All Your Base Are Belong To Google
Just days after the shaky release of Google Analytics, Google have announced one of their more curious offerings is now available, albeit this time under a Beta label.
I have to admit I was initially puzzled and still am in a way by Google Base - it’s purpose doesn’t jump out on first glance.
It’s also difficult to explain in a simple comparison with something else, though the Web seems intent on comparing it to either eBay or craigslist.
It isn’t mainly concerned with just online buying-&-selling like those businesses however, and works more as a simple web-publishing system where people can post any type of information - not just advertise - with a view of reaching an audience.
Depending on the type of information you upload to your Base, it is then made available to all of the other users searching on Google Base, and may even get propagated out to Froogle, Google Local or to Google.com’s search index, depending on which one it is relevant to.
One basic advantage I can see of Google Base is to Google itself - it allows Google to index information that the normal G search engine would find impossible to index itself; for instance in the FAQ, they suggest users add offline content to the Base.
As the company’s stated goal is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible, what better way to achieve this than to offer the world a way to easily send the information that the web crawler can’t reach itself, and offer the users an incentive for doing so - ie. users receive a portion of Google’s audience for their item in exchange for adding a little more to Google’s vast collection of information.
For more on Google Base:
Official Google Base FAQ
Memeorandum
John Battelle: All Your Base Are Google, The Launch
Google Base creates a structured Web
