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MARCH 19, 2003 CLICKS & MISSES By Ben Elgin Google's Offspring: Taking Baby Steps Its Froogle shopping site and Google News news-gathering site are nowhere near the category killers that the search site is
Google's goal: channel its dynamite search technology to provide shopping and news sites that rival those offered by the mega-portals. And to do that cheaper and more profitably by using more automation than they do. It's a great thought, but the portals needn't sweat bullets anytime soon. Sure, Google's recently uncorked new offerings remain true to its strengths -- speedily churning out a large number of relevant links. And in fairness, both sites are still in test-mode, meaning Google is still tweaking formats, features, and search algorithms. HALF THE EQUATION. However, after spending several hours plowing through the new Google sites and those of its competitors, one thing becomes crystal clear: The search technology that makes Google so special for navigating the Internet is at best only half of the equation when creating engaging online shopping or news-gathering experiences. Take the cleverly named Froogle. It aims to showcase only product-specific pages that let users conduct a transaction. Search for "sleeping bag," and Froogle will pull hundreds of product listings from online sellers like Kmart, with key specs such as price, brand, a description, and often a photo. And instead of showing you a link to the main page of Kmart.com, Froogle will find the specific page that sells sleeping bags. Like Google.com, Froogle is sparsely decorated, with a minimalist design that offers a relief for harried Internet users. The front page has a box to enter a search query and a small text directory of 14 particular shopping categories, and little else. Simplicity contributes to Froogle's speediness: On one particular evening, Froogle's site loads over a high-speed connection in less than two seconds, vs. eight for Yahoo's shopping site. Shop for a handful of presents and that difference in page-load times starts to add up. NO CONVENIENCES. That's where the advantages end. While Froogle can churn out a lot of relevant product listings in a hurry, it's still only a search engine, a passive conduit that boasts a minimal relationship with the buyers and sellers it connects. This hurts the shopping experience. Buyers can't store credit-card information or shipping information with Froogle, thus requiring them to reenter this data at every place they shop. Moreover, Froogle doesn't provide a virtual shopping cart. So, if you're not sure if you want to buy that particular baby stroller, you'd better bookmark that link, because you have no way to set aside that possibility for later. Yahoo's shopping site (shopping.yahoo.com), on the other hand, boasts both of these handy features. Fill your shopping cart with six products from six different stores. Before checking out, you might have a change of heart on two products and hit delete. Then, instead of going back to the remaining four sites and punching in payment and shipping information, you simply confirm the data that Yahoo has at the ready and hit purchase. It's a strikingly more convenient way to shop online and can save 10 to 15 minutes with multiple purchases. SMARTER SORTS. Froogle also lags behind in how it uses the data it gets from sellers. Search Froogle for a "nonstick cookware set" between $50 and $150, and you'll get about 135 listings from the likes of Kohl's, Kmart, and Appliances.com. But who wants to manually plow through 135 listings, which translates into about 14 pages of search results? Jumbo shopping site Amazon.com (AMZN ) lets users sort products by brand, price, even by the hottest-selling items. Comparison-shopping site DealTime.com takes it a step further, letting users sort by the category of cookware, from omelet pans to woks. Froogle, however, now offers none of the above, forcing users to plow through lists of results to make sure they're finding the best product and price. Google's news site holds up a little better vs. the competition, but it still has some challenges. To be sure, the site blows away rivals with its sheer scope, aggregating news stories from 4,500 publications across the globe, vs. one or two dozen key content suppliers for Yahoo News (news.yahoo.com), for instance. GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE. Google's computer-generated news pages rely little on human news judgement, but often produce fascinating results by pairing stories about the same events from different publications. On a recent afternoon, the International Herald Tribune grabbed the top spot with a story about a U.S. resolution against Iraq. Next to it was a story from Arab News, entitled "Bush Does Need Our Permission." It's tough to rival this global perspective anywhere on the Web. Like Froogle, however, Google's news site has no way of knowing who you are. This means it can't offer news pages tailor-made to a visitor's interests. So, while a Yahoo News doesn't offer the same volume of sources as Google's news site, it still lets users personalize a page, say, by putting the business headlines and a local weather forecast at the top of the page and nixing the entertainment gossip. And while Google's international perspective in news and world events is intriguing, it can be a bit annoying when plowing through the sports section. When hunting for the latest preseason baseball action, I had to zoom past countless stories about Europe's myriad soccer leagues and a profile of some new hotshot cricket player. While a search on "baseball" fixes that problem, it also omits headlines from other sports I may want, like basketball or football. All told, Google's new properties have some potential. But they're still a far cry from a looming threat to the major portals.  Elgin covers technology from BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau Edited by Tim Mullaney Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | MARCH |
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