A Couple Words from Froogle
After SES, I sat down with Debbie Jaffe, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Google to talk about Froogle. Here’s what she had to say. Thanks to Sonya Boralv for setting up the meeting.
Where did Froogle come from?
It started three and a half years ago. A lot of searches are related to shopping, and we probably weren’t servicing the user as well as possible. It was the first opportunity for anyone to actually submit information to Google and there certainly was a need for merchants to submit feeds. [Froogle] is a good exercise in learning those technologies. We’re organizing more of the world’s information, but when looking at online shopping, there’s certain type of information that’s important; picture, price, reviews, etc.
How does Froogle operate within Google?
Google is functionally organized. We hire athletes, not shortstops.
How many people work on Froogle? Who works on Froogle?
We don’t disclose that information. Lots of resources are shared across different Google products.
Are you building a customer service team?
We have an online operations team. People do look at feedback. With Froogle, in particular, we’ve worked with the support team to look at problems.
What are your strengths?
1. The relentless pursuit of comprehensiveness. [We have] the biggest retailers and the smallest ones. We’re equally as good for someone looking for an electric guitar as for yarn or a knitting pattern.
2. Providing information. We started with a product name, description, and price. Now we have reviews of products and merchants, grid listing, shopping lists.
Can you go into a little more detail?
From the users perspective…
-The shopping list is not just a wish list for yourself. You can keep a private list, but you can also find out what to buy for a friend’s wedding. A lot of users don’t know about [this service].
[Editor's Note. Go here for more information. From the site: "If you want to share your list with friends or family, you can create a Wish List that's accessible to others. Just check the "In Wish List" checkbox next to the item. Your Wish List is the public part of your Shopping List and will be accessible to anyone who searches for your e-mail address on the Froogle Shopping List homepage. You can also email the URL with your Wish List to others. (If you send out your Wish List a few weeks before Christmas or your holiday, you may never again receive an orange and green plaid sweater for a present.)"]
-You can create a user account.
-You can filter by price. It’s a small thing but very helpful.
From the merchant perspective…
-Froogle is free. It’s very accessible to any merchant of any size. We make the process as simple as possible. We started with FTP, but there were so many questions about it that users can now simply upload and review diagnostics. We have no plans to charge for Froogle. In showing results, it’s important not to be biased by what merchants pay. Someone might have an equally valid website but not big marketing budget. We enable vendors that wouldn’t otherwise want to pay.
As merchants see more of the shopping engine listings appear in the organic and paid results, is there a threat that merchants will stop listing in AdWords or YSM and choose the shopping engines instead? Also, is there a conflict of interest in pushing Froogle results within the regular search results? Could you lose out on AdWords revenue?
We haven’t found that. Merchants look at Google as a marketing vehicle with AdWords, web search, Froogle. When marketers are asked what and where they are spending, they can look at more returns with less investment. We don’t believe there’s a problem. The more merchants that are on Google, the more people will come to Google to shop. We’re expanding the pie.
What about other services like travel or mortgages?
We’re focused on products for sale online. We have auto parts, but not necessarily cars. However, we’re always looking for new ways to get information to users.
What about the user experience? Someone types in iPod and the first thing they get is an iPod accessory.
Quality is very important to us. We’re having trouble distinguishing what’s an iPod and what’s an accessory, but price range is also a way for people to search. That said, we should do it automatically. Quality is an area we’re constantly working on.
Are you marketing Froogle?
We’ve done some marketing for Froogle, but Google in general does not do a lot. We take advantage of our own properties. We use AdWords.
You must be logged in to post a comment.