Question
I went to sign in to upload a feed today ( I only do it about twice a month), and got this page:
https://www.google.com/froogle/merchants/base.html
OK... froogle has been in beta for what, two, three years? Now base comes along... which is far more buggy than froogle ever was. After several months of trying to work with google base, I still have outstanding issues that Google doesn't know how or care to fix.
I was wondering what they were planning to do with froogle after base was "invented"... This is a real bummer.....
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I haven't tried Googlebase yet. And I haven't updated my Froogle feed in months.
I liked it 0 I was always able to use FTP for mine. I hope that will still work.
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I managed to get one of my feeds from my Froogle software to upload properly to Google Base. The other feed, for some reason, is giving me the run-around.
I'll mess with it more when I get back.
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Kathleen,
Are you having success with this?
I'm getting about 20% with encoding errors. Funny, they are all encoded the same!
Also, I can't seem to get any photos to work.
UGH!
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Pretty sure Kathleen is still in Europe...
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I managed to switch over from Froogle to Base in about 5 minutes without problem. Keep in mind that your feed needs to be correctly formatted, but I didn't have to change the Froogle feed data one bit for it to upload and work within minutes.
I checked the Base listings a few hours later and they were as usual at the top of the key word search (the text is highly optimized) just as they were in Froogle. All the listings point towards our website so I should see any emerging traffic trends within a few days.
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I had forgot about Kathleen's vacation....
agitprop... thanks for the response!
However, I'm not sure what's going on here. I tried uploading an unaltered Froogle spreadsheet to G-base... just as I have with Froogle without a hitch. I'm thinking of breaking my spreadsheet up into several segments, as I have read that Base sometimes chokes on large feeds. I also tried an altered spreadsheet using the exact parameters that are outlined for Base (which do differ a bit from the old Froogle parameters... another confusing point)... all to similar outcomes.
What baffles me the most are the photos...
I suppose I really shouldn't get too worked up over the deal, as I've never seen much traffic from Froogle, and Google isn't too busy promoting Base.... it'll probably be in beta until 2014, anyhow.
I'll give it another go in a few days...
Cheers
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Originally Posted by FiberGuy
However, I'm not sure what's going on here. I tried uploading an unaltered Froogle spreadsheet to G-base... just as I have with Froogle without a hitch. I'm thinking of breaking my spreadsheet up into several segments, as I have read that Base sometimes chokes on large feeds. I also tried an altered spreadsheet using the exact parameters that are outlined for Base (which do differ a bit from the old Froogle parameters... another confusing point)... all to similar outcomes.
You might want to check the Base Uploads: Tab Format and Official Google Base Blog for more details. Basically as long as you upload a tab delimited plain text file you shouldn't have any problems, but like I said check the docs for details as that's so often where the devil is lurking... ;-)
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So far, by using my Froogle feed, everything seems to be working fine.
(But I am SO far behind in updating my feed ......)
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It doesn't much matter if they've shut it off because they effectively killed it months ago. Originally, a Froogle search returned matching items from all over the web and one could simply click on order from lowest price to highest and quickly find the best deal around but sometime in the past few months they "broke" it. It only surveyed sites that paid to be there and many cheated by using key words in their site that were not actually the items or brands searched. The result was that the only apparent bargains returned were actually other products that cost less than the one searched on and any items located at sites that didn't pay for placement didn't appear. So, Google destroyed Froogle long before they actually pulled the plug. I agree that it's a sad day but the sadness set in for me several months ago when I realized they'd all but destroyed it.