posted on January 16, 2003 02:50:45 PM new
I just checked out Froogle and of course, my broken foot is the excuse, I didnt read the entire sign up info before signing up. They only deal with online store related shops, not auctions. Interestly I received a reply from them. It looks like they are trying to incorporate ebay's auctions into their search feature but ebay's acting like a road block. (Ouch my foot hurts!) Anyway, here is the reply I received from them just a short time ago. (see what happens when I am home from work with nothing to do but list?!!)
Thank you for your interest in Froogle!
Unfortunately, we are unable to include your site in Froogle because eBay's policy prevents us from accessing eBay to confirm your feed information.
We are working with eBay on this, so if you would like to become part of froogle, please contact eBay to ask them to change their policy
posted on January 16, 2003 03:06:08 PM new
Don't blame Froogle on this one.
eBay has successfully sued similar sites, and has shut down a few for searching their site.
If you remember way-back-when , Auctionwatch used to have a "global auction search" function that would search multiple auction sites. Ebay made them shut it down.
Ebay wants anyone shopping on eBay to actually do their shopping -ON EBAY-.
posted on January 16, 2003 03:34:36 PM new
I doubt that froogle would try to incorporate ebay's listings. One of the requirements to get your datafeed on froogle is to have a merchant account. No paypal only sites allowed.
posted on January 16, 2003 04:24:30 PM newI doubt that froogle would try to incorporate ebay's listings. One of the requirements to get your datafeed on froogle is to have a merchant account. No paypal only sites allowed
That is flat out not true. I finshed a paypal only site for a friend 3 weeks ago and submitted her site to froogle. It took them about 7 days to accept the site. I uploaded her first data feed on Monday. I am not sure how long it will take it to appear in the results.
posted on January 16, 2003 04:43:15 PM new
So you all think it may never happen?!!! Boo Hoo. would have been a killer ap for someone's auctions. Especially a little ole seller like me!
posted on January 16, 2003 05:27:48 PM new
Sign up for an AW store. If I read it right there is no time limit in AW like there is on the eBay store. I could be wrong because I have been wrong before....
posted on January 16, 2003 05:37:29 PM new
It may have been a fluke, but the other night I was searching on Froogle and pulled up a Yahoo Auction. I checked it out, and it definitely was still active. So it looks like Yahoo Auctions can make it into the Froogle database (given Yahoo's relationship with Google, I'm assuming that Froogle already searches Yahoo's fixed price venues). Of course, I don't know how long the auction was in Yahoo's database before it appeared in Froogle, nor if it will continue to appear after it closes. Unfortunately, I forgot the exact combination of keywords that I was searching on, so I'm not able to re-locate it.
posted on January 16, 2003 06:27:51 PM new
Froogle is really intended to search for fixed price items. It simply can't index fast enough to keep up with auction results or short auction cycles.
It actually does access eBay Stores and Yahoo Stores, but eBay feeds Froogle a dynamic search link, so the results tend to be very poor and low ranking.
There are no requirements that you have a merchant account to be listed on Froogle, however one of the requirements is that the item should be able to be purchased from the page Froogle is indexing.
posted on January 16, 2003 06:36:19 PM new
This was copied from a search engine message board:
Thank you for your interest in having your products included in Froogle's product search results. At this time, however, we are not able to include you in Froogle, as your site does not conform to one or more of our criteria for inclusion, as below:
*It must be possible to complete a purchase through your web site with a major credit card, and at this time, we are not accepting sites that use paypal only for transaction processing.
It doesn't affect us, as we have a merchant account, but I'm sure if they stick to this, it would affect a large percentage of ebay sellers. In checking Froogle, there is nothing that states this policy, so who knows for sure. As for auctions showing up in results, it could also be that google is an ebay affiliate and making nickels and $5 payments for bids and new registrations. Do keep us posted if your site does indeed get indexed by froogle.
posted on January 16, 2003 06:37:06 PM new
I have an AW store, and since Froogle has been in existance (well, the last few weeks anyway) I have about 3 sales a week through my AW store. I have asked every buyer if they found my store through ebay or through Froogle and so far no one has answered me (I can't figure out why). I take paypal, checks or money order through my store...I don't have a merchant account. I never signed up for Froogle - I just searched on them one day and found my items there - I assume AW put them there. I love it!! I think if every ebay auction was listed in there too it would ruin it - too many for the data base and it would be hard to keep track of the prices - it seems right now they list the search results by price and all those 1 cent auctions would be on top and bump all the legitimate items down to page 100.
posted on January 16, 2003 07:13:54 PM new
The following an email from google that I got today. I wrote to them a few minutes after, I posted about them accepting paypal sites. I knew they did, but I wanted it in writing.
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X-Apparently-To:"DELETED"@yahoo.com via 216.136.226.195; 16 Jan 2003 16:44:49 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path:<[email protected]>
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Date:Thu, 16 Jan 2003 16:44:08 -0800
From:[email protected] | This is Spam | Add to Address Book
To:"DELETED" <"DELETED"@yahoo.com>
Subject:Re: Do you accept paypal only sites [#1506322]
Message-ID:<#[email protected]>
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Hello,
At this time, we only accept credit cards and/or Paypal sites. If you have any other questions, please let us know.
Thank you,
The Google Team
Original Message Follows:
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From: "DELETED USER NAME"@yahoo.com>
posted on January 16, 2003 07:50:45 PM new
I think the Froogle thing is gonna be a bust.
Here's a snipit from another chatboard about it ...
I think they must stay on Froogle`s Search for quite a while. After it was announced here about Froogle, I started looking through Froogle and I saw an item that I had listed on Y**** quite a while ago and was no longer listed, but I saw it accidently in the Froogle Search Engine.
How many stale and out-of-date items will it take before buyers say "Forget Froogle"?
posted on January 16, 2003 11:51:35 PM newHow many stale and out-of-date items will it take before buyers say "Forget Froogle"
The item was probably not over a month old.
The following is from the instructions google sends to merchants they accept.
You can upload new feeds daily, weekly, or monthly. You must upload a new feed at least once a month, because we will automatically expire your old data after a month.
They also check the sites that are submitted. One of my sites was accepted with no problem. With another of my sites, google emailed me to let me know there was a problem. It was a problem in the shopping cart that I had not noticed when I changed the site and only someone attempting to buy items would have caught it.
Two of my sites are in Froogle and the traffic is excellent. I don't know how long it took for them to show up. After I sent my data feeds, I didn't pay attention until a customer mentioned finding me in froogle.
I am working on getting my other sites included.
Also from Froogle Merchant packet:
The content in your feed must be the same as the content visible to users on your web site. The description and price you provide in the feed must be exactly the same as the description and price on your product URL page. The image URL must be that of the actual product image on the product page. Any violation of this policy is grounds for being immediately and permanently dropped from Froogle.
One merchant on another board claimed he was dropped from Froogle for violating this. He tried to "add keywords" using his data feeds.
I use Froogle constantly and the only out of date items I have found are way down in the search results and usually from an auctionwatch store that has already sold the item.
Froogle is still in the beta stages. When they get everything straight, I think they will be a force like google.
posted on January 17, 2003 04:58:05 AM new
I've got some Froogle questions for shop4shoes, if that's ok. I was interested in Froogle for one of my websites, but being a layman, I couldn't understand all the technical requirements for a "data feed". Froogle staff has not replied to multiple requests that I sent nearly a month ago. Also, even if the poorly explained data feed rules by Froogle get figured out, will they exclude a website that has Paypal as the only electronic way of paying? I also accept cash, checks, and money orders. And one final question.... if my site has hundreds of items for sale, does Froogle require that I have a separate web page devoted to each single item?
Thanks for your help. If anyone else knows the answers, your advice would be greatly appreciated. Any websites that explain all this Froogle technical stuff would be fantastic!
posted on January 17, 2003 05:24:28 AM newI was interested in Froogle for one of my websites, but being a layman, I couldn't understand all the technical requirements for a "data feed".
The feed will need to be in a tab-delimeted form. These can be done, using excel, I think. I have my shopping cart software setup to do it automatically using a program.
Also, even if the poorly explained data feed rules by Froogle get figured out, will they exclude a website that has Paypal as the only electronic way of paying?
They do accept paypal only sites. Posted above is a letter that I got from them yesterday. Also my friends paypal only site was accepted.
And one final question.... if my site has hundreds of items for sale, does Froogle require that I have a separate web page devoted to each single item?
When you supply your data feed they need the exact link to the item. If it is on a page with other items, I do not see a problem. They did not mention it in my packet.
Jack have you already been accepted as a merchant? If not, apply and then worry about getting your data feed and such straight. I am sure the board members here can help you out. It can take a while to get approved and they do look over your site. If there is a problem they will let you know what to do.
posted on January 17, 2003 06:00:58 AM new
Probably not over a month old? Can you imagine finding stuff you really want on Froogle only to find it was sold days or weeks ago. If that occurs with any kind of regularity the concept of Froogle will die as fast death.
posted on January 17, 2003 06:44:11 AM newProbably not over a month old? Can you imagine finding stuff you really want on Froogle only to find it was sold days or weeks ago. If that occurs with any kind of regularity the concept of Froogle will die as fast death.
That is why their traffic has gone through the roof and merchants are begging to sign up. I see a fast death... to shopping portals and pay-per-click engines that make you pay for the same service.
Finding a product that is no longer available is no different than trying to reach a site that is no longer around. If it was that big of a deal, yahoo, google, excite, lycos and seome others would not be around. Broken links are common when using search engines.
Froogle has only been around for 31 days and they have already made big waves. Let's see if they are still around 31 days from now or even a year from or if they will have died a "fast death".
I remember when I submitted my first site to Google. People on the boards and one "site submission expert" said it was waste of time since they would not be around long.
posted on January 17, 2003 10:27:45 AM new
Everyone is excited at the prospect of a venue making ebay less viable. That's understandable. But this is a free Beta-testing concept that has many, many drawbacks. What happens when 6 million listings pop up for one category? What are the safeguards against fraud? There are a million unanswered questions. To call it the great internet selling hope is way premature in my book.
posted on January 17, 2003 02:07:37 PM newEveryone is excited at the prospect of a venue making ebay less viable.
Ebay does not factor into my feelings about froogle. Ebay is not my main source of income.
What happens when 6 million listings pop up for one category?
The same thing that happens when I type in "pink boots" and get 482,000 matches-- I narrow my search.
What are the safeguards against fraud?
None. Why should there be safeguards against fraud? Overture does not have them. DMOZ does not have them. Yahoo does not have them. NO search engine has them. Heck, the "safeguards" at ebay and paypal are a joke.
There are a million unanswered questions.
Keep posting them here, Someone will answer them.
To call it the great internet selling hope is way premature in my book.
Mine too, but you are the only one that has called it that.
posted on January 17, 2003 03:21:48 PM new
I agree with others here that Froogle is great.
I have gotten about 20 sales in the past 10 days through Froogle.
Froogle is not in competition with ebay. They offer merchants a chance to get thier products listed in a popular place for free. Many merchants do not have the deep pockets that large advertisers have and this service is great for them.
Froogle is a shopping directory. I would not expect yahoo to give me fraud protection, if I clicked on a link to fraudster's site. Same with Froogle.
What happens when 6 million listings pop up for one category?
Unless there were 6 million DIFFERENT merchants with that product that would not happen. Froogle only shows one result from each store, unless the searcher changes the parameters.
I found something on Froogle that I had been trying to find for nearly a year. I am pretty happy with Froogle.
Can you imagine finding stuff you really want on Froogle only to find it was sold days or weeks ago.
I can imagine it happening to me. It does happen to me...on ebay. I often find items still in the system several days after they have sold using buy it now.
Froogle is in beta and it is good. I can't wait until they get it tweaked and just right.
posted on January 17, 2003 04:38:20 PM new
Hi again everyone. First off, I'd like to thank "shoes" for helping to answer some of my questions. And to answer your question to me, I have yet to install a shopping cart system to my website, although I clearly give instructions on my site on how to pay for items via Paypal. Froogle accepted my site for their program weeks ago, but there was so much technical stuff I couldn't understand that I wrote to their staff several times without response. But today must be my lucky Friday, because when I just signed on to the internet a few minutes ago, Froogle responded to me at last. I haven't had a chance to check their instruction in detail, but that's how I'll be spending my MLK holiday weekend.
Shoes, thanks again. And I think together, we can all help each other get the hang of Froogle.
posted on January 17, 2003 05:15:42 PM new
Jack,
Try oscommerce php catalog. It is free open source and has a module that automates paypal payments. You don't need the paypal buttons with it. It is really nice. It can be a little tough to install, but it is worth it.
It is also able to do realtime credit processing with many providers. It has so many features and it is FREE!
