Google as a CSE

Google Product Search is the users interface of the Google CSE. If you are new to CSE';s Google Product Search is probably the best place to get your feet wet. There is no risk in testing this platform because currently there is no cost associated with listing or clicks on your products via Google Product Search. To the right is a screenshot of Google Product Search and below that is a search results page for the query "Asolo FSN 95". As you can see there are many vendors listed with images, prices and reviews all reverent to the above query. There are also highly relevent paid search results on top and to the right.

To get started you need to visit the Google Base Site (Screen Shot Below) when there you see three different options for getting your products listed. I have never tried the "One at a time" method because of the sheer number of products that get uploaded on behalf of the company I work for. This is why we use the "Data feed" method and an updated feed gets sent out every morning. The third option is "API" and I can only assume that it is also a great way to get products listed. For some strange reason there is two different names, Google Base is the backend interface for listing your products on Google Product Search. Confusing I know especially for a Google product, but remember it is still in Beta so that could all change.

Revised CSE Relationship Chart

Since the rebrand of MSN's Search, Shopping and Affiliate properties to Bing, and some new information from a couple of the Shopping Engines. It seemed like a perfect time to revise the CSE Relationship Chart and add all this new information. Below is the revised CSE Relationship Chart. The additions include the MSN restructure and change to Bing as well as adding a new child under Become.com and Shopping.com.

Amazon as a CSE

Alright let's get back at it with the Comparison Shopping Engines. The first Tier 1 Shopping Engine listed in the CSE Relationship Chart from my last post was Amazon.com with the child site of BrowseGoods.com. BroweGoods is a visual shopping aid and eventually links directly to Amazon.com for the final sale. Amazon also has associates (affiliates) that help move their product and your product if you have it listed with them. However, as far as them being a Comparison Shopping Engine I don't think I would classify them as that since for a lot of products, especially shoes and apparel, no actual comparisons are made. For the products that do have comparisons they are less obvious than most CSE's and one click deeper. I think Amazon.com would be better classified as an affiliate. As a merchant you can put your products on Amazon.com but there is little to no competition like on other CSE's. Amazon will just display the product and price with a note that the order will be filled by Merchant X, and to compare you have to dig deeper with the link to the right "More Buying Choices." I don't have any personal experience with Amazon because when I came to work for my current employer they had already ceased the relationship with Amazon due to too many technical issues with data feeds and implementation. However I would assume that most of the time the rewards for having your product on Amazon would be worth the implementation and data feed hassles due to the sheer ammount of traffic that they drive. If your business aligns with Amazon's core market of books, movies, music and games it would most likely be a strong partnership. The partnership would also benifit from Amazon's other web properties such as IMDB.com and CDnow.com which should get your products even more exposure. To list your products on Amazon you use the Amazon Marketplace. Next time I will cover Google Product Search and Shopzilla.

CSE Relationship Chart

Comparison Shopping Engines (CSE's) have a similarity to Search Engines in the fact that there are relationships between engines. With Search Engines there is a well know source for visualizing the relationships which is Bruce Clay's Search Engine Relationship Chart, and it shows how paid and organic results populate other search engines. I have looked for a similar chart that shows how data feeds trickle down from one CSE to their affiliates or other web properties, and have had no luck. So I did a little research and created an initial draft of something similar. This may change over the next month or two because I need to verify the these conclusion with each CSE, but it's a start. Over the next couple of weeks I will take a closer look at each of the Parent Shopping Engines starting with Tier 1 and working my way through Tier 2 posting any interesting details that I come across.

There is a Revised CSE Relationship Chart available.