Google Shopping Mall (Beta)
A recent Wired article mentioned Google intends to integrate Google Base into the Google search + AdWords system where it can, to better track the entire purchase process, make ads more relevant and create another revenue stream:
“The quickest way to improve the quality of an ad is to have the ad instantaneously turn into a purchase that is 100 percent perfect,” [Eric Schmidt] said. “We now have a solution that we believe enables advertisers to offer a digital product on the Web so that when people click on it, through a credit-card mechanism, it is automatically taken care of.”
Google Base's take for matching buyers and sellers -- 25 cents plus 2.5 percent of the total sale for every paid transaction -- undercuts the average of 30 cents plus 2.9 percent eBay charges. And Google already draws more eyeballs than eBay -- the company had 89 million visitors in February, compared with eBay's 52 million, according to Nielsen NetRatings.
I think Google realizes that to some extent the AdSense system has been destructive to content quality. Favoring the creation of ulta biased hype spin linkworthy content or mass quantities of automated rubbish.
Will creating this database where people can distribute ideas, products, and services make that problem better or worse?
Do they think they will get 25 cents and 2.5% of real estate sales? How does that work?
Via WMW
i think you will still have
i think you will still have a good amount of crap and scams, but i dont think the problem will be anywhere near as bad as the adsense problems, largely because the end user doesn't really experience the down side of splogs -- they might get a bit irritated, but that cost is insignificant -- where as they would be hurt by a scamming seller, since they actually have to pay for it.
i think the successful sellers on google base are going to be the ones who can create strong and trustworthy identities online. the downside of this is that it's going to really incentivize identity theft and i hope google is prepared to address that should the problem arise on google base.
Sales Limit
The beta initially limits you to $500 in sales a month, which should deter larger scammers. I'm waiting to see what info G asks for to get the limit raised.
The limit does make it seem G is more concerned w/ p2p sales though.
by integrating google base
by integrating google base into the serps (which they have already done) it could help relevancy and will definitely make google's position more powerful since it will be involved in more of the buying process.