Google Base vs. Ebay & Newspapers.

I’m sure most of my readers have heard the buzz about "Google Base" and probably lots of you have even seen some screenshots of it.

According to the official Google blog as posted by by Tom Oliveri, Product Marketing Manager

We are testing a new way for content owners to submit their content to Google, which we hope will complement existing methods such as our web crawl and Google Sitemaps.

If you’re wondering what this could mean, here’s a great article by Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer. In this article, Michael states:

By offering a forum that would enable people to sell goods and services without paying for the advertising, Google might hurt eBay

He also states:

Another free online classified ad service also would pose another financial threat to newspapers

Keep in mind, Google own’s 25% stake in www.craigslist.org and Craig himself was quoted in this article saying

(Google Base) would certainly give people pause.

More Google Base information:

Philipp Lenssen and Garry Price have done a great job of organizing the first news on Google Base.

Garry Price from Search Engine watch recieved and reported some "official words" from Google stating that Google Base:

is an early-stage test of a product that enables content owners to easily send their content to Google. Like our web crawl and the recently released Google Sitemaps program, we are working to provide content owners an easy way to give us access to their content. We’re continually exploring new opportunities to expand our offerings, but we don’t have anything to announce at this time.

Gary also point to an article on the WSJ that states:

• "Google Base would let users submit information to a searchable Google database, according to images of Web pages from the service that were posted on several Web logs and which Google confirmed were legitimate."
• "But the existence of Google Base heightens anticipation of the Mountain View, Calif., company’s long-expected entry into direct competition with online auctioneer eBay, which also owns a minority stake in classified listings site Craigslist Inc."
• "It’s going to slowly chip away at eBay’s growth and opportunities, especially in international markets where there is a tremendous amount of growth at Google," said Brian Blair, principal at Wedge Partners LLC, a New York research firm.

You can also see the Search Engine Watch forum thread on Google Base.

Philipp Lenssen added these two great resources on Google Base

Google base series of screenshots from Google blogoscoped.

Article on Google Base on Google Blogoscoped.

Here’s another good page I found on Google Base:

Google base from "the new google blog"

How do you think SEO’s could utulize this?

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