Google Base Bulk Uploads New Name, Now Called Data Feeds
Google Base Blog announced today that they are changing the name of their ‘bulk uploads’ tab to be more in line with eCommerce publisher and merchant terminology. The tab will now be called ‘data feeds,’ which still appears under the My Items tab next to Active and Inactive Item links (see screenshot above).
According to Chris Azalde of the Google Base Support team, the change is part of Google’s effort to listen and implement their users’ feedback. Apparently, the terminology, bulk uploads, isn’t as clear to some as the more commonly used term, data feeds. The change only affects the name of the specific content submission service, the functionality will remain the same, and still sports the recently updated data feeds dashboard look and feel.
This is only a terminology change, so just know that when we refer to your ‘data feeds’ or ‘feeds,’ it’s what we used to refer to as ‘bulk uploads’ or ‘uploads.’
I think it’s good that Google continues to improve their system, functionality and features. Personally, I didn’t think the name was too confusing, however I do think that the term data feeds is more commonly used among industry professionals and long time merchant sellers. I think it’s important to continue to use industry standard terms or terminology whenever possible, so overall I do think this will help to keep everyone on the same page. I find myself explaining to merchants what data feeds/bulk uploads are all the time, so the fact that Google is moving towards the standardized term makes me happy.
If you ask me, this name change is not about being more clear and keeping sellers on the same page. I think it’s a move on Google’s part to rank under the term data feeds (in order to beat out some of the data feed service providers) and to increase exposure to their Base data feeds service. I also believe that they changed the name because of the increasing number of service providers who started using the term bulk uploads when that tool was originally launched.
We saw the same thing when they re-branded Froogle to Product Search. It’s not about being more clear, it’s about trying to rank under the terms ‘products‘ and ‘product search‘ in their own search engine (which they currently do rank for, but didn’t until the name change back in April 2007).
I love Google, don’t get me wrong, but don’t let them fool you into thinking changes like this are solely for the good of the industry, in my opinion, they always have ulterior motives that accomplish more than one thing.
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