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Google Offers Checkout-optimized Results  (View post)

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

Wednesday, January 17, 2007
17 years ago8,028 views

I think this 100% OK. People who don't use Checkout / don't know what's that won't click it. Those who want to use it have a nice option (beside the ads).

It's the fifth link, so you can't say people are deceived. Froogle's results are unbiased (I hope), so that small link is just an option for those who use Checkout.

Maybe Google should show it only to those that use Checkout or make it optional.

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

And it's not so new (at least 2 months).

From November: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/11/google-checkout-for-holiday-shopping.html

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

> And it's not so new (at least 2 months).

Good point, so Danny can't really say that Google didn't learn from the tips controversy...

> Maybe Google should show it only to those that use
> Checkout or make it optional.

That would definitely help.

> Froogle's results are unbiased (I hope)

No, Froogle is not strictly unbiased, e.g. they display "Google Checkout Stores" on top of "eBay" in their stores restriction options, and they also give it an icon no other option gets. But I don't think that's really relevant because to my knowledge, Google never strongly claimed that Froogle is totally neutral, democratic etc.

Niraj Sanghvi [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

The way I see it, the thing that should be neutral (and what they claim is neutral) is only the actual search results. This would not include oneboxes, which they can use to push whatever services they like to you. While it's nice when they include competitors in something like maps or online shopping, there isn't a reason they shouldn't be allowed to show only their own service.

After all, it's their site and if you don't like it you have plenty of options. But in general it makes the experience better for those who do use an array of Google services, and none of it plays into the actual search results, which are the only part of the page which truly must be neutral.

To me it just doesn't make sense to say a company can't mention its own services without listing and linking competitors as well to remain "neutral." It's a company trying to make a profit.

Ryan [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I agree. I don't consider oneboxes as "search results" .... thus, the "search results" are still neutral.

It goes back to the conversationI have with people all the time:

Them: "I don't like google, all the search results are ads.. I never find what I want"

Me: "show me"

Me: "those aren't search results you're clicking on... those are the ads.. see?"

Them: "oh"

Nathan Jamin [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Apart from the above discussion, it's getting pretty crowded up there in my opinion...

Not very user friendly, looks like they're trying to shove as much information up there as possible.

Sure there is a nicer way to do this...

Katinka Hesselink [PersonRank 2]

17 years ago #

I agree with Nathan that those five lines look very crowded – not at all google-clean.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Ryan, but that's why ads in search results are disclosed as such (they're titled "sponsored links"). This onebox on the other hand is titled "Product search results" so yes, it's a search result (a search result within a search result, to be exact). I don't know about Froogle itself, but as long as it's included as part of the web search result, its output should adhere to the neutrality standards Google set for its search... unless the onebox carries a disclosure, of course, that identifies it as "promotion" or whatever Google tries to do with the box.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

"his onebox on the other hand is titled "Product search results" so yes, it's a search result (a search result within a search result, to be exact)"

Correct- we also need to understand is that "oneBox" is googles entry point back again into their own farms. This makes it easier to makert and tighten up the web services across the web itself. I see no porblems with a little button for maps , calender and checkout all within onebox. In fact thats what they need there .. and theres Nothing wrong with that!!

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

On a somewhat related side-note, Google is also promoting Checkout on the US homepage today:

http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-checkout-promotion-2007.png
http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&gl=us

(But that's not the search result of course, so nothing debatable about that, unless you want to debate clutter...)

[Thanks Oradzuza!]

/mjl/ [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

As someone with a Google account, I really like the link to Google Checkout items. It's useful. But, would it be useful (relevant) for people with paypal accounts to have a link for that as well? Does the top start to get crowded? Can the crowding be solved by some ajax trick, ala Searchmash? Are enough users of Google sufficiently savvy to figure out how to use Ajax interfaces, or would Google loose a lot of views of these results if they were initially, for instance, folded?

Danny Sullivan [PersonRank 2]

17 years ago #

> And it's not so new (at least 2 months).

Interesting – it did indeed seem new. I've done plenty of searches and not seen this come up, and I did an exact search on some of the key text and didn't find it coming up either. Perhaps they weren't rolling this out for everyone and are making it out there more widely. Anyway, I'll add this to the story.

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