Can you hear the collective gushing over Google Base, the supposedly soon to be released Google’s web-based database that users can build upon?
“Google Base is Google’s database into which you can add all types of content. We’ll host your content and make it searchable online for free.”
Live-Or-Not-Live status of the product not withstanding, initial screenshots show a bit of revisionist thinking. Google Base, might be impressive for those whose hair have not been bleached gray by many summers, but to an old Valley hand it is reinvention of a product called QuickBase, an online hosted database offering from Intuit, the makers of gasp… accounting software, Quick Books. QuickBase failed as a consumer offering but has found some use in small workgroups. Of course, since we are living in a post bubble world, some “tagging” goodness makes Google Base cooler, especially for the early adopter crowd. (Sarcasm @ work, in case you missed it!) More later, when the actual product does come-out.
(Check out Screen Shots @ Seweso Blog)
10 comments so far
1:04 PM PT
GoogleBase - My Take
There is a huge buzz going on around the blogosphere about the on-again, off-again GoogleBase. Regardless of its current status, it looks like Google will be rolling out a Quickbase-like service. A roll your own database where you create the
2:15 PM PT
I just hope it allows me to while away hour after hour writing content for free. I hear people who do that really stand out and get rewarded eventually.
5:39 PM PT
A Base-less Allegation?
Some say it’s a hoax, others are swearing they saw an early beta version of Google Base live on the web. Scott at Information Manager Journal says it seems like a good idea: A general-purpose free database to be hosted…
6:03 PM PT
QuickBase is a major missed opportunity by Intuit. Offering a limited, free QuickBase account is a no-brainer to get the tire-kickers out.
12:59 AM PT
Don’t know if you guys have seen this:
http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk/ols-master.html
but I find it better and better everyday.
12:57 PM PT
Newspapers have battled to defend the $19B U.S. classified ads business from the likes of Craigslist and eBay, but Googlebase is their worst nightmare. By providing a form-based front end for both posting and searching, they’ll get richer information and it will be much more searchable than anything else out there. Combining this with Google’s brand and traffic makes Googlebase a serious competitor. We built a similar solution, a “mini-googlebase” that we now sell to newspapers. Newspapers can only stay in the game if they embrace free classified ads, leverage their communities ties and leverage the printed versions as well to drive adoption.
3:30 PM PT
Hard to get TOO excited with pre-pre-alpha software, but I don’t know how well Google Base can work unless there are some guidelines to ensure the quality of entries. Classified ads in newspapers and on eBay have that quality factor built-in because there is a cost associated with providing the classified ad. If Google just let’s any ol’ person in, I worry about the quality of the results.
In my blog entry “Google Base - Search Crap Easier!” [http://scottonwriting.net/sowblog/posts/4637.aspx] I put forth my theorem: “The quality of any piece of information is inversely proportional to how many people contribute to it.”
4:47 AM PT
I’m confused. Why is Google is trying to become me-too company? There is a very thin margin between Google and other’ servcies.
Now, Google needs to come up with radical services/concepts, obviously associated with information retrieval
8:48 PM PT
Interesting…Google was built on a single service and added additional services without getting involved in the content game. Now they’ve decided they need to own some content rather than just providing access to it. Yahoo! and MSN are still deep in the content game but are moving in the direction of services, over and above communications services like IM. I wonder how the split will net out.
10:10 PM PT
[...] Is this a new or technically interesting idea? Again, all we have are a few screenshots to go on, but the answer appears to be “Not at all.” [...]
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