Many of you received an email from the Google Base team regarding some new attribute requirements earlier today. For certain categories of products (consumer electronics, media, and books), we're asking providers to send us the MPN, UPC, or ISBN information for their items.
Our support specialist Chris Azalde posted earlier today with some clarifications and suggestions regarding our new attribute requirements. You may also find it helpful to take a look at our FAQ:
If you still have questions after reading the post, please include your questions in this thread. Both Chris and I will be monitoring the discussion and providing feedback for some common questions that arise.
I am an artist and selling my own original artwork (primarily paintings). As such, there is no UPC. If a UPC is required, aren't you automatically excluding all original art and artisan crafts? That would make google base a sad place indeed if only mass-produced items can be listed on it.
im assuming that for products that dont have upc or mpn values, how is this going to work? i mean if im searching for some art work made by a random individual, what would the upc or mpn do?
for now, im thinking that google just wont use this info for those items. i mean, how can you categorize items using this info when it doesnt exist!
> I am an artist and selling my own original artwork (primarily > paintings). As such, there is no UPC. If a UPC is required, aren't > you automatically excluding all original art and artisan crafts? > That would make google base a sad place indeed if only mass-produced > items can be listed on it.
Please know that these new required attributes are not intended to exclude items from Google Base; but instead, these attributes are intended to allow us to categorize items in popular and standardized product types in order to return more relevant results to our users. If these attributes are not applicable to your items, you may leave these attributes blank or omit them from your file. Omitting these unique identifiers for products such as original art and artisan crafts will not affect these items' placement or inclusion in our search results. Although there is no need to include attributes in your bulk upload that are completely irrelevant to your items, we do highly recommend including as much information as possible to help us match users' queries to your items.
> I am an artist and selling my own original artwork (primarily > paintings). As such, there is no UPC. If a UPC is required, aren't > you automatically excluding all original art and artisan crafts? > That would make google base a sad place indeed if only mass-produced > items can be listed on it.
Actually, it's not just the email with verbiage pointing to these attributes as being perceived as required. It may not be, but verbiage stating, "...can affect the relevance of your items in our search results.", found at http://base.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=69820&topic=11909, might as well say that they are.
There are a ton of items out there that don't have the luxury (or need) for an UPC or EAN. So in reality, at some point "relevant results" becomes synonymous to "big box" merchants - who can afford to obtain such from the UCC (now GS1), or those that only resell/ retail such products that deserve a UPC.
Not sure what that means to "relevancy" at that stage - re: you either find an item known as 123456789012 which is sold across 100s of merchants, likely also in more "suitable" venues like some online store (as opposed to Google Base), since it's likely to be there too (it has a UPC, so its certainly not an "original" and is distributed in some volume), or this one of a kind gem.
Hi Chris, I don't know that techie types realize this but the ISBN number did not come into general use til after 1971. There were a awful lot of books printed BEFORE that. They remain readable, desirable, marketable, collectable and profitable. Excluding books from any listing based on an ISBN is to follow ebay's wrong-headed example with Half.com where sales have plummetted since they "killed" it.
I've had amazing sales with the googlebase store connector and my ebay store. I feel like implementation of this requirement is a distinct slap in the face to sellers, on and off-ebay, who sell vintage items. Please reconsider. NOT everyone wants another 50 cent "BEST SELLER" to read. The money in books, is in older, rarer items. NON-ISBN items actually.
If you're doing this to give your big box merchants an advantage, remember, it only works if the rest of us go shop at their stores via Googlebase. I won't be doing that now. Not gonna support the creeps that are trying to drive me and other small sellers out of business. Thanks - it was fun while it lasted.
> Please know that these new required attributes are not intended to > exclude items from Google Base; but instead, these attributes are > intended to allow us to categorize items in popular and standardized > product types in order to return more relevant results to our users. > If these attributes are not applicable to your items, you may leave > these attributes blank or omit them from your file. Omitting these > unique identifiers for products such as original art and artisan > crafts will not affect these items' placement or inclusion in our > search results. Although there is no need to include attributes in > your bulk upload that are completely irrelevant to your items, we do > highly recommend including as much information as possible to help us > match users' queries to your items.
Thanks for your comments so far. One thing to remember, we understand that many products don't have UPC/MPN/ISBN codes universally available. For example, many books predate the ISBN system. As this is the case, no merchants will be able to provide this information for those particular items. In the end, these items will see no significant effect on their placement in our search results. In fact, we're not removing or disapproving any items missing these unique identifiers.
We do realize that these requirements are a big change, but we hope that it will lead to better visibility for all of our providers - not only our bigger merchants.
> Hi Chris, > I don't know that techie types realize this but the ISBN number did > not come into general use til after 1971. There were a awful lot of > books printed BEFORE that. They remain readable, desirable, > marketable, collectable and profitable. Excluding books from any > listing based on an ISBN is to follow ebay's wrong-headed example with > Half.com where sales have plummetted since they "killed" it.
> I've had amazing sales with the googlebase store connector and my ebay > store. I feel like implementation of this requirement is a distinct > slap in the face to sellers, on and off-ebay, who sell vintage items. > Please reconsider. NOT everyone wants another 50 cent "BEST SELLER" to > read. The money in books, is in older, rarer items. NON-ISBN items > actually.
> If you're doing this to give your big box merchants an advantage, > remember, it only works if the rest of us go shop at their stores via > Googlebase. I won't be doing that now. Not gonna support the creeps > that are trying to drive me and other small sellers out of business. > Thanks - it was fun while it lasted.
> On Jun 18, 7:49 pm, Chris A. wrote:
> > Please know that these new required attributes are not intended to > > exclude items from Google Base; but instead, these attributes are > > intended to allow us to categorize items in popular and standardized > > product types in order to return more relevant results to our users. > > If these attributes are not applicable to your items, you may leave > > these attributes blank or omit them from your file. Omitting these > > unique identifiers for products such as original art and artisan > > crafts will not affect these items' placement or inclusion in our > > search results. Although there is no need to include attributes in > > your bulk upload that are completely irrelevant to your items, we do > > highly recommend including as much information as possible to help us > > match users' queries to your items.
Carmen here. We didn't even KNOW we could put the store connector together with an eBay store. Our fault. We sell over in quilting so we're not a competitor of your's. We are carmen7887. Would you be willing to point us in the direction on the Google groups or other so that we could do the same? Don't want to take you away from your time needed to run an eBay store - but if you have time we'd sure appreciate it. eBay store sales for us are way down and we're trying all channels that make sense. Hope Google didn't mess things up for you. This requirement (lack of a UPC in our case) is why we can't go on Amazon. Their requirement, I believe is carved in stone.
Best Wishes, Carmen and John (carmen7887 - Crate and Pallet)
> Hi Chris, > I don't know that techie types realize this but the ISBN number did > not come into general use til after 1971. There were a awful lot of > books printed BEFORE that. They remain readable, desirable, > marketable, collectable and profitable. Excluding books from any > listing based on an ISBN is to follow ebay's wrong-headed example with > Half.com where sales have plummetted since they "killed" it.
> I've had amazing sales with the googlebase store connector and my ebay > store. I feel like implementation of this requirement is a distinct > slap in the face to sellers, on and off-ebay, who sell vintage items. > Please reconsider. NOT everyone wants another 50 cent "BEST SELLER" to > read. The money in books, is in older, rarer items. NON-ISBN items > actually.
> If you're doing this to give your big box merchants an advantage, > remember, it only works if the rest of us go shop at their stores via > Googlebase. I won't be doing that now. Not gonna support the creeps > that are trying to drive me and other small sellers out of business. > Thanks - it was fun while it lasted.
> On Jun 18, 7:49 pm, Chris A. wrote:
> > Please know that these new required attributes are not intended to > > exclude items from Google Base; but instead, these attributes are > > intended to allow us to categorize items in popular and standardized > > product types in order to return more relevant results to our users. > > If these attributes are not applicable to your items, you may leave > > these attributes blank or omit them from your file. Omitting these > > unique identifiers for products such as original art and artisan > > crafts will not affect these items' placement or inclusion in our > > search results. Although there is no need to include attributes in > > your bulk upload that are completely irrelevant to your items, we do > > highly recommend including as much information as possible to help us > > match users' queries to your items.
> > Chris > > The Google Base Team- Hide quoted text -
Carmen here. We didn't even KNOW we could put the store connector together with an eBay store. Our fault. We sell over in quilting so we're not a competitor of your's. We are carmen7887. Would you be willing to point us in the direction on the Google groups or other so that we could do the same? Don't want to take you away from your time needed to run an eBay store - but if you have time we'd sure appreciate it. eBay store sales for us are way down and we're trying all channels that make sense. Hope Google didn't mess things up for you. This requirement (lack of a UPC in our case) is why we can't go on Amazon. Their requirement, I believe is carved in stone.
Best Wishes, Carmen and John (carmen7887 - Crate and Pallet)
> Hi Chris, > I don't know that techie types realize this but the ISBN number did > not come into general use til after 1971. There were a awful lot of > books printed BEFORE that. They remain readable, desirable, > marketable, collectable and profitable. Excluding books from any > listing based on an ISBN is to follow ebay's wrong-headed example with > Half.com where sales have plummetted since they "killed" it.
> I've had amazing sales with the googlebase store connector and my ebay > store. I feel like implementation of this requirement is a distinct > slap in the face to sellers, on and off-ebay, who sell vintage items. > Please reconsider. NOT everyone wants another 50 cent "BEST SELLER" to > read. The money in books, is in older, rarer items. NON-ISBN items > actually.
> If you're doing this to give your big box merchants an advantage, > remember, it only works if the rest of us go shop at their stores via > Googlebase. I won't be doing that now. Not gonna support the creeps > that are trying to drive me and other small sellers out of business. > Thanks - it was fun while it lasted.
> On Jun 18, 7:49 pm, Chris A. wrote:
> > Please know that these new required attributes are not intended to > > exclude items from Google Base; but instead, these attributes are > > intended to allow us to categorize items in popular and standardized > > product types in order to return more relevant results to our users. > > If these attributes are not applicable to your items, you may leave > > these attributes blank or omit them from your file. Omitting these > > unique identifiers for products such as original art and artisan > > crafts will not affect these items' placement or inclusion in our > > search results. Although there is no need to include attributes in > > your bulk upload that are completely irrelevant to your items, we do > > highly recommend including as much information as possible to help us > > match users' queries to your items.
> > Chris > > The Google Base Team- Hide quoted text -
I Have Artificial Jewelry Web site. And i have i uploded products in bulk in google base around 10 days ago.but when i am searching it i found none of my products is listed in google products. Please help me.
> im assuming that for products that dont have upc or mpn values, how is > this going to work? i mean if im searching for some art work made by a > random individual, what would the upc or mpn do?
> for now, im thinking that google just wont use this info for those > items. i mean, how can you categorize items using this info when it > doesnt exist!
> On Jun 18, 2:56 pm, breezyzen wrote:
> > I am an artist and selling my own original artwork (primarily > > paintings). As such, there is no UPC. If a UPC is required, aren't > > you automatically excluding all original art and artisan crafts? > > That would make google base a sad place indeed if only mass-produced > > items can be listed on it.
