Google Base ... from October 11

Yesterday's big Google news - or supposed news - is the launch of Google Base. It's a hot, fun story on Memeorandum, and it's getting the usual too much buzz and hype on Blogs. It's a typical product story - first rumor, then confirmation - from Google, and Google itself put out a sorta response on its blog - since Google doesn't do PR.

But, the interesting thing is that it's not really news if you read media other than blogs, or if you have the (mis)fortune of living in Phoenix, and reading the tepid Arizona Republic (a good example of how to make a bad paper worse is to get bought by Gannett) and the very good Phoenix Business Journal. Why? Well, when it was announced that Google was going to set up operations in Phoenix, it was noted that
Sources tell The Business Journal that search engine titan Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is the company in question and that Valley plans will likely include operations related to online auctions and expanded Internet and technology services.
Go PBJ! They got the story before the press conference, and had a nice scoop that Google was going to be launching an online auction division, something that was barely picked up anywhere. But, hey, now the Base story is out there, and the reporter that might have broken the story will get no recognition.

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6 comments
  1. Good post ... and the idea of the PBJ not getting credit is true, as we know.

    Someone like one of the "circle chubbies" will blog it and everyone will be linking to them, not PBJ - or you for pointing it out.

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  2. Jeremy: If you hadn't been goofing off for the past two weeks, YOU -- as the blogging world's chief Phoenix correspondent -- could have broken this story a long time ago! :)

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  3. Thanks Scott. I did read the story back then, and thought "oh, interesting, let's see if anyone actually picks this up."

    It got one hit, in a Google rumor blog. That was it. But, it's not PR, so I didn't care much. ;)

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  4. I think the reason its making more of a splash is that people are seeing that its not just going to be one company (google) moving into another (ebay)'s turf- but it is (or more to the point could be) but rather GOOGLE (super smart people)- doing to process of searching for real things in the world - what it has done to searching for information on the web. Before it was a business story, now its a technology-change society-the future is now! ohmygod! kind of story. Maybe overhyped, sure, but you know, hype is fun, isn't it?

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  5. Isn't Google Base essentially like ROR - http://www.rorweb.com ?

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  6. Anonymous, I think with Base you have to submit your site manually, rather than sing xml feeds (ror).

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