Question
For those of us shopping elsewhere... Here's a good link on how to Google Base.
Save it bookmark it use it. Avoid the feebay increase.
http://www.google.com/base/help/tab_instructions.html
http://www.google.com/base/help/howtobulkupload.html
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They have got to be kidding. Do they honestly think the average seller is going to create tab-delimited listings using Excel? The future of Googlebase is bleak.
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That's what I did, but I only have a couple hundred listings. I did just a few to begin with so I could catch and correct any problems.
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Steve, it's easier than you think. And yes Google will work soon enough. Why pay feebay? They're inept.
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I've spent countless hours perfecting an html template, I'm really not interested in working line by line within the confines of a tab-delimited design.
It's moot, anyway. I just tried to list an item through Googlebase, and the word "nude" is prohibited. So I've requested an exemption. We'll see.
(eta) This is really silly. I searched Googlebase for listings with the word Nude: Results 1 - 10 of about 70,800 for nude. So why do they build a prohibition into the lister?
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A lot of the online store systems already have froogle uploaders or file outputs - and my froogle upload format (which I've been using for at least 2 years), still works (whew!).
If you are on OsCommerce, there's several free froogle uploader mods. Since most store systems use a database, a tab delimited file is a common output format. I'd be suprised if most store software didn't have some kind of data output that could be used by Google.
But one thing I noticed that makes Google Base a lot different than the old Froogle, is the ability to create a "free standing" entry. Far as I can tell, you don't need an item to actually refer to an online store. You can just create one from scratch
I also noticed that Google Base had all of my Ebay Store items already. One nice thing about dropping a lot of my ebay store items will be that I no longer compete with myself in Google
Right now, Google is just about tied with my Ebay About Me page for webstore referrals, so I'm pleased. I still need Google Ads though to really bring in the biz.