| On The Web |
| Google Seeks to Improve Shopping Site |
| by Tom Hanson |
| Froogle Shopping Portal Gets an Upgrade |
In perfect timing for the holiday shopping period, Google Inc. has upgraded its Froogle online shopping portal.
The upgrade allows consumers to map out a shopping strategy to maximize product buying opportunities. The new Froogle internet tool is designed to facilitate consumer shopping at a buyer's local mall. The feature utilizes a consumer's ZIP code to provide a map showing all stores in the buyer’s region that sell the particular item of interest.
The new feature represents an upgrade to the Froogle shopping site that was launched three years ago. In addition to providing the map of all area stores that carry the specified merchandise, Froogle will provide list price differences for those varied locations. Of course the site will continue to provide visitors the option to buy any of their desired products online so as to avoid a trip to the shopping mall trip all together.
The site features immediate links to products by price, by brand name, by store location and by related searches. Quick links exist to shift the user from the online catalogue to their local stores with the same categories broken out. Finally, shoppers can also produce a list based upon a specified distance from the home to the store with the item. Default settings allow the shopper to examine store lists within 1 mile, 5 miles, and 15 miles of the specified zip code.
The recent improvements to the Froogle portal is in direct response to recent competitor upgrades. Yahoo Inc. recently upgraded its product listing options by 50%, moving from 60 million items posted a year ago to 90 million currently.
Though Google is considered the giant of the search engine field, the Froogle comparison shopping site currently ranks a distant fifth in visitor hits for shopping portals. The top two comparison sites currently are Shopzilla and Shopping.com, attracting approximately 15 million unique visitors during the same time period. Ironically, these two top internet shopping sites currently advertise heavily on Google and Yahoo, relying on those two search engine sites to send shoppers over to their comparison sites.
Keep an eye on Froogle this season. With these new upgrades for shoppers, it's beginning to a lot like Christmas. |
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