Google Revamps Froogle, Adds Features

Google has renamed its shopping search service, Froogle and added new features to boost its dwindling traffic. The new Google Product Search service provides a search engine to help users find goods and compare prices across various online retailers.

A post on the official Google blog states, “We’re taking the opportunity to refocus the user experience on providing the most comprehensive, relevant results in a clean, simple, easy-to-use UI. We’re also excited about how Google Checkout can help searchers have a fast and secure purchase experience, so the new interface makes it easier to buy with Checkout.”

Google has changed the recommendation button on the Google Toolbar, which users have installed in their Web browser. When clicked on, the button, which shows a pair of dice, takes the user to a site calculated to be of interest based on past searches. Google says it hopes to generate up to 50 such sites per day. Another personalization feature is the ability to add a recommendations tab to a Google Personalized Homepage.

Froogle has been losing traffic steadily for the last four months. According to figures provided by Nielsen/Net Ratings, the number of unique US visitors to Froogle declined from 8.6 million in December 2006 to 5.9 million in March 2007.