A busy week for Google, so it seems. But when is it never busy in that place?
Their latest offering is Google Base (beta). Another free service if you’ve got a Google account or gMail address. What are they running with this time? “Help The World Find Your Content”.
To be perfectly honest, its hard enough to find my own site on Google. I can find my ICQ profile from 1998. I can find my deviantART print store. No sign of my domain there. But thats another matter altogether. What I’m more interested in is that if people keep continuing submitting their sites to Google and you can’t find them – how on earth are you expected to find that Chicken Korma recipe you wrote yesterday, or that ad you posted looking for a temp for the office?
Social tagging!
Is Base a jazzed up version of del.icio.us?
Google Base enables you to add attributes that better describe your content so that users can easily find it
So I tested it out myself. Base allows you to submit ‘people profiles’, so I throw Ken McGuire up in a profile… a short while later, bang – there I am. Search ‘Ken McGuire’ on Base and you’ll find me! Search on Google and you’ve no chance.
What kind of items can you put into Google Base?
- Description of your party planning service
- Articles on current events from your website
- Listing of your used car for sale
- Database of protein structures
At least it works in the sense that your details are published almost immediately. Whatever you post, does expire after 31 days max, which is good for keeping content fresh – though you can choose to reactivate it at a later date. It’s supposed to integrate with Froogle but if it can help improve a search result on Google then I’m all for it!
Update:
I’m impressed with the relative speed and ease at which material goes up on Google Base. They are touting it as a great research tool for students, parents etc (isn’t that what the Internet is!?), I just hope it doesn’t become overcrowded with junk. Want to see my little entry…. click here.
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