Google Base has been a haven for all sorts of spammers from the start. I am amazed at how much they have gotten it cleaned up, but it's still very easy to "game"...

If only someone would remove the monetary factor from life, things would be much easier :-)

Why do you think they're spammers though? Google Base asks people to bulk-upload product data after all...

Actually, Google wants people to fill up Google Base with anything you want to put online. Photos, Houses for Sale, Jobs, Products are just some of the things people have posted. I use Google Base to post Genealogy information which can be searched differently than on my own site.

<< I use Google Base to post Genealogy information which can be searched differently than on my own site. >>

That's interesting. Would you mind sharing how you're doing that or link to a few sample search results / records?

When I first heard about Google Base, I thought this might be the ideal place to store my Genealogy data and then I found out it would expire and be removed after 30 days. Is that not the case any more? (Excuse my ignorance, but since I couldn't find a use for Google Base, I've never really kept up-to-date with it.)

oh there seems to be a lot of Genealogy enthusiasts here!!

yo Colin, would like to see what you are doing with Gbase..

I think this is legal, they have great connections in Google Base...

Tony – I setup a site for my dad that has 4 of his genealogy databases online. I then created an xml feed for 3 of his databases and those are what I uploaded to Google Base. My genealogy data doesn't expire so I don't have to worry about having to upload it ever 30 days.

My Google Base Listings:
http://base.google.com/base/s2?authorid=1214576&a_n0=genealogy&a_y0=9&nd=1&showrefine=1&hl=en&gl=US

Right now I have about 10,000 names in Google Base. All of the listings are linked to the full family page on my site. I'm hoping to implement photos in the next couple of months.

Thanks, Colin. I'll take a look at that and may be in touch!

No problem Tony. I'm hoping to put up more genealogy data like Cemetery photos soon. I have over 1,000 photos that I want to put in Base but don't have the time to create the feed just yet.

I've been disappointed to see what clearly are affiliate listings – including direct redirects.

Some time ago I looked at the terms and found that affiliate type sites are not allowed. When I was looking at it I was thinking of driving traffic to a future travel site, and per the terms it was not a valid option since my revenue would be affiliate and ads. (I'm glad in a way that it was disallowed in the terms as it would have been questionable if it is allowed.)

<quote>Affiliates Posting is not permitted for the promotion of affiliate sites or products sold through an affiliate marketing relationship. This includes item pages that are made up primarily of advertisements, or pages where advisements obstruct the view of the item.</quote>
http://base.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=61118&hl=en

The current round of people are not even driving traffic to their sites, just re-directing to the affiliate vendors site. This is even worse than what is prohibited. This would be exceedingly easy to automatically police.

Maybe adfarm.mediaplex.com are selling their own items, so that it's no affiliate relationship?

re own items, no – top item goes to eBay, second item to crucial.com

Ok, I see what you are saying maybe Mediaplex is providing the backbone for eBay and Critical to list their items – could be, I don't see an affiliate link right off in the Critical re-direct.

Hi Philipp,

I have a new website with google ads on it. If I get 10 clicks per day on my ads, does google favor my site over and above others that may be in the same category that don't run google ads?

I was thinking to some extent they might, so they can make more money.

Do you know anything about this?

Thanks, and I look forward to your reply.

Dean
www.businesscarddisplays.info

Dean: no, Google won't favor your site if it does well with AdSense, at least if they did they wouldn't tell us because it'd be really wrong. One thing I can imagine is that if Google engineers ever discover a correlation between spam sites and sites running multiple ad units on the same page, that engineers will think twice before rolling out a change that punishes those sites... like some unconscious barrier that might not be there when they're fighting, say, non-nofollowed paid text links.

Google Base support answers this when asked about the mediaplex redirect issue:

<<Thank you for taking the time to email us regarding item links. Our team of specialists will look into this. Please be sure to continue using direct links to pages on your approved domain.>>

So, that's no answer in regards to mediaplex, except they're telling me *I* should follow their guidelines.

Just received a email today from them stating our auction must direct to the page the auction is on.

It was but programing errors had added extra characters but before they took a deep look into our errors they had no idea if they were redirected
(which they were not) they just published the results for http://iwantitatwholesale.com

Charles, I don't really get the Base guidelines. They state that

<<Your products must have a fixed price. We do not allow products with variable prices, such as products sold through bidding.>>
http://base.google.com/base/products.html

... and yet they help you get an auction page indexed. Aren't auctions based selling through variable prices/ bidding?

Google Base support tells me:

<<EBay items are eligible for Google Base. However, in order to be eligible they must meet the following guidelines:

1) The Google Base item must be created with an item type of "products."
2) The item must include the fixed "Buy it Now" price listed on the eBay item page. (We're not accepting auction items without a fixed price at
this time.)
3) The expiration date of the Google Base item must match the expiration date of the eBay listing.

If you notice an item that doesn't meet these guidelines, you can report it by using the "Report this item" link on Google Base search results.>>