Free Base

Go give Google some of your content. 

They'll store it, index it, and give it to the Internet.

It's a drug and they hope you take it.

I won't.

Even though I just did.

Google Base is "dBase in the sky" of sorts.

It's a good idea except that this content is getting created all over the place already.

At Typepad.

At MySpace.

At Blogger.

At Flickr.

At Delicious.

Posting, Subcribing, Tagging, and Search are an ecosystem.

An ecosystem that Google wants to own.

I don't think its going to play out that way.

Pieces loosely joined will beat one ring to rule them all.

At least that's my bet.

Umair sums up my feelings best on this one.

Except that I am not totally intent on missing any tetonic shifts!

Comments

[Toby]

I just have to say that the name of this post had me cracking up. Cool review too.

[JayR]

The Tetonic Shits? Didn't I see them at CBGB's in the late '70s?

[Fishbane]

I don't think it is about content. It is about classifieds.

[Dave McClure]

all i can say: "get higher baby..."

nice LOTR reference too. very Gevil.

[Scott Moody]

Fred,

I disagree with you here to some degree. Why not view Google Base as a way to drive more traffic to your website? Each record includes a contact field that will be listed in the search results and, when clicked-on from a search result, will take you directly to that URL. In this scenario, you simply populate Google Base will enough teaser info that leads people to follow the link and visit your site. From that perspective, why wouldn't everyone use Google Base as a way to increase traffic?

To me, Google Base is all about "the edge" and not about centralization. Search for a car, click on a link in a search result. Where do you go? To the edge. You have to have a centralized search database to make the edge useful.

- Scott

[Rick]

All those services that Fred mentions takes time to setup, configure, add to, etc.

Google Base seems to be about adding simple stuff quickly and about selling stuff quickly.

I think there's a need for that - have you ever listed somehting on ebay? Takes an hour just to do something simple.

[Ed Dunn]

Wow, Fred..I thought differently of you. You appear to get it! Google is trying to create a centralized database when there is something already out there called XML web services.

XML web services let web sites talk to each other providing content in a decentralized fashion. I was reading about a job site uploading their data to Google Base - why couldn't they just offer an XML web service which would be cheaper and have wider distribution?

I don't believe a big monolopy on data will prevail. XML web services is here to stay.

[will]

GoogleBase = What Oodle wanted to be. . . (before they were stopped by Craigslist)

[Ian Wilson]

My feeling is that this is potentially a case of "being in the right place at the right time". With reference to your points and Ed`s points I see a hole in the market. With the coming arrival of web services (web 2.0 = web services = easier to build services) we all see the potential to create great new businesses, however, it is not here yet.

I think of the situation now as cyclical, the rise of the services you mention and the new web service based offerings have primed the market. We dream of mix and matching data streams to create new services but it is currently only possible in a very limited way (i.e. the Google API). So we have frustration.

This presents an opening for Google base, forget waiting until all services have open APIs that allow you to use their data, instead just store your data with us and we can enable web services on a grand scale using our APIs. Oh, and by the way we can monetize those streams and mine your data (if we so desire).

The cyclical nature of innovation will continue and as more services become true web services the need for Google base will decrease, no doubt as people use it limitations and shortcomings will become apparent that cause frustration with it, ebb and flow, but for now the tide is coming in I think.

[Scott Moody]

My earlier point illustrated by Niall Kennedy:

"Why should you go to the trouble of submitting your information to Google Base? You will be completely sure that Google has all your latest content complete with the appropriate link back to your site. Feeding the content directly to Google may help your posts place better in Google search results."

And he provides a template to do just that for MovableType users:

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