ISEdb.COM

As the holiday season is approaching, Google has announced “Commerce Search,” its latest online service aimed at searching online stores for products and allowing users to perform advanced searches, sorting products by price and displaying descriptive information along with each item.

There is a consensus among IT analysts that most online retailers are not dedicating enough time and resources to search engine optimization, despite the opportunities that these efforts could bring them. The advent of Commerce Search should shift the focus of these companies’ SEO efforts towards a much smaller and simplified platform compared to the wealth of information available on a standard Google search, and therefore it will likely make things easier for online retailers.

According to data gathered by Google, Web users spend an average of just eight seconds on a retail site before deciding whether to stay or leave. With better SEO and a way of listing products that is consistent not only within a single online store, but across Google’s entire catalogue, the search giant hopes to make product information more easily accessible to consumers around the globe and help them make a better informed decision.

“We’re excited to bring Google Commerce Search to market in time for the holidays. To date the technology powering retail website stores has not kept pace with innovation in search. Google Commerce Search will help customers find accurate results extremely fast, to the benefit of retailers and customers alike,” Google Enterprise president Dave Girouard said in a statement.

The service lets users search and sort products by brand, price, category as well as any other attribute listed in the database. Retailers can also have featured listings, which are highlighted and draw the users’ attention. Embedded in Commerce Search is also a spell-check and synonyms functionality to make sure users can find what they are looking for, regardless of typos or a different product denomination.

The search will be taken care of by Google’s own servers and the service, including a full list of the products, will be integrated with the popular Product Search. Google Analytics will also be available to allow for a detailed report on what products customers have been searching.

Commerce Search will be priced according to the number of annual searches conducted on the site, with prices starting at $50,000 per year. A few beta testers, including Birkenstock USA, have commented favorably on it, and Google said it will target the top 1,000 online retailers in each country where it currently operates.

Microsoft’s Bing has been focusing on online shopping quite strongly since it was launched a few months ago, and analysts agree that Google’s move is mainly aimed at fighting its main rival on its own ground, attempting to steal back at least a portion of the customers who have recently migrated to Bing.

Further information, including the scheduling of future dedicated webinars, a complete feature list and — hopefully soon enough — a launch date, can be found on the Google Commerce official website.