Looks like Google is rolling out more tests with integrating results from its Shopping / Product Search engine (former Froogle) in traditional web search queries, right before the start of the holiday period. This isn’t necessarily new (see this WebMasterWorld forum entry from November 2007), but it does appear to be more widespread now. Our tipster says he’s had 5 of his friends test queries like ‘bed sheets’, and they all saw the changes, although sometimes after about a dozen times of hitting ‘Refresh’.
I’m not able to reproduce this, but it might have something to do with the fact that I’m not based in the US. If the images I embedded below are in fact real, this shows Google is getting very serious about creating a nice direct gateway for Google Checkout partners. → Read More
Google, which never, ever kills products, just did the equivalent of taking Froogle out back and shooting it in the head. As Steve Rubel noticed yesterday, Froogle was taken down off the Google home page and replaced with Google Video. Hitwise shows exactly what happens to a site when it’s removed from, or added to, the Google home page. Google Video soars, Froogle plummets. Google Video is also testing out new YouTube-like features (screen shot here). We sure don’t see this kind of product attention showered on Froogle. → Read More
