Google launches shopping search engine for online stores

Jake Widman
Friday, 06 November 2009 00:54

Business IT - Technology

The search giant has introduced Google Commerce Search, a search engine intended for use by large online retailers. Google hosts the search data, meaning that retailers can get a searchable catalog up and running quickly.

Google claims that visitors give a shopping site an average of eight seconds before deciding whether to move on. Without a good search tool, the company says, a retailer is likely to lose those potential customers.

To use Google Commerce Search, a merchant would first upload product data through one of three available methods. The Google tools will then index and categorize all the products, while the merchant uses an administrative console to customize the search engine's appearance.

The result is a search engine that looks like it's on the retailer's site that features Google search enhancements like filtering results by category, brand or other attribute, understanding misspelled terms and synonyms, and other familiar features.

A full data sheet (PDF) is available here.

Google is promoting Commerce Search now as a way for retailers to get ready for the holiday rush. A custom search engine is supposed to be deployable within a few days.

The search engine also ties into Google Analytics to enable a business to track the effectiveness of promotions, most-searched products, and so on.

The service is expensive, though -- according to the San Francisco Chronicle, prices start at US$50,000 per year, and Google is targeting the top thousand retailers in each country where the company operates.