When Froogle emerged in 2002, Google established that while many users were gaining exposure to the product name, most were unaware of what it actually did. Furthermore, copyright, trademark and internalisation issues resulted in Froogle not performing as well as Google had hoped and expected.
Consequently, Froogle has been rebranded Google Product Search and has been moved to "www.google.com / products" and "www.google.co.uk / products". Several changes have been made to the search interface in order to enhance and improve the user search experience, making it easier to find relevant products. The overall page layout has been changed to the traditional Google web search interface to foster familiarity with the user across the various Google search products.
The new, clear layout combined with Google Checkout will make it easier for users to buy products from Google Product Search. Previously, a set of refinement options - such as price, category and seller rating - could be located at the top of the page; however, this has now been moved to the bottom.
The Google Checkout refinement option remains at the top of the page, in order to encourage users to buy products through this feature. Merchants will now need to seriously consider offering Google Checkout as a payment option for their products - and other major search engines are likely to follow in Google's steps. Rather than sending users to another site for specialised searches, Google is encouraging its users to go to the Google Product Search page first, find the best result for their specialised search and then buy through Google Checkout. At the moment, the majority of internet users will begin their product search by searching through a search engine, and Google is aiming to cater to a more complete consumer buying process.
While this may be achievable for the world's leading search engine, at the moment, Google Product Search will not regain homepage positioning. This may hinder the potential success of the brand change. Google are currently trialling various positions on its homepage to provide a link to Google Product Search. Previously, Froogle was included in the 'more' section at the top of the page, along with links to Google News and Google Images.
Google will continue to provide the top Google Product Search listings ahead of the first organic result in traditional web search within their OneBox search results (which sits directly under the top paid search ads). This potential opportunity to get ahead of the first organic result on web search remains one of the real USPs of setting up feeds.
On a similar note, Yahoo! have recently announced a new partnership with PayPal, whereby Yahoo! sponsored search results will feature a blue shopping cart linking to merchants that accept PayPal Express Checkout as a method of payment. It is therefore very possible that Yahoo! will begin to offer a 'filter by PayPal merchants' option in their own shopping search to match Google's Checkout option.
