Froogle Dumped For Hot New Girlfriend

August 11th, 2006 at 12:32 pm

I’m guessing the predictions of the demise of Froogle are premature. While I do not have unique insight to workings at the ‘plex, it would make sense for them to rotate the homepage links (at least the last one).

Precisely because of the power of the homepage, it provides Google a great opportunity to build critial mass for variosu products through short-term featuring. In addition, Google has in the past run short-term A-B type tests to see how changes perform.

So, last month might be Froogle, this month Google Video, next month Google Coop. They may not even know at the ‘plex. It just doesn’t make sense, though, to make long-term predicitons based on short-term trends.

August 11th, 2006 at 12:55 pm

This really sucks. Froogle has so much potential to be the ultimate product research tool, but Google is so indecisive with it. They already took out the ability to consolidate multiple listings of the same product into one listing which really is what made Froogle awesome.

Dang. I miss Froogle.

August 11th, 2006 at 1:02 pm

It is good that they removed Froogle from their homepage. Keeping a product for an umlimited beta is insane. Google has been abusing the concept of beta just too much. I feel they are losing confidence in themselves. In this matter I have to say that Microsoft is doikng quite well. They are entering the market with a beta but quickly are getting out of beta and making the service live unlike Froogle which has been under beta for the past 5 years.

5 years feel almost a generation in this fast Internet age

August 11th, 2006 at 1:17 pm

I wonder though, since Firefox comes w/a custom Google start page:

http://www.google.com/firefox?.....S:official

what kind of effect changing that would have.

August 11th, 2006 at 1:34 pm

I don’t even know what Froogle is.

August 11th, 2006 at 2:25 pm

It’s good to that Google isn’t a company that insists on beating a dead horse. I am glad to see that they are a company of trials and errors… and most importantly a company that recognizes what works and what doesn’t and moves on to bigger and better things. Great post!

August 11th, 2006 at 2:42 pm

Part of the impetus for the decision might have been that the Froogle Merchant Center was recently replaced by the Google Base dashboard:

http://base.google.com/support.....topic=8847

Google Video is a simple enough model (with enough popular rivals) that it makes sense to promote while Google continues to hash out exactly how the rest of their user-submitted content strategies play together.

August 11th, 2006 at 2:55 pm

Froogle has gone from Google.com, but we still have it at Google.co.uk
- only US users who want Google Video? - I doubt it

Also - I wonder what adding the red “new” tag to it affects its traffic. Only time will tell I suppose.

- Tim

August 11th, 2006 at 4:41 pm

@ Razvan Antonescu

That’s not true at all. Try searching “Prada Messenger Bag”. Not just electronics.

August 11th, 2006 at 4:51 pm

Google is reacting to the YouTube phenomenon …this is probably a well researched perception that VIDEOs have more potential to return an ROI, thus getting a portion of YouTube’s traffic.

This may a case of Biz-Dawinsm. The leading destinations will become more visible and accessible.

August 11th, 2006 at 6:27 pm

Michael, it is just one link and the “new girlfriend” is actually kind of old.

August 12th, 2006 at 7:10 am

Correct me if Im wrong but a few weeks ago I was able to comment on some Google videos… They have fallen behind Youtube but you just can’t beat “unlimited upload filesize”
Froogle….never really used it.

August 13th, 2006 at 1:29 pm

The problem with froogle is the name, a really lame attempt at leveraging the google brand. If it was called “Products” or “Shopping” it would be useful for users who are searching for something to buy. I would say 99% of Google users don’t know what froogle means.

August 14th, 2006 at 9:56 am

> If they had changed the link text from “Froogle” to “Shopping” I bet the hit count would spike too. Who the hell wants to click on something named Froogle.

&

> Looking at the graph, it appears that the traffic on Froogle follows a weekly pattern, with much more traffic on week-ends. The “plunge” can be observed every Monday on that graph. So the only thing that proves is that actually things haven’t changed that much for Froogle…

Exactly. Froogle’s showing the same pattern as before, suggesting no one really clicked on that link from the home page. That’s not a surprise given that many have no idea what Froogle meant and more important, most people don’t even know what those links do for anything. And the Google Video “spike” proves this. What — it lept from being 0.25 percent of visits to about 0.6 percent. Wow, how dramatic. That’s practically no one going to it, despite being featured on the home page.

August 15th, 2006 at 8:14 pm

This is good news for companies like Shopzilla.com, whose business it is to organize and search product listings through the internet. As they get more traffic, they’ll also be sending more money to google through paid advertisements.

I have to wonder though, is google planning closer integration with product search into their main search engine?