Google Base Goes Live: Reactions (GOOG, EBAY, MNST)

posted on: November 16, 2005 | about stocks: EBAY / GOOG / MNST    

The much anticipated Google Base went live today and began accepting user-submitted content. Speculation that Base might threaten Ebay, Craigslist, or Monster right out of the shute was quickly laid to rest, as no e-commerce or paid access function is currently incorporated, and classified-type listings are currently truncated and simply link to the original site.

Base does incorporate Google Maps in a helpful way -- a Base search for 'programmer, chicago' yields a page with job listings on the left side, and a map plotting those workplaces on the right. [Shades of Craigslist-based Housingmaps.]

Reactions from Google execs, analysts, and content experts:

  • Google's VP for Product Management, Salar Kamangar: "We think of it as an extension of existing content efforts we have now. We didn't have a general way for people to push information to us that they didn't think was being represented in our search results."
  • Kamangar to the Wall St. Journal (sub. req.): 'Some people will use it for posting commercial things, but I'm not sure at all that it's going to be a primary usage.'
  • Gary Price, SearchEngineWatch: 'The big news about Google Base is that it will help companies, news organizations, publishers, etc., get content and links into the Google system, quickly.'
  • Danny Sullivan, SearchEngineWatch: 'I already have seen enough to find the entire thing a big giant step backwards... Maybe it really will turn into a great place for those with classified listings that will lead to a dedicated spin-off service. The overall goal seems to be put this tool out there and see what people make of it.'
  • Bill Burnham: 'Google intends to build the world's largest RSS "reader" which in turn will become the world's largest XML database.'
  • Michael Arrington: 'This is not a very interesting application in its current form. It’s like a 1985 dBASE file with less functionality.'
  • John Battelle: 'Behold, the physical world rendered as information. . . . if it's not in the index, it's not considered valuable in a search-driven world. This, of course, is a new way to Get Into The Index. We've only just begun....'
  • Tom Olgin: 'It allows structured and unstructured content to be uploaded. Google currently relies on keywords, which despite all their Ph.D.s and fancy lunches, falls flat on its face when searching for stuff like events, prices, reviews, etc.'
  • Charlene Li: 'rather than have to figure out, build, and maintain lots of different applications, Google will allow developers to access the information, on the condition that the applications be “Base enabled"... sound familiar? Microsoft’s Windows Live and Office Live are built on a similar premise (albeit sans database -- at least for now).'
  • Peter M. Zollman, Classified Intelligence: 'It will be a huge threat to traditional classified businesses.'

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This article has 1 comment:

  • Dion Almaer
    Nov 16 10:30 AM
    My Website
    What strikes me about Google Base is visable on the home page. Compare base.google.com to craigslist. One feels like a community, the other feels like a machine :)

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