Google Jumps Google Base

The big boys always seem to take heat when modifications are made to their services. Then again, the smaller guys tend to be more cautious and less ‘experimental’ when it comes to implementing changes. Google has recently harvested criticism by incorporating jump pages into its Google Base site in a move they are calling ‘an experiment with navigation.’

Jump pages are typically used in advertising campaigns. They’re meant to provide expanded info on products or detail special offers etc, before a user reaches the destination page. In Google’s case, you’re taken to an ‘item details page’ that displays attributes, labels, links to related items and a separate URL to the content owner’s website. Prior to this, visitors were taken directly to the owner’s website from the Google Base results page.

A lot of content providers are not happy with this, feeling it may impede traffic to their sites. There is concern that users may shy away from using Google Base if they are subjected to jump pages, and a fear that this ‘experiment’ may lead to future ad targeting.

Bindu Reddy, Product Manager for Google Base, writes, “This change allows us to experiment with how you browse and search on Google Base and see related items. The item details page enables you to see all the attributes and labels attached to the item and provides links to items with similar labels. We want to measure how this navigation changes the number of searches and other ways people will use it.”

Danny Sullivan from SearchEngineWatch doesn’t like the idea at all. Sullivan states, “what if Google decides it wants to do more experimenting elsewhere? Will direct URLs go away in any of these other services? The experiment at Google Base makes me nervous…Overall, it just makes me want to stay far away from Google Base if I’ve got content that’s already being picked up in other ways.”

Google Base is a free service that lets users upload content. Descriptions for items are created via labels and attributes, and website owners can add free links pointing to their pages.