« The [new-look] Age | Main | Safer Skype »

October 26, 2005

Google's base motives

Google has more plans for you and your stuff. It's called Google Base, [not currently up, but it looks like this], and the idea is that it hosts all manner of content that you assign to it.

Some of Google's examples of the sort of things you might post to Google Base:

It says that "You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they search Google Base. In fact, based on the relevance of your items, they may also be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local."

Sounds like a simple act of spontaneous generosity, huh? The sort of thing that would be eminently useful, if you happened to have a database of protein structures [how do those Google types come up with these things?]

Not according to Ars Technica: according to them, and others, the ultimate plan is to become something of an uber-classifieds site. [Just what Fairfax needs ... something else to dam those rivers of gold upstream].

No Wonder Craig's List seems to be trying to construct a walled garden.

Posted by cw at October 26, 2005 12:08 PM

Comments

It seems that they're being deliberately vague about exactly what it is. To be in direct competition with eBay it would have to offer auctions, which they haven't confirmed, but haven't denied either...

It'll be very interesting to see exactly what they've got planned, but as of now, everything we're hearing is basically just rumors and speculation.

Posted by: Jeremy Maddock at October 26, 2005 05:58 PM

Mirror please??

Posted by: Matt Shadbolt at October 27, 2005 09:39 PM

Here's some some information about Google Base.

Posted by: Jeremy Howard at October 27, 2005 09:58 PM

Post a comment




Remember Me?



(you may use HTML tags for style)