Google Launches Free Classifieds Product

By: Jay DeFoore Google today launched a beta version of Google Base, its much-anticipated free database of searchable user-generated content.

The new service marks a shift for Google, which has until now primarily made its mark by directing people to content housed on other Web sites. With Google Base, however, content such as used car ads, recipes, and community calendar listings will reside in a database on Google's own servers.

The New York Times see the development as "a threat to online and traditional businesses" in the $100 billion annual market for classified advertising.

"The general industry perception is that Google could potentially transform that market, which has already been shaken by the rapid shift to online searching and the free listing services offered by Craigslist," the Times' John Markoff reports. But Salar Kamangar, Google's vice president for product management, cautioned Markoff against viewing Base strictly as a classified advertising tool, arguing that it has far-broader uses.

The jury is still out on what this means for the newspaper industry, but most industry executives are no doubt watching the launch of Base with a sense of trepidation.

In an e-mail alert to subscribers on Wednesday, Peter M. Zollman, publisher of the Classified Intelligence Report newsletter, said he sees a "huge opportunity" for Google, but cautions that the company still "faces some significant challenges."

Zollman argues that size does not guarantee success. "Yahoo HotJobs has grown revenue more slowly than competitors (as far as we can tell), and Google?s product is not a sure thing," he writes. "But it still poses an enormous challenge to traditional classified advertising publishers who use the pay-to-advertise model. Since all Google Base ads are free, the value of the contextual ads around it will soar, and the price pressure on traditional classified advertising publishers will intensify."

From the Base homepage, users can upload items based on pre-selected categories familiar to newspaper classified sites such as Jobs, Vehicles, and Wanted Ads. The site also offers categories such as News and Articles, Course Schedules, People Profiles, and Recipes, or users can create their own item type.

"If your item is highly relevant," a note on Google's Frequently Asked Question page says, "it may also appear in Google searches or on other Google properties like Froogle and Google Local."