Google recently (Monday, September 28) launched the Google Merchant Center. They announced this new service in their Google Merchant Blog. This new service will be replacing Google Base for merchants that submit products to Google. In the past, Google Base allowed people to submit products and other items such as real estate, jobs, vehicles, etc… Now Google is splitting up Google Base by creating the Google Merchant Center for just product related submissions.

What does this mean for merchants?

Fortunately, Google thought this out a bit before rolling out the new service. From their FAQ, if you previously only uploaded products to Google Base, existing settings, data feeds, and items will not be affected. There will be no need to change FTP settings, upload procedures, etc…

The only change will be merchants should now login to the Google Merchant Center instead of Google Base to upload and manage product listings. However, if you also uploaded other non-product items to Google Base in conjunction with products, you will need to login to Google Base and create new FTP settings.

What does this mean for ShopSite’s integation with Google’s Product Search?

Submissions via ShopSite’s built-in Google Base / Product Search functionality should not be affected. Whether you’re using the FTP method (preferred) or API method, product sumbissions should continue to update as they did before. You should not have to change anything in ShopSite or with your procedures for uploading products to Google. The only thing changing is where you login at Google to manage your products and account:
Google Merchant Center

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If you notice any issues with the new Google Merchant Center, please comment below.