Experience a new kind of shopping with Froogle
Navigating the Froogle Results page
Find products fast with Smart Search
Learn comparative shopping
All about Ratings & Reviews
Creating My Shopping List
One of the biggest uses of the Internet, after communications, is shopping. More people shop online today than ever before, and it’s not hard to believe that someday shopping online will surpass shopping in brick and mortar stores. Of course, it’s hard to pass up the air conditioning of the local mall on a hot day. Even with the temptation of cool air on a hot day, Google has made the online shopping experience even more fun and more powerful by creating a tool that allows you to comparison shop for products based on price and features. Chapter 7 showed you how easy it is to view catalogs online. Comparison shop with Google’s Froogle and there is no need to ever leave the house again. You can do all your shopping online.
Froogle is a shopping search engine that uses Google’s search technology for one very specific task: locating sellers that offer the item you are interested in purchasing and pointing you directly to the place where you can buy it. Froogle not only gets you quickly to the right vendor but also helps you find the best price among many vendors selling exactly the same product.
There are two ways that Froogle obtains the information it displays about the products. First, sellers add the information about their products, taking advantage of Froogle’s free service. Second, Froogle uses Google’s powerful search technology to crawl the Web in order to identify vendors for a specific product.
Note
You can’t buy products from Froogle. Froogle is not a store. It is a service that assists you in finding the right vendor for the product in which you have an interest.
The advantages of searching for products on Froogle are:
Froogle searches for products in your locale. It tells you the store that has the product close to you and/or the online store where you can purchase your product.
Froogle takes advantage of Google’s search technology to find all types of products.
Through advanced search technology, Google rapidly finds what you are looking for.
The results are presented to you in an unbiased way. Google does not accept money to put products on the top of searches. They are placed in the order you see them based on Google’s PageRank technology.
There are several ways you can get to the Froogle home page. The most direct is to type www.froogle.com into your Web browser’s address bar. If you are used to using the addressing scheme for many of the other Google services, you may prefer to type froogle.google.com. Both addresses take you to the same place.
Another way to end up on the Froogle home page is to first go to Google’s home page (www.google.com) and click the More link. In the pop-up menu that appears, click Froogle to launch the Froogle home page.
Don’t be confused by its appearance. Froogle’s home page looks very similar to Google’s home page (see Figure 8.1). The same colors and options appear above the search box (Web, Images, Video, News, Maps, and More >>).
Next to the Search Froogle button are three links: Advanced Froogle Search, Preferences, and Froogle Help. You learn more about Advanced Froogle Search later in this chapter. The Preferences link takes you to the same preferences found for Google search. These are general preferences and do not provide any customizing attributes specifically for Froogle. Clicking the Froogle Help link presents information about Froogle, including a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section and other links that help you better use Froogle.
In the middle of Froogle’s home page, you see about 25 links to products on which other people have recently searched using Froogle and found products. Clicking any of these links takes you to the results page for that product.
Froogle has a feature called the Froogle Shopping List. Using your Google account, you can add products to your personalized shopping list for easy and fast access to product information at a later time. You can also share your list with friends and family, perhaps during the holiday shopping season. To start your shopping list, you can find a link to Froogle Shopping List on Froogle’s home page in the top-right corner.
Cross-Ref
See the section “My Shopping List” more about Froogle Shopping List later in this chapter.
In addition to those already mentioned, you’ll find four other links on Froogle’s home page:
Google Home: Takes you to Google Search home page.
Information for Sellers: If you are a merchant, this link takes you to where you can learn more about how Froogle helps you sell your products.
Froogle Tour: Links to the Find it on Froogle page, a quick reference to how Froogle works.
About Google: Links to Google’s About page, where you can learn more about Google.
As a product merchant you will want to take advantage of the Froogle Services. Even when your customers know who you are and what you sell, Froogle still has a lot to offer. It makes little difference whether you are an online merchant or if you have a physical store, if you sell one product or hundreds, taking advantage of Google search technology through Froogle helps customers better find your products. The Froogle service is free and your store does not need to have its own Web site.
Here is a quick guide and an example of how to get started selling your products through Froogle.
From the Froogle home page click the Information for Sellers link. This launches the Sell with Google page, also known as Google Base.
Optionally elect the type of product you sell from the dropdown list.
Click either Post one at a time or Bulk upload.
The page that launches is called Google Base. Here you can post all types of content and have it show up on Google searches; in this case, also in Froogle.
You need a Google Account because you will need to sign in. Click the Sign in link.
When prompted, type your e-mail and password, and click Sign in.
You have now logged in to the Google Base page. The first time you log in, you are asked to fill in your display name, a description of your business, and if you have one, the URL to your Web page. Make certain to select the checkbox if your pages contain information or images unsuitable for children. When you complete this information, click Next. Here you can see all the items you have active or inactive on Google Base. Instead of typing the name of each of your products, upload them in bulk from this page. Choose an existing item type from the drop-down list, or create a custom type (see Figure 8.2). Then click Next.
Type the information describing your product (see Figure 8.3). Enter information such as price, unit price type, quantity you are selling, if applicable, the product type, condition, and product brand.
You can also upload pictures and files related to your products by adding them into the shaded portion of the page. Upload files of the following types: PDF, DOC, PPT, XLS, TXT, ASCII, HTML, RTF, XML, and WPD.
Add attributes describing your product by adding attribute names, and then the values. An example of an attribute might be vehicle weight and an example value would be 1 ton. Add additional attributes by clicking the Add another attribute link.
Add a detailed description of your product in the Description box. Use the rich text editing controls to format your text.
Edit the Contact, Payment and Location and delivery information. If you are an AdWords customer, edit this section to add keywords regarding this product.
Type the number of days this ad will run. The maximum length is 30 days.
Preview your item (Figure 8.4). If you are not happy with the information you typed for your product, you can click Edit. When you are ready to release the information, click Publish.
When you finish publishing your item, Froogle returns you to the Google Base My Items page. You see your product listed, and the Status area should read “Published ... searchable soon.” That is how, with the click of a mouse, your product advertisement is made available to the world.
You may find using the Froogle search helps you locate just the right product. The true power of Froogle is experienced by analyzing the Froogle search results. Performing a product search can be as simple as typing the name of a product and pressing Enter. Even the advanced search features are not all that complicated. In most cases you can easily find the product you are searching for by using either the simple or advanced search features.
Performing a basic product search with Froogle is simple. Type the product name in the search box and click Search Froogle. To achieve the best search results, type a combination of the following:
Name of the product
Model number
Manufacturer
Similar to Google Web search, clicking Search Froogle or pressing Enter after typing product information into the search box launches the Froogle results page. Consider logging into your Google account before searching Froogle so you can use Froogle features such as the ability to save your shopping list and review your search history.
To better focus your search you can use the Froogle Advanced Search. From Froogle’s home page or any Froogle results page click the Advanced Froogle Search link located to the right of the search box.
Froogle Advanced Search really helps you narrow the number of products listed in the search results and configures the display of the Froogle results page for customized and easier viewing. Figure 8.5 shows the Froogle Advanced Search page.
Froogle divides the Advanced Search into seven configurable categories. Setting one or more of the attributes in each of these categories allows you to better focus your product search. When you have finished configuring these categories, click Search Froogle.
The “Find products” section is where you can configure one or more of the search types to best narrow a search on the name of the product. The search types you can configure are:
With all the words: This search type looks for sites containing all the search terms you enter in this box. For example, when you are looking for cell phones you might type Treo 700w Palm (product name, model number, and manufacturer).
With the exact phrase: Looks for search phrases within a product site. For example: typing Treo 700w Palm will give you different results than by typing Palm 700w Treo.
With at least one of the words: Shows you results with product descriptions that contain at least one of the keywords.
Without the words: Limit your results to product descriptions that do not contain the terms entered here. For example: When you are looking for the Treo 700w not the Treo 700p, so you can type 700p in the last box and the results will exclude descriptions of 700p products.
This Customize the number of search results in the Find products category section. The choices are 10, 20, 30, 50, or 100 results per result page. Make your selection from the drop-down list.
One of the important and sometimes overlooked search configurations is the ability to sort your product description results, making it easier to find what you consider important. Sort your results by one of the following:
Relevance
Price (high to low, or low to high)
Product rating
Sellers’ rating
You can select a price range for your product results. Having Froogle show you the results within a high and low price limit is useful for a couple of reasons. First, when you search for a product that also has accessories for sale, the accessories are usually priced lower than the actual product. By setting a lower limit price in your search you can avoid seeing results that include the lower-priced accessories, most of which will also contain the product name. For example, your result might be: “Power plug for Big Blend Food Muncher.” Use price ranges to exclude items such as a product’s replacement power plug.
The second reason price ranges are useful has to do with specifying the upper limit. This is useful for finding products within your shopping budget.
Typing location information, such as your city name or your Zip code, allows Froogle to display results that are sold in stores located near you. When Froogle can not find products sold in a store close to you, it displays results as though you had not specified a location.
The Occurrences selection allows you to tell Froogle where in the product description you expect to find your search term. Select the occurrences from the drop-down list box. The choices include: in the product name and description, only in the product name, or only in the description. These options are very restrictive when it comes to narrowing your search.
When you know the type of product category in which your search should occur, select one of the predefined categories from this drop-down list. The categories include: Apparel & Accessories; Arts & Entertainment; Auto & Vehicles; Baby; Books, Music & Video; Business & Industry; Computers; Electronics; Flowers; Food & Gourmet; Health & Personal Care; Home & Garden; Office; Sports & Outdoor; and Toys & Games.
The View option does not narrow your search. Instead, this option customizes the way your results are displayed. Select either the List view (default view), displaying product descriptions in a simple list or the Grid view option (see Figure 8.6), where viewing product comparisons is easier.
Froogle differs from the normal Google Web search because Web search results merely act as a jumping-off point to the information you are looking for. With Froogle, the results page may contain the information you are looking for, and the fact that you can click to purchase or visit the vendor’s home page is less important than the results of a Web search.
Knowing your way around the results page can help you get the answers you need. The search result page is divided into four distinct areas (see Figure 8.7):
Smart Search Features
Sponsored Links
Search results
Bottom and navigation links
Most of the Froogle Smart Search features are located in the top section of the search result page. In this area, you can use these self-customizing search features to refine your search. Learn more about the Froogle Smart Search features in the “Smart Search” section of this chapter.
Sponsored Links are special links for which companies, or individuals, pay Google to have their products and services advertised. Sponsored links are designed to be related to your search and therefore may not appear in every result page. The number of sponsored links may also vary depending on the product you have specified in your search. When the sponsored links appear, they are located on the right side of the search results page.
By default, you see up to ten search results per page. You can customize the number of results displayed per page by changing your Froogle preferences. Additionally, the number of results per page can vary depending on whether you have selected to view the results in the List view or Grid view format.
In the List view, each result displays the following information:
The product name as a link to the site advertising the product
A brief description of the product
Optional ratings of the product
Optional links to product reviews
An Add to Shopping List link
The name of the store or site that sells the product. If the store has a rating you see its rating and the number of customers participating in the rating.
The product price
Between the top section, containing the Smart Search features, and the search results are three options located on a blue separator bar. The first option allows you to enter or clear your location. The information in this option changes the order in which results are displayed. Google attempts to display products for sale close to your location when you have typed a Zip code. When you want to locate stores that carry products close to you, type your Zip code.
The second option allows you to switch between Grid and List views of the results by clicking the link to the right side of the bar. The link changes depending on which view you are currently using.
The third option is one of the most useful of the Froogle options. Choose to sort the product description results based on the following criteria:
Relevance: How relevant is the product to your keyword search?
Price: Low to high, or high to low. This is very important for finding the lowest-priced product or for finding products of a certain quality based on price. It also allows you to easily shop for the right vendor based on price.
Sort by product rating: This lets you know what others think of the product.
Sort by vendor rating: This information is important when purchasing from companies or people you’ve never heard of before.
Following the results, and located at the bottom of the page, are navigation buttons and links. When the product you are looking for is very popular you see links to navigate to more results by continuing to the next page of results. In this case, Click Next or click on a specific page number to change pages. When you are on a page other than the first page you can also move back by clicking Previous. There is an additional Froogle search box located at the bottom of the page. This search box does not have links to the Advanced Search, but it operates in the same manner as the search box located at the top of the page.
Smart Search is what Google calls the combination of Froogle features that assist you in finding products easier and faster by further allowing you to focus your search. Even though you won’t find a Smart Search label on the Froogle results page, understand all the ways Google helps you find products and you’ll agree that this is a smart way to search.
The Smart Search focusing process starts with the setting the Froogle preferences. To begin, you can set the display language, create a search filter, and configure the number of results displayed in the Froogle results page. Set these Froogle preferences by clicking the Preferences link next to the Froogle search box.
The bulk of Smart Search functionality becomes available after you search for a product. On the search results page, you’ll see a section located beneath the Froogle logo you won’t find in a normal Google Web search. This special Froogle section begins by displaying the name of the product for which a search is performed and on the same line, the number of results that are found, and not as important, the time it took Google to find these results. Figure 8.8 shows the various sections of the Froogle results page that make up the Smart Search functionality.
The special Smart Search categories intelligently configure themselves based on the type of product for which you’ve searched. Different categories are displayed for further focusing your search. The most common categories are Price, Sellers ratings, Related searches, and Stores. Another category that you will often see is Brand. The Brand category appears when the product you searched for includes this type of information. Another important category that you will see, when Smart Search thinks it’s appropriate, is Or refine by.... This category displays additional categories such as Stores, Capacity, Watts, Frequency, Volts, and other very specific categories you can use to further focus your product search.
The content within the categories also changes depending on your search. For example, when you search on USB memory, Froogle displays five different links beneath the Price category. There are also boxes allowing you to type a price range with a Go button, as shown in Figure 8.8. When you change products and search for speakers, you see four links with price ranges that appear far different from those displayed for the USB memory search. The only feature that remains the same between these searches is the ability to type a price range and click Go.
Froogle does not actually rate the stores or products. Froogle gets its product ratings information from other merchant sites such as shopping.com, designtechnica.com, pricegrabber.com, and others. Sellers are rated by customers. Sellers and products can be rated from 0 to 5 stars, with 5 stars meaning Excellent and 0 meaning Poor.
Not all the sellers or products are rated. When they do have ratings, the product ratings appear on the left, beneath the product, while the vendor ratings appear beneath the vendor name.
When a seller is reviewed and rated you see the stars displayed beneath the seller name along with the number of customers that reviewed and rated them.
To see the comments about the seller and why it obtained its rating, click on the stars or the number of sellers rating link. Froogle takes you to a page where you can read customer comments, as shown in Figure 8.9.
When reviewing the rating, you’ll find the seller’s name highlighted on the left side of the page, under Froogle’s logo. Shown in a box located beneath the seller’s name, is the rating (in stars), also, a numeric version of the rating, and a total of how many reviews were averaged to achieve this rating.
The left side of the page is informational and a way to browse through the comments. The Show section displays information about the reviews. You can click the Positive reviews link to read positive comments left by people about the seller. There are also links to Neutral reviews and Negative reviews. The number of reviews in each category is posted next to each link.
You can search for a term or keyword in all the reviews by typing the keyword in the search box and then clicking Go. For example, when you want to search to see if there is anything wrong with the service or item, type wrong in the box and click Go. If any reviews contain the word wrong, those reviews appear on the results page.
Occasionally, you find an All items from vendor link located below the store name. Clicking this link takes you to a new Froogle page that displays all the items this vendor has registered with Froogle.
Another section located on the left side of the store review page is called Frequently mentioned terms. These terms are the ones that appear frequently within the reviews. This feature is useful in order to see what people are saying frequently about this store.
Note
Some sites add terms at the end of their review such as customer support, customer service, see all ratings, and rating by online, so these terms will appear in the Froogle Frequently mentioned terms.
The Review sources section allows you to see all the sites that Froogle uses to display the store rating. On the right side of the page you can read reviews for the store written by customers. Froogle displays the first ten reviews (if the store has that many). If it has more than ten reviews you can click Next at the bottom of the page to see the next ten. You can sort the reviews by date by clicking the Sort by date link.
Froogle’s product rating page works in a manner similar to the seller rating page. After clicking on the stars or on the numeric rating the review page launches. You will find the box located beneath the Froogle logo that displays the product rating. There are four features located on the left side of the review page. These include:
Show
Search within the review
Frequently mentioned terms
Review sources
Read the customer reviews located in the center of the review page. You may find yourself interested in a particular review source. You can group the reviews by source by clicking the Group by review source link.
In each of the Froogle pages you will find the My Shopping List link located in the top right-hand corner of the page. You need a Google account to use this feature. If you don’t have a Google account, you can create one from the Froogle My Shopping List home page.
The Froogle My Shopping List feature is useful for all online shoppers. This feature is for true shoppers. When you consider purchasing a product but are not ready to buy it yet, My Shopping List keeps track of those products. You can add notes to the products or create a wish list to send to your family and friends so they know what to get you!
One important thing to know is that you can keep your shopping list private but still send your wish list to everyone. Because maintaining a shopping list requires that you log into your Google account, you can access your list from any Internet-connected computer.
Manage your shopping list by sorting the list items by price, by the date you added the item to the list, or in convenient alphabetical order.
Once you sign in to your Google account the My Shopping List page opens (see Figure 8.9). Find shopping list navigations links located on the left side of the page. They are divided into the following four parts:
View: You can view My Shopping List or My Wish List.
Sort by: Sort your list by Date added, Price: low to high, Price: high to low, and Title.
Search for other items: Type the product name you want to search on Froogle.
Find a Wish List: Type the e-mail address of your friends and family to see their wish lists.
To add an item to My Shopping List, log in to your Google account and follow these steps:
Go to Froogle’s home page (www.froogle.com).
Type the product name, and click Search.
When you find the product you want to add, click the Add to Shopping List link located on the search results page next to the product description.
After clicking the Add to Shopping List link, Froogle launches the My Shopping List page and the item you added will then appear. On the right side of the page you see a product image (if one is available). You also see the product name (with a link to the store where you can purchase it) and beneath that, the price, the store name, and a brief description of the product, as shown in Figure 8.10.
You can add a personal note to the product by clicking the edit link next to Notes. Type your note, and then click Save. Your notes are visible in your wish list as well. To add items to your Wish List, select the In Wish List checkbox.
To help you better manage your list, keeping it current, you can see the date you added products to your list. To delete a product from the shopping list click the Delete link.
You can add as many products as you want, but you are only able to view ten items at one time.
Froogle makes comparison shopping simple. Find the product you are looking for simply using the powerful Froogle search features. In addition to finding products, you can read reviews of the products and the vendors that sell them.
Froogle lets you find products being sold by both online sellers as well as physical stores. Typing your ZIP code allows Froogle to find stores with your desired product close to your home.
When you find products but are not quite ready to by them, or possibly hope that others will buy them for you, add them to My Shopping List and make sure to send others your Wish List. Shopping and browsing online can be a fun experience when it’s made this simple. You can continue your browsing fun by browsing through Google’s Directories, which are discussed in the next chapter.