Google Base, which has been sitting out there for sometime has officially been released in beta form by Google.
According to the Google Blog, Google Base is an extension of their existing content collection efforts like web crawl, Google Sitemaps, Google Print and Google Video and it enables content owners to easily make their information searchable online.
I’ve not played around with it enough to really comment on it. All I can say is it is different. Very different.
The Google Base webpage is available again. Since it was first discovered earlier in the week, the page has been giving server errors as well as 403 forbidden and 404 not found errors.
Visiting the page, you are prompted to input a username/password, however nothing currently happens after entering your information. – At least, it didn’t for me. I’m wondering if this will be a limited or invite only beta similar to how GMail was done.
The news sites were buzzing yesterday about Google Base (link is currently dead), which many people thought by be Google’s rival service to eBay.
For the first time that I can think of, Google has responded to the rumor via the Google Blog, however they didn’t say much.
You may have seen stories today reporting on a new product that we’re testing, and speculating about our plans. Here’s what’s really going on. 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. We think it’s an exciting product, and we’ll let you know when there’s more news.
That’s all there is to it. Well, I guess we’ll just have to sit tight and see what becomes of Google Base. Until then, here are some articles about Google Base, some of which include screenshots.
Thinking about it…. aren’t we due for a new something from Google? Either a new product beta, something moved to gold status or an improvement on something?