Writing about Google Base is a lot like trying to draw a description of the elephant based on the survey of six blind men combined with predictions of the damage the elephant could do if provoked. We’re at an odd juncture in time when Google has achieved so much power and mystique — not to mention cash — that anything the company does draws attention and everything is presumed potentially to be disruptive. Google Base is the latest example but not the last. The best guess — ok, it matches my own and the details on the sporadically accessible site: a user-generated database for any and all info that then can parlayed across Google. (Please share your ideas in our comment area.)
InternetNews.com: “Combine Google Base with the company’s recent solicitations of data feeds from providers of online classifieds, and you’ve got a real game-changer, industry executives said.”
BW: “Now, it looks like the search giant has its sights set on tearing into another cast of corporations: online marketplace eBay (EBAY), the funky classified-ad site Craigslist, the entire newspaper industry, and maybe more. … The biggest question remains whether Google can deliver on services beyond ad-supported search. It’s developing a reputation for launching beta project after beta project, from its Gmail Web-based e-mail service to its Orkut social-networking service, that fail to gain much traction.”
Lauren Rich Fine, analyst, Merrill Lynch: “The service called “Google Base” enables users to submit content to a Google database that is searchable. “Content” that can be submitted include products, news articles, services, and others and Google gives users the option to enter price, property type, and photos with the content. Details are not known at this time, but we presume the goal is to generate more traffic on which to serve search ads.
… While we would never underestimate Google’s ability to muscle in, we do not expect the service to have a big negative incremental impact on the market. We would also note that Google is purportedly entering a number of businesses, but at the end of the day seem mostly focused on search revenues.”
John Battelle: “I think the main issue here is lack of details and transparency – Google wants your data, but doesn’t want limitations on what it might do with that data in the future. I think this stance, more than any other, is what might stymie the progress of a service like GoogleBase, at least in terms of cracking the major vertical industries which might otherwise make the project extremely valuable.”
Gluttons for punishment can click here.
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments have been disabled for this post