Having stirred the pot regarding Froogle and eBay,

Having stirred the pot regarding Froogle and eBay, I must say that this
is not the end of the line. As I write these last pages of this book, Yahoo
is about to launch a new Web search initiative to challenge Froogle
and eBay. It’s called Yahoo Product Search. It isn’t a warmed-over version
of Yahoo Stores, which has never become popular in a big way. It’s
similar to Froogle. And, guess what? It takes a free data feed. For more
information go to http://products.yahoo.com. If you do a search, you
will see a link near the top of the page Merchants: Submit Products
Here, which will lead you to more information. For specific information
on the data feed go to: http://products.yahoo.com/merchants/datafeedspec.
html.
The question is, Does Yahoo constitute a third major marketplace?
Google has over 50 percent of the search engine market. Yahoo has
only 20 percent? Will Google gain more market share at Yahoo’s
expense? Or, visa versa? Another question is, Does Amazon.com constitute
a third major marketplace? It seems more like an online department
store than a diversified marketplace. Will Amazon be able to
maintain or increase its market share? Stay tuned folks. This contest is
getting interesting.
Right now, I’m calling it a Two-System Marketplace (eBay + Froogle).
Or, perhaps a more accurate description will be eBay + search engine
catalogs (i.e., Froogle and Yahoo). We’ll soon see how this works out.
In the meanwhile, if you’re an eBay seller, take a serious look at Froogle
and Yahoo Product Search to see what they can do for you.