Understanding Google Base

Okay, so it's probably best to think of Google Base (base.google.com) as a giant database of products and services. As Google says, the goal of Google Base is to "collect and organize information and to expose it to the world." Of course, most of the "information" that Google talks about is actually physical products, for sale by owner; the amount of free information offered in Google Base is a small subset of the total listings.

The reason that Google talks about collecting information is because that's exactly what they collectinformation about physical products for sale, as well as other offline and online content. Google deals in the information about the items for sale, not in the items themselves.

The nice thing about Google Base is that it's a totally free service for both buyers and sellers. Items you post for sale on Google Base are available to users of the Google Base site; depending on their relevance (that is, their popularity vis a vis links from other websites), they may also appear on Google proper, Froogle, or Google Maps.

What kinds of items can you post on Google Base? Obviously, you can post information about physical items you're selling, from clothing to cars and just about anything in-between. You can also post nonphysical items for sale, such as poems, short stories, informational guides, cooking recipes, electronic books, digital artwork, and the like. You can even post items or information for free distribution; Google Base doesn't have to be just for selling.

And you can choose howor, more precisely, whereyou sell or distribute your items. If you want to use Google Base as a classified advertising service to sell items for local pickup or delivery, you can. If you want to offer items online for shipment anywhere in the country (or the world), you can. It's your choice.

Note

When you post an item on Google Base, you describe it by assigning multiple keywords in the form of labels and attributes. Think of a label as the major product category (automobile, clothing, short story, and so on) and attributes as subcategories or descriptors (Ford, Taurus, 4-door, black, and so on). Potential buyers use these attributes to fine-tune their searches.

After you've posted an item, it's available for searching by other Google Base users. It's possible that your item will also show up on Google proper (or on Froogle or Google Maps), but don't hold your breath; it has to build up relevance the old-fashioned way, via lots of links from other sites, before Google adds it to its normal search index.