive advantages for a retailer, Google is also promoting the idea that it is a better search experience. She said that, among other things, the API for adapting the search experience to a site's overall user interface and interaction, the spell checker, and the synonym finder all help to "make things more elegant." Looking at competitive strategy, DiDio pointed out that the new product offering is "Google's move against Microsoft 's SharePoint," which the software giant offers with its Commerce Server.[11]
Google says that faster search speed will help increase conversions to buy products, as customers can quickly find specific products without having to navigate complex search interfaces. E-commerce-Specific Search: Google Commerce offers a variety of features that are optimized for retail and product search, such as parametric search, sorting of results, spell checker, stemming, and synonym suggestion, which in some way or another let users to refine and target their searches.[8] Google Commerce Search allows websites to offer product search without having to host the feature themselves.[26]
Commerce Search, as Google describes it, promises to improve an e-commerce web site's search and usability. It's hosted on Google's servers, and like any good shopping cart software offers a variety of customization options, including look and feel, product promotions, and more.[27] Mangtani adds that once all product data is incorporated, search can be deployed on any e-commerce site fairly quickly. Leveraging Other Google Products: Google promises integration with other Google products like Google Analytics and Google Product Search. Using Commerce, retailers can measure clicks, conversion rates, number of transactions, average order value and other data via Google Analytics. E-commerce vendors can provide a single feed of products and catelogue items that will power Commerce and indexing of their products on Google Product Search.[8] The new search engine for e-commerce sites comes integrated with Google's Merchant Center and Product Search services. With Google Merchant Center, retailers submit their catalog data that they need to be crawled via Google. Once similar search string is submitted, their items are displayed in the Google Product search site.[28]
Large e-commerce sites like Birkenstock USA would now be able to power their online stores with Google's search technology after the search engine giant has introduced a special search product to online retailers.[16] Online retailers have a new target surface for search engine optimization (SEO), thanks to Google: The search giant this week announced the launch of its newest search engine, one that crawls internet stores to index product and price information.[4]
For a fee, Google Commerce Search will overhaul and organize a retailer's available online merchandise so shoppers can more easily find desired products by filtering search results by category, price,. Jobs -- The Man, The Myth, The Legend Fortune Fortune takes a close look at the evolution of Steve Jobs -- perhaps the closest thing we have to a tech deity -- and "his outsize impact on everything he touches." How's this for a bold statement: "The past decade.[29] Commerce Search is a service implemented through an admin panel and Google promises it can be deployed in a matter of days. It includes an application programming interface that allows online retailers to customize the appearance of their search results in a fine-tuned way. They can organize results in lists or a grid. They can set up promotions so that certain items appear on the top of the results. They can add customized search attributes appropriate to the products they sell.[5] Introducing Google Commerce Search: Finding holiday gifts faster The holiday season is right around the corner, so online retailers are gearing up for spikes in traffic. When people go to shop online, search is big part of finding the right product, whether they're looking for a gift or just something for themselves.[20]
Google Commerce Search could provide a holiday boost to search engine optimization (SEO) professionals in particular and search marketers in general, as it applies the company's unrivaled search technology to providing relevant product results to harried online consumers.[4] David Girouard, president of Google Enterprise, told news media that the company is "excited" to bring the product to market in time for the holidays. As might be expected, Commerce Search also integrates with such Google tools as Google Analytics and Google Product Search, its consumer-facing product-search engine that is currently in beta.[11] Google Product is the company?s answer to sites like Shopping.com and Shopzilla.com. Users of Google Commerce Search engine will find their data automatically submitted to Merchant Center and appearing on Google Product Search.[5] To participate, you submit all your data to Google Merchant Center and Google Product Search (via data feeds, direct uploads or the API), and then customize the look and feel of your search engine with Google. Although Google doesn't mention this in the documentation, I can only assume you have to do something to incorporate the Commerce Search into your site (probably replacing your old search engine). (Oh, and PS, it starts at $50k/yr.)[13]
Laura DiDio, an analyst for industry research firm Information Technology Intelligence Corp., said Google is taking retail-site searches "to a new level." For instance, she said, by using Commerce Search, a retailer's product inventory gets submitted to Product Search -- a big value-add to the enterprise search product.[11] Google Bows Commerce Search Service Read Write Web Google has launched a new enterprise search product for etailers.[29]
Google has now entered the online retail space with the launch of Commerce Search, a new product described as a "search solution designed specifically with online retail enterprises in mind."[17] Google Commerce Search was engineered with the online retail experience in mind. It purports to allow visitors to quickly find the products they seek; to filter results by category, price, brand or other attributes; to increase conversions and sales; to increase sales of specific products within search results; to conduct cross-sale and promotional offers; and to scale without glitches because of holiday-related traffic spikes. All of these results are to be delivered alongside Google's analytics offerings for optimized performance and conversion.[30] Google Commerce Search, offered at a starting price of $50,000 a year, puts a key element of a retail Web site's shopping experience in Google's hands: the consumer's ability to find merchandise.[31] Starting at a price of $50,000 per year, pricing model for Google Commerce Search is based on the number of products/items (SKUs) in site'''s data feed and the number of search queries entered on your site each year.[18]
Pricing for Google Commerce Search is based on the number of products or items in your data feed and the number of search queries on a website each year. Google has done their homework: 71% of online shoppers use keyword searches to find products.[26] Google also leverages a proprietary ranking technology to analyze the products in each data feed and serve the most relevant match. The idea is to get searchers to find products faster, which will boost sales for online stores such as Birkenstock USA, which uses the software on one of its online properties. Google Commerce Search includes parametric search, sorting, spell checker, stemming and synonym suggestions, all table stakes to helping users refine their searches.[2] Commerce Search also includes some Google search technologies like spellcheck, stemming, and synonym matching, and is integrated with Google Analytics by default. When combined with Google Checkout as shown in the introductory video (also embedded below) this is nothing short of an all-inclusive e-commerce software package. Retailers upload their product data to Google, then customize the search/e-commerce options, and end up with a Google-hosted shopping cart.[27] While some would see Google Commerce Search as a way to fend off Bing's e-commerce efforts, Google is going after the retailer, while Bing is going after the actual shopper. "This may be an attempt to head off something they expect Microsoft to do," added Gottheil. Jim Murphy, an analyst with AMR Research, said this could be beneficial to e-tailers since many of them are dissatisfied with their product search capability. "My sense is that the very top retailers have solid search/e-commerce solutions, but there seems to be a lot of opportunity for mid-to-large retailers," he added.[14]
Google is offering Google Commerce Search, which retail and e-commerce sites can use to let customers find products fast.[11] Google Commerce Search aims to make the otherwise cumbersome task of searching for products on e-commerce sites easier and more fun, a post from the Official Google Blog said.[32]
What an opportune time for Google to launch another business enteprise solution geared for big e-commerce site than right now? Just in time for the onset of the holiday shopping season Google unveiled Commerce Search.[32] Computerworld - Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Google Inc. today unveiled a new search engine service designed specifically for e-commerce sites.[14] Google, who tends to always be timely with new products, has released a new search product for commerce sites just in time for the holiday shopping season.[26]
When a shopper searches using a specific term or phrase on the retailer's eCommerce site, Google delivers immediate and highly relevant product results specific to the search query -- results critical to delivering an exceptional online shopping experience that helps promote buyer conversion.[6] The Google tools will then index and categorize all the products, while the merchant uses an administrative console to customize the search engine's appearance. The result is a search engine that looks like it's on the retailer's site that features Google search enhancements like filtering results by category, brand or other attribute, understanding misspelled terms and synonyms, and other familiar features.[33] The search company today released Google Commerce Search, which includes features like spell check, synonyms, sorting and parametric search, and is aimed to serve as the search engine on Web sites of retailers and other companies of all sizes.[14] The product, dubbed Google Commerce Search, will bring some of Google?s best search innovations to sites like Birkenstock USA. These features include Google?s spell checker, query stemming and synonym recognition.[5]
The search interface allows for retailers to specifically label products as promoted. One of my bones to pick with Google Commerce was that it's interface may be to simple for retail sites like Saks, Bloomingdales or others who tend to display products in a more visually appealing way.[8]
Citing a statistic from MarketingSherpa that says Web surfers spend an average of eight seconds deciding whether or not to stay on a Web site, Google hammers the point home that having a clean interface for selling products is central to the success of any online retailer. Having a solid search engine is vital, as eTailing Group says that 71% of Web shoppers use keywords to find just what they're looking for.[12] Attention Holiday Shoppers: Google Introduces Commerce Search API Google handed online retailers and ecommerce Web sites an early holiday gift in hopes of improving conversions and reducing bounce rates.[29] Google Commerce Search launched today, with the stated goal of simplifying holiday shopping for consumers and online retailers alike.[34] With Commerce Search, Google has created what is essentially a shopping cart solution for online retailers.[27]
The search giant has introduced Google Commerce Search, a search engine intended for use by large online retailers.[33]
Los Angeles, November 5: In an attempt to give a significant boost to its sources of revenue, Google Inc. launched Thursday a new search engine service designed specifically for online retailers. Los Angeles, November 5: In an attempt to give a significant boost to its sources of revenue, Google Inc. launched Thursday a new search engine service designed specifically for online retailers[16] SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc is selling a special search product to online retailers, as the Internet giant widens its hunt for new sources of revenue.[7]
Google is playing into "conversion rates" when advertising the product for retailers, saying that while the average online retailer conversion rate is just three percent, it could be five to ten times higher with a powerful search technology.[8]
Why? Because when it comes to online shopping, search results are (apparently) more likely to lead to a sale. It's trackable with Google Analytics, meaning retailers can stay up on which products are, say, getting traffic but not sales.[35]
I agree. On the commerce note I do not think its much of a threat to existing stores as Froogle is not as big as people make out Froogle (or base whatever you want to call it) is good for indexation of XML feed, displaying more results of your products in Google search and showing stars, sitelinks and reviews so making sure your keywords and site cover all Googles databases. if this was a script that you could add to your site, automatically allowing you to filter results and such it would be better, but its Google hosted imagine sites with thousands of products. Google will index them and sort out those products making it better for customers to search. this has just BLASTED many many many opensource and "web2.0 carts out the window.[8] Google offered this example of how an online store using Google Commerce Search could look, with searchable products sortable by category, color, size or price.[15] Today we're aiming to make e-commerce searching as easy as using Google.com with a new enterprise product, Google Commerce Search.[20] The new search service launched for e-commerce site is namely, Google Commerce Search.[28] The new Google Commerce Search is designed and developed for large e-commerce sites and will bring some of the best innovative search options of Google to large commerce portals.[28]
When you go to an e-commerce site, you might not enter the search term in exactly the way it is described by the retailers search catalog. A good search engine can return relevant results using synonyms, alternative spellings and can even fix misspellings, he says. It knows that ?laptop? and ?lap top? are the same. Commerce Search can also quickly and automatically add new terms to its stemming dictionary, knowing, for example, within hours if the term ?netbooks? has become the popular replacement for the word ?laptop,? Mangtani says.[5]
Mangtani said having a good search tool is important for turning visitors into buyers, adding that Google Commerce Search can perform searches of a retailer's catalog dramatically faster than what is currently available on many retail sites.[16] The new service will start at US$50,000 annually, which includes customer support. ''We are in a much better state to understand the intent of a user query,'' he said. ''We get such a high query volume on Google.'' The company already lets companies put a Google search box on their sites. By fine-tuning the service for retailers, Google aims to win more of those businesses as customers, Mangtani said. The service will help shoppers with their searches by checking spelling and offering synonym suggestions.[9] Search engine analyst Greg Sterling said. It gives the company a toehold into software for big business, which it has been trying to do for awhile. The new service helps Google diversify its revenue base. Despite Google's many sidelines, such as YouTube and desktop applications, its main source of income remains search advertising.And it could give the company more data about consumer behavior, something Google always craves. "Google has always got multiple angles that they'''re working," Sterling said.[15] The new search product is one of the latest instances of Google's attempt to find new revenue streams. It is also a departure of sorts for the company, as it is aimed at corporate customers, and focuses away from its usual search- and advertising-based revenue strategies.[19]
Halloween's barely over, but it's already the most wonderful time of the year! Brace yourselves for the onslaught of holiday-themed money-grubbing, folks. The tech sector is subjected to the same indignities, beginning with a new enterprise search product from our friends at Google, who insist that users will stay on your pathetic website for about eight seconds unless they find exactly what they're looking for.[30] And, now, isn't that awfully handy? Just in time for the holidays, Google has come out with a solution for you that entails you adding your entire inventory to Google Product Search. They warn us that, on average, a user takes 8 seconds to decide whether to stay on a site (although several other studies have shown that people judge sites in less than a second ). That would have probably been in June so they could get past the ramp up stage.)[13]
I'm observing since last few months that google is doing pretty good job either by introducing new features in their existing products like in google analytics or by introducing new thing like E-commerce search solution.[32] Google is trying to leverage their new friend connect feature with regards to the above comments on the video. It seems like Google is making larger strides towards paid enterprise solutions like this new commerce search.[8]
On Thursday the Mountain View, Calif. company will introduce Google Commerce Search, a site search feature geared toward retail and ecommerce sites.[29] The real question that is yet to be answered is what kind of lift the Google Commerce search engine will give your ecommerce storefront, and is it enough to justify the cost. Website owners have long been able to implement a standard search engine on their sites, but this commerce focused search engine from Google is the first of its kind.[25] If your current search engine on your ecommerce site is sub par or you do not have one at all, then it might be a good idea to check out Google Commerce as it can allow customers to filter results by category, price, brand or other attributes.[25]
Google Commerce Search is a program that applies Google's search engine to whatever online store you happen to be browsing. It allows shoppers to search by category, price, brand, or any other attribute you can think of.[34] Interested enterprises will be happy to learn that Google Commerce Search is designed to carry over all the benefits of Google search to the online retail experience.[12] Google Commerce Search is just an enterprise search system which is specialized for commerce. It's purpose is to allow consumers a better on-site search experience.[27]
Google has just announced a new enterprise search service called Commerce Search. The name might remind you of Froogle, but this is not that kind of commerce/product search.[27] Probably the biggest testament to the new service is that it uses the same Google technology that people have come to rely on. Google Commerce Search even includes a built-in spellchecker so if a consumer is unsure how to spell what they are looking for they will be offered suggestions.[26]
Since Google Commerce Search is a hosted, software-as-a-service product, Google boasts the whole service can be deployed in just two days.[12] To use Google Commerce Search, a merchant would first upload product data through one of three available methods.[33]
"I don't know how merchants will react. Some may be cautious because they don'''t want to be dependent on Google because of this concern." Google has already dipped its toe in the online retail world with something called Google Product Search. That's free to companies who give Google the data about what they're selling so that Google can serve it up in a neat package on its own search page.[15] Google hasn't published details of the pricing, saying that it is based on the number of products in a given data feed and the number of search enquiries made on the site each year.[22]
The Google Commerce is designed in a way so to increase website conversions and sales, boost or promote chosen products within search results, deploy search solution in days, and scale effortlessly and most importantly it customizes, tracks, and optimizes performance. as the official Google blog describes.[18] Commerce also offers a compelling product promotions features, that lets retailers fine-tune search results to push promoted products to the top of results.[8] Commerce Search will be customisable so retailers can highlight particular bargains and the service also come with a synonym feature and spellcheking facilities. With prices of $50,000 (£30,000) for an annual subscription, many retailers could find themselves considering this as a Christmas present for their sites in the coming months.[23] Google Commerce Search that is hosted in the cloud starts at $50,000 per year with 24/7 support, but Mangtani said the pricing is dependent on the number of customer queries made.[16] And, retailers using Commerce don't need to show the Google logo on the search site. Scalability: Because Commerce Search is hosted by Google and based in the cloud, Google says it's easily scalable to absorb additional traction on the site.[8] Arriving just in time for the holidays, Google Commerce Search is designed to make retail site browsing easier and more customizable.[36] In Google's typical style, I'm sure it will improve quickly over a short period of time." Birkenstock USA has started using Commerce Search on its retail site, according to Google.[14]
Google Commerce Search is a Google search specifically engineered for e-commerce sites.[16] Google has already partnered with Birkenstock USA to power search, which looks mediocre. It was a little simple for my taste and it lacked a visible search bar but I'm really interested to see what can be done with Commerce for more embellished e-commerce sites.[8]
Google on Thursday launched a new search engine service specifically designed for large e-commerce sites.[5] Google, the search giant has announced the launch of new search services especially aimed at e-commerce sites.[28]
Google also can adjust the service''s capacity during heavier shopping times to ensure it runs smoothly. Microsoft is rolling out a revamped MSN home page that incorporates its new Bing search engine and easy access to trendy online services Twitter and Facebook.[9] The cloud-based Google Commerce Search can be scaled quickly as online shopping rises and marketing can be revised based on search trends.[11] Google said Google Commerce Search can boost conversion rates from online shopping.[11] Google is promoting Commerce Search now as a way for retailers to get ready for the holiday rush.[33] Commerce Search is cloud-based, meaning that Google hosts it. This removes the burden of hosting commerce search by e-commerce companies, which can be useful to avoid problems associated with spikes of traffic - such as the holidays.[37]
Pricing scheme for Google Commerce Search will depend on the number of products/items on businesses' data feed and search queries. Ok this is an interesting concept. It will give new life to an aging sector: ecommerce.[32] Google Commerce does not replace a company?s commerce server, just the search portion. It enters the market at a time when traditional commerce catalogs are also improving. For instance, in October Microsoft released a community technology preview of its new Microsoft Commerce Server 2009, code named R2.[5] Commerce Search uses proprietary ranking technology to analyze products and provide "the most relevant match" in what the company said would be subsecond response times to customer searches.[11] Google Commerce Search pledges Google's usual subsecond response time to customer queries at a time when the market standard is 2 to 5 seconds per search.[2] Google is already reporting one happy customer Birkenstock USA, which said Commerce Search led many more site visitors to actually make purchases.[1] Google Commerce Search basically takes that formula to the next level, putting it on a company's site -- without the Google name or Google ads.[15] Commerce Search also comes integrated with Google Analytics. Google has claimed that Google Commerce is not the replacement for company's commerce server but is a substitute for their search option.[28]
"We're excited to bring Google Commerce Search to market in time for the holidays," said Dave Girouard, president of Google Enterprise, in a statement.[14] Commerce Search will also suggest attributes and will use Google?s algorithms to refine and improve search results over time.[5]
Google has announced the availability of Commerce Search.[37]
Commerce Search also uses a proprietary ranking technology to analyze the products in each data feed and serve the most relevant match.[8] Many retail websites took a lot of time to respond to search queries and it was difficult to find a product due to the search quality not being good enough. '''There was a gap between what the consumer expectation was and the search technology, and that really motivated us to create this product,''' Mangtani said.[24] "Search is far away from where the user expectations are on the majority of retail sites," Mangtani said. "And from the retailers' perspective, they want to focus on branding and shipping and customer loyalty and inventory issues," he said. "They don't want to deal with the technology."[16]
Speed: Google promises "ultra-fast speed and accuracy" by leveraging Google's search technology to provide sub-second response time to customer searches on retail sites.[8] Google claims that visitors give a shopping site an average of eight seconds before deciding whether to move on. Without a good search tool, the company says, a retailer is likely to lose those potential customers.[33] The search service is hosted on Google'''s servers, meaning some retailers may be able to avoid the site crashes that are especially common in the run-up to Christmas.[10] The new service is a hosted service and is focused to offer online retailers with speedy and more relevant search results that could offer enhanced customer satisfaction.[28] The service is paid and the pricing starts at $50,000 per year and will be aimed at the top 1,000 online retailers in each country. The search giant is aiming Microsoft's Enterprise Suite with its Apps and is aiming to increase the number.[28]
Google claims that by using more powerful search technology, online retailers could boost the average conversion rate of visits to sales from 3% to between 15% and 30%.[21]
The new relationship will save retailers money on communications and repairs, as Google's search engine has a faster and more cohesive function.[19] Google (GOOG), is offering a new privacy control feature called "Dashboard" which collects a user's personal information including e-mail, search results and viewing habits on Google's YouTube.[31] With 10 new enterprise search features and 10 Google Apps add-ons for the enterprise suite, Google is targeting Microsoft Share Point.[28]
Google's other enterprise search offerings have steadily gaining users, so it should be interesting to see if the search giant can make inroads with big-name retailers.[8] Google comes to the e-commerce search vertical at an interesting time. Smaller companies such as Endeca, Vivisimo, Coveo and Microsoft's Fast enterprise search division duke it out in the market, but now they will have to contend with the goliath in search.[2]
Find out how Junos can help. Google Inc.' s quarterly lobbying expenses eclipsed $1 million for the first time during the summer as the company tried to build on its dominance of Internet search and expand into other markets.[38] The Mountain View, California-based company spent nearly $1.1 million trying to influence lawmakers and regulators in the third quarter, a 50 percent increase from the July-September period last year, according to a recent disclosure statement. Google's lobbying budget has been steadily rising during the past year even as it tightened its belt in other areas to bolster its earnings during the worst U.S. recession in 70 years. Through the first nine months of this year, Google's lobbying costs came to $2.9 million, a 41 percent increase from the same time last year. That contrasted with a 2 percent decline in Google's companywide expenses during the same period. Convinced the worst is over, Google's management last month said the company intended to increase its spending again on technology development, computers and acquisitions.[38] Google also lobbied Congress and the Federal Trade Commission about regulations affecting online advertising, which provided most of the company's $17 billion in revenue during the first nine months of the year. Other topics addressed in Google's third-quarter lobbying agenda included: cloud computing, a term used to describe computer applications that are delivered through Internet connections instead of installed on the hard drives of individual machines; the Internet's fight against child pornography; general consumer protection ; international trade agreements; and renewable energy.[38] News Corp: Search, Ad Rev Declines Drove Digital Earnings Down In Q1 Principally due to lower search and advertising revenue, News Corp.' s Digital Media Group saw its earnings decrease by $22 million year-over-year, the company said during its fiscal first quarter earnings call Wednesday.[29]
Birkenstock USA's COO, Jeff Kilmer, told the San Franciso Chronicle that Google's new technology has improved search speed and efficiency on that company's website.[4] Google has set up a demonstration site that showcases the new search tool in realtime, www.googlestore.com.[5] Faster and more accurate searches increase conversions, since customers are less inclined to leave the site or use complex navigation. In addition to speed and accuracy, the new search product offers aids, such as sorting, spell checker, and synonym suggestions.[11] Having a more robust ecommerce search engine is the perfect way to increase conversions and sales. You spend all the time, effort, and money to get visitors to your site so why not offer them a search engine that will help them find the product they want so they can quickly check out of your ecommerce shopping cart.[25]
I agree with singlefeed this isn't a complete shopping cart solution this is just a search. An online retalier still needs an ecommerce platform that displays product pages etc and ingrates with the rest of their business.[27]
The search engine also ties into Google Analytics to enable a business to track the effectiveness of promotions, most-searched products, and so on.[33] If you've ever searched for a product and seen a box that says "shopping results" for the item you sought, that's Google Product Search.[15] Mercent handles all aspects of the product feed integration with GCS on behalf of the merchant; including feed formatting for Google's XML APIs, data mapping and content augmentation to support parametric search and product promotions, and search optimization for effective search performance.[6] The product is "cloud-based" which means the software will be hosted on Google's data center, not the retailer's. By maintaining the data within its own system, Google will generate revenue for leasing its service to retailers.[19] Latency was the second aspect - shoppers were looking for "ultra fast search". He said: '''The third thing is that the product is completely hosted on Google'''s cloud.[24] The new product is hosted on the Google cloud, which means that site owners don't have to worry about the holiday traffic spikes.[17] If Google is able to provide a reliable service coupled with even a small increase in the number of users who buy products from a site, the new service could prove extremely popular.[10] Google has set up a demonstration site to show off the new product to the public, and the initial response has been generally positive.[4]
Any Google product manager reading that would have to think there is a place for Google in helping to fulfill that need for customers and commerce sites.[26] Since the service is hosted in the cloud, commerce sites do not have to worry about capacity or infrastructure as a result of customers looking for products.[26]
Unfortunately, GCS isn't a free service for retailers. Once they gain administrator rights, they can alter their search settings in order to highlight certain products or let customers know about linked deals and similar products.[34] A good search service that returns pertinent hits is a crucial part of any e-retailer. Plenty of websites have awful search engines that keep customers from stumbling upon great deals and finding the products they really want.[34]
Google has launched a cloud-based search service to enable retailers to add customised search facilities to their websites.[21] Google hosts the search data, meaning that retailers can get a searchable catalog up and running quickly.[33] Google will ensure that retailers can manage the boost in traffic and scale the search application.[8]
I wonder how this will influence the general SERP landscape; will ECommerce sites still be indexed in general search results or will this act as more of an eBay for Google? GBay? Heh.[37] However it does not include any credit toward, or usage of, Google?s main search results advertising spots AdWords, which lets businesses buy advertisements next to relevant search results. Nor does it integrate wtih or include credit toward AdSense, which places ads on a Web site.[5]
Google ( GOOG ) said it can search retail catalogs much more quickly than many retail sites can.[31] Crazy, right? The company today rolled out new search property aimed at retail sites.[36] There are a few issues with Google's new search. The filters and relevancy don't work as well as they have described in this demo.[30]
The search is hosted by Google and lets users sort by brand, price, category, and any another category the business chooses.[36] Whilst as a search engine Google are helping businesses by improving the consumer experience they, as well as others, are failing when it comes to 'business search', something which is high in demand.[8] Number one was search quality ''' it had to be on a par with what consumers expected from the Google experience.[24]
Little known fact: once upon a time, Google used to be a search company.[36] Google noted that, while the last 15 years have seen advances in e-commerce, the search methods used for e-commerce have been a barrier to growth.[11] Last year, Google scrapped a proposed Internet search partnership with rival Yahoo Inc. to avoid a legal showdown with the U.S. Justice Department, which asserted the alliance would have broken federal laws seeking to preserve competition.[38]
The new features included in commerce search engine include spell checker, query stemming, and synonym recognition. [28] The specialized commerce search features should help a merchant increase conversion rate. That does not make it a shopping cart solution.[27]
Microsoft hopes to enhance the popularity of MSN and drive traffic to Bing by weaving the search engine into home page features including shopping, travel, trends, people and ''hot topics.'' MSN''s ''smart design'' includes news and entertainment from online sources such as MSNBC, Fox Sports, Hearst and Hulu.[9] Good stemming features are important. When users search an online store for a product, their query may not match what is in a catalog.[2]
Over the past month or so, merchants have noticed that for pretty much any product you search for the results come up with big-box retailers only.[13] While many retailers try to present product search in a visually appealing way, search can often be slow or difficult to refine.[8]
The $50,000 price includes up to 10 million search queries, Mangtani said. The price for retailers whose sites have a volume of more than 10 million will be negotiable on a case-by-case basis, he said.[7] Says Mangtani, during the holiday season, retailers will most probably experience high traffic on search.[8]
"The average online retailer conversion rate is just three percent," the company said, "but could potentially be five to 10 times higher" by improving the shopping experience for consumers and the conversion rate for retailers.[11]
The service is expensive, though -- according to the San Francisco Chronicle, prices start at US$50,000 per year, and Google is targeting the top thousand retailers in each country where the company operates.[33] Mercent CEO Eric Best commented, "Mercent is pleased to offer retailers fast, easy access to yet another value-added retail service -- Google Commerce Search(TM).[6] Once integrated with Mercent Retail, retailers are able to deliver rich and search-optimized catalog product information to the GCS platform for indexing by Google.[6] Google is now entering the vertical space, by the first tailor-made enterprise product, with retail optimized space.[8]
Google Product hasn't really taken off, but Commerce could and could effect the use of Google Product as well (and maybe Google Checkout?).[8] Over the next few weeks we should expect to see much more coverage of Google Commerce and feedback from what ecommerce merchants think about the product.[25] The Endeca Commerce Suite solution was developed specifically for the eCommerce market, incorporating over nine years of product development and input from over 500 customers.[15]
Like, for instance, the king of France line, which has spread through the Jobs literature like a viral video on YouTube. In the early '80s, Jobs gave Moritz complete access to virtually every aspect of his life and of Apple ( AAPL, Fortune 500 ). Two things emerged from the experience: a fine book, and Jobs' decision to slam the door in the face of most serious journalists who came after. (He has made exceptions, but by some uncanny coincidence they've tended to occur in very close proximity to new product launches.) Fine as "The Little Kingdom" is, since its publication in 1984 the Jobs canon has had to weather the passage of 25 years, one exile, an unlikely return, the iPod, the iPhone, suspended glass staircases, and a grave illness. (Perhaps that's why Moritz is rereleasing the book in November.) Even though some of the more up-to-date histories of Apple and Jobs lean so heavily on "The Little Kingdom" that they almost tip over, several writers have managed to produce books that add substantially to our understanding of His Royal Jobsness. They come in three basic genres.[39] Jeff Zucker Is Not Going Anywhere Jeff Zucker, CEO and president of NBC Universal, has been trying to turn digital dimes into digital dollars for years. Currently he's delivering tv programs online through Hulu, transforming nbc tv stations into hyper local Web destinations, and selling tv advertising based on the Internet's automated, targeted model. Jonathan Miller Preaches the Agnostic Gospel of the Cloud Jonathan Miller is more determined than ever to crack interactive media's money-making code in his new job as News Corp.' s digital chief. He's got plenty of learning experience to draw from, both as a partner at venture capital firm Fuse Capital and as the chairman and CEO of.[29]
Starting at just $50k per year, Google's latest tool aims to turn online shopping up a notch — to the extent that they're calling it an alternative to advertising. [35] Sure, it'll make users happier by decreasing the keystrokes between rabid greediness and commercial satiety, but at what cost? That's a factor you'll have to contact Google to actually learn about; pricing is not available online. It's dirty electronic retailer ROI powered by Google - happy holidays.[30] Since the service is hosted on Google's servers, retailers don't have to worry about finding the extra infrastructure to support increased searches during holiday shopping.[1]
There are Target, Amazon, Wal-Mart, etc results coming up. There is even a specific thread on this in the Help section on Google and a lot of smaller retailers and small ecommerce sites that are really upset that they are getting pushed out.[13] The product represents a challenge to Google's archrival Microsoft Corp., as well as to Oracle Corp., Endeca Technologies Inc. and other firms that run retailers' websites.[15]
Administrators can update marketing approaches in real time to create product promotions that follow search trends.[11] Beyond that, cost depends on the number of products and search queries a site has, according to reports.[21]
Think of it as a the Custom Search Engine for e-commerce sites, big commerce sites to be exact.[32] 'Qstn_markMost sites today don?t have good search,? says Mangtani. ?Commerce Search includes Rich stemming dictionaries.[5]
"Search is far away from where the user expectations are on the majority of retail sites," Mangtani said.[2] "To date the technology powering retail website stores has not kept pace with innovation in search.[14] If you were an Ecommerce company, would you want ads in your store? Probably not. They are selling their search technology for people that will be making money - it makes sense for them to get a piece of it since no ad revenue will be tied to it.[37] I know of many eCommerce sites that pay 50k a year or more to similar companies like Celebros, SLI Systems, Endeca etc. This may be a good fit for a company doing 10-20m in annual revenue.[8]
A merchant still needs a shopping cart. I wouldn't say that when combined with Google Checkout that this is 'an all-inclusive e-commerce software package' as a merchant really still needs an inventory management solution which usually comes with an ecommerce platform as opposed to just a shopping cart program like Google Checkout.[27] Though the video demo on the site made no actual mention of Google Checkout integration, a splash image of the Checkout logo at the end of the video implies what most would expect anyway. After Amazon's unveiling of PayPhrase last week and eBay's launch of PayPal X as an open payments system this week, it looks like the e-commerce market is really starting to see multiple tiers and intensities of competition brewing.[12]
The service also features a built-in spellcheck and provides suggestions for the customer. You can find out more information about the service on its official Google site.[36] For retailers looking further down the road, Google promises easy scalability for growing companies and easy addition of new features.[12] By deploying a Software-as-a-Service solution, retailers will be able to enjoy the ever-growing number of Google features and updates automatically, without any sort of deployment or upgrade on your end.[18]
According to a less-than-authoritative study cited by Gizmodo, one in five iPhone owners. Google Lifts The Lid Off Cookie Jar Los Angeles Times et al In the name of transparency, Google has launched a Dashboard service, which is essentially a page where users can get a sense of all the data it stores about them in any of 23 different Google-run services. [29] The William O'Neil + Co. Database and all data contained herein are provided by William O'Neil + Co. Incorporated and are used by IBD under license agreement. Daily Graphs and Daily Graphs Online are trademarks of William O'Neil + Co. Incorporated or its subsidiaries. This site is powered by Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services market data.[31]
Information regarding Mercent Retail shopping feed management technology, Mercent Performance marketing services, and the complete list of online marketing channels in the Mercent Shopping Network are available at www.mercent.com ]] www.mercent.com.[6] The technology handles the complex and unique challenges of managing multiple data feed exchanges and is ideally suited for connecting retail systems with sophisticated online marketplace and comparison shopping APIs.[6]
Mercent Retail also addresses the correct mapping of products, automates order processing, and provides ongoing data feed monitoring to rapidly and efficiently grow marketplace revenues.[6]
Wearing the undergarments present some practical problems, Rachel Dodes. Unilever Price Cuts Surprise Analysts; Soap Deal Lifts Costs Bloomberg When Paul Polman became CEO of Unilever at the beginning of the year, he promised to stoke sales growth. He's done so by boosting advertising, accelerating the introduction of new products and, it turns out, by cutting prices by as. After Mickey's Makeover, Less Mr. Nice Guy New York Times Concerned that Mickey Mouse has become more of a corporate symbol than a beloved character, Disney is re-imagining him for the future, Brooks Barnes reports.[29] Q+A Douglas Ferguson How will we consume media in five and 10 years' time? Ferguson: When everything is digitized and libraries offer materials, we will have access to anything and everything whenever we choose, at a trivial long-tail price. Q+A Lance Broumand How will get your news in a few years? Broumand: I think it's one page that looks a lot like what the Drudge Report looks like right now.[29]
The newsletter contains links to our latest IT news, product reviews, features and how-to guides, plus special offers and competitions.[24] XML-Journal monitors the world of XML to present IT professionals with updates on technology advances and business trends, as well as new products and standards.[6] Kellogg Removing Some Claims; FDA Plans New Labeling System Ad Age Kellogg said yesterday that it would discontinue marketing Rice Krispies and Cocoa Krispies as products that could boost a child's immunity but would continue to provide the increased amounts of vitamins A, B, C and E that it added to. Manufacturer Responding To Complaints About Shapewear Wall Street Journal Sales for "shapewear" -- undergarments that aim to give women wearing tight clothes a bulge-free silhouette -- have skyrocketed since Oprah put her imprimatur on Spanx nearly a decade ago.[29] Opponents say the Hollywood proposal to. DirecTV's Costs Offset Higher Revenue in 3Q The Associated Press DirecTV, the nation's largest satellite TV operator, says its revenue grew 10% in the third quarter as it added more new customers, but its results suffered from higher marketing costs used to attract them. DirecTV's Costs Offset Higher Revenue in 3Q The Associated Press DirecTV, the nation's largest satellite TV operator, says its revenue grew 10% in the third quarter as it added more new customers, but its results suffered from higher marketing costs used to attract them.[29]
Matt McGee is the Search Engine Land Assignment Editor, and offers search marketing consulting and training to businesses of all sizes.[27] Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series.[27]
SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.[27]
Hosted in the cloud, the platform is fully customizable so that clients can tweak search options, the layout of searches, and other aesthetic attributes of the online store. [12] Search quality is a big factor in changing visitors to buyers online, and in making customers happy too.[20] Keep in mind the customer isn't always right and sometimes a mere search term won't help you.[8] Using a cloud search tool will help site owners meet the rise in demand during the Christmas rush and help shoppers find what they need faster, the blog post said.[21] The actual e-commerce search is implemented on http://www.betterwalking.com not the main Birkenstock USA site.[8] Having had a YahooStore in the past, I'd say search functionality is a critical element of any ecommerce site, and is (or was) something you'd do custom with Yahoo.[8] Obviously, I'm all for better usability on eCommerce sites. Somehow, I don't think Google really has us in mind as they rolled this out.[13]
Once again, Google's come up with something to make a traditional pain in the behind less of an agony. Their latest new service isn't nearly as awesome or convenient as Google Voice, but it still helps to simplify what was once an annoyance.[34] Explore new technologies that are driving the future of the publishing business. Fill out the following information and click on the Send button in order to send this post, The Next Google Tool That Could Help Kill Advertising, to a friend.[35] The recent uptick in Google's political spending has come as the company has been muscling into new markets, including telephones, business software and electronic book sales.[38]
Google Oversells Privacy Dashboard Google today breathlessly announced the launch of its new Dashboard, which lets users see all of the information associated with. Smart Tech Will Boost TV Ad Effectiveness And Yield, Not Undermine It many television operators and networks are wondering aloud whether they might lose some of their power in this new tech-transformed.[29]
Google Commerce will now compete with the likes of Omniture, Endeca, and others.[8] With the holiday shopping season rapidly approaching, Google plans on offering Webinars for interested merchants on November 12, November 17, and December 3.[25] No company more than Google understands the kind of traffic the holiday season begets.[2]
Microsoft Corp, the software giant has responded to the Google assault and announced price cuts in its hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint and Office Communications Server.[28] I'm told hosted search uses several proprietary signals to determine the ranking of search result.[8] Search Engine LeapFish Merges Real-Time Data And Social Content If you haven't heard about LeapFish, you soon will. The latest version of this search engine that launches Thursday merges social content with traditional query data, images and videos.[29] Kayak.com's First National Ads Aim To 'Flip' On Awareness The Kayak.com travel search engine is hoping to "flip" from a well-kept secret among frequent travelers to a tool used by mainstream travelers every day.[29]
Footwear maker Birkenstock USA is the first customer officially using the product and Mangtani said a "good number" of retailers have been testing it over the past three or four months. [7] Does that mean, the larger products database you have, the more money you will have to pay. I guess this pricing model is targeting those big online retailers such as amazon.[8] GCS product support is further evidence Mercent is the proven partner for retailers looking to take full advantage of innovative, profit-generating services across the eCommerce industry."[6] "I see it as a fledgling product. It might serve as a stop-gap solution for search-hungry retailers today, though proving it's worth it for this holiday season might be a challenge.[14]
The product aims to improve customer experience and boost sales conversion rate, which is just 3 percent.[16]
Jobs as Creep. That's what success will do for a fellow: 15 years earlier Randall E. Stross, in "Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing," saw Jobs' unwillingness to listen to customers as a major flaw, a prime contributor to his eventual downfall. Stross's book about the failure of Next Computing, the business Jobs tried to create in his desert years, is the leading exemplar of the Jobs-as-Creep genre, at the very least for the intensity of its invective. Stross was one of the post-Moritz reporters Jobs refused to cooperate with, and you can't help detecting a wee bit of anger when, on a single page, a writer can call his subject "arrogantly oblivious," "unmerciful," and an "unapologetic snob" who is "imprisoned. by his selective historical memory." In another book from this era, "Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders," author Jim Carlton undercuts his generally solid reporting with some thudding prognostication. From the epilogue: "The bottom line, I feel, is that Apple can't make it on its own."[39] The nyc Wine and Food Festival had taken over half the Meatpacking District for the weekend, putting the focus. Trim Marks Original online video took a beating this year, but the shine hasn't quite worn off yet. Despite a string of high-profile broadband start-up flops earlier in the year, media companies like Alloy Media + Marketing, studios like Generate and Web destinations such as the Sony-owned Crackle continue to.[29] We need to be weaned off the click. That's what the online marketing world needs right now to improve branding, according to eMarketer. When Algorithms Collide The online advertising marketplace has seen its fair share of arms race-like tit-for-tat technology battles over the years.[29]
Bad economy or no, online radio is poised to boom. Total online revenues are expected to grow 12% in 2009 to $441 million, according to a new forecast from SNL Kagan, followed by 20% growth in 2010, when they should top $530 million. [29] Kraft Net Revenues Decline, But '09 Guidance Raised Kraft Foods Inc.' s Q3 '09 net revenues declined 5.7% to $9.8 billion, as a result of unfavorable currency effects and divestitures. For the same reasons, the company lowered its organic net revenue growth projection for the full year from 3% to 2%.[29]
The hosted solution starts at $50,000 per year with 24/7 support, but prices will vary based on query levels.[2]
Ranking Redundancy: Digg Launches Trending Stories Taking a page from Twitter, social news site Digg is testing a new feature highlighting trending stories that haven' t yet hit the home page. [29]
SOURCES
1. Google offers search tools for the Amazon.coms of the world | VentureBeat
2. Google Commerce Search Launches for the Holidays
3. Google to Begin Selling Commerce Search to Retailers Starting at $50,000 Annually (GOOG,AMZN) - Comtex SmarTrend Alert
4. Google launches new commerce search engine just in time for the holidays
5. Google releases new search engine for e-commerce sites
6. Mercent Supports Google Commerce Search(TM); First Online Channel Management Solutions Provider to Offer Turnkey Integration With Googles New Site Search Technology | XML Journal
7. Google seeks revenue from online retailers | Reuters
8. Search Til You Drop: Google Launches Hosted Commerce Search For Retailers
9. Taipei Times - archives
10. StrategyEye
11. E-Business - Commerce Search Aims To Help Retailers Boost Sales
12. VatorNews - Google creates Commerce Search for Web retail
13. All Your eCommerce Are Belong to Google
14. Google unveils e-commerce search tool in time for holidays
15. Searching for an improved online shopping experience? Google has a new plan | Technology | Los Angeles Times
16. Google launches new search engine for e-commerce sites | The Money Times
17. PromotionWorld : Google Introduces New Search Engine for Retailers
18. Commerce search Google'''s new weapon to increase shoppers for e-retailers | White Hat News
19. Google turns to retail to make money - iMediaConnection.com
20. Introducing Google Commerce Search: Finding holiday gifts faster - Le blog d'AdmiNet
21. Video: Google launches cloud-based search service for retailers | 5 Nov 2009 | ComputerWeekly.com
22. Google develops commerce search in time for Christmas - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic
23. Google commerce search cashes in on Christmas
24. Google: Search vital for online shopping | IT PRO
25. Shopping Cart and eCommerce News | Google Launches Commerce Search Engine: Google Commerce
26. Google offers Commerce Search solution ''' Tech Products & Geek News | Geek.com
27. Google Gets Into The Shopping Cart Business With Commerce Search
28. Now Google Commerce Search for large e-commerce portals - Latest IT News, Computer vendors in India, IT Blogs, IT industry in India : Latest IT News
29. MediaPost Publications - Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines
30. Google Ho's for the Holidays, Introduces Commerce Search
31. Investors.com - Google to sell search to e-tailers
32. Google Unveils E-Commerce Search Solution | Search Engine Journal
33. iTWire - Google launches shopping search engine for online stores
34. Google Commerce Search: To Ease Your Holiday Shopping
35. The Next Google Tool That Could Help Kill Advertising - mediabistro.com: AgencySpy
36. Google Rolls Out Commerce Search - Reviews by PC Magazine
37. Google Launches Commerce Search for Online Stores - Search Marketing News Blog - Search Engine Watch (SEW)
38. World Wide Web - Google's 3Q Lobbying Costs Eclipse $1 Million
39. Books about Steve Jobs - Nov. 5, 2009
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