I was searching around on Google Product Search today and noticed something amazing, new features. Not only are there new features, but they are useful to both shoppers and merchants who upload to Google Base in order to get listed in Product Search.

My regular readers know that I have been giving a lot of attention to Google Product Search and Base the past two weeks as they continue to add new features and improve both of those services. They have even been updating Google Checkout policies lately. Hmmm, makes one wonder what’s in store, looks like they are getting ready to do something BIG with all of the attention that these core Google commerce services have been getting recently.

So, what are the new Google Product Search Features? Check them out below, you won’t be sorry…

Compare Buttons & Product Search Results:

The very first thing I noticed was the addition of a new “Compare Prices” button within Google Product Search results. I had never seen it there before today and it really caught me by surprise (in a good way). Obviously, I clicked through to see what it did, and when I got to the next page I was greeted with a whole page of new information about the item I had originally searched for, iPod Touch.

When you see the Compare Prices button in search results, it means that there are more than one of those items with a range of prices that can now be compared on Product Search pages (just like a comparison shopping engine would show). Once you click the button it will take you to a comparison page for the item you searched. The comparison page includes helpful information for consumers who may be looking to buy the item they searched for.

New Product Search Information Includes…

• Price ranges and number of sellers offering the item
• Product title, brand and category
• Review stars and number of review available
• A description of the product being compared
• A ‘compare prices’ tab featuring price, relevance and seller ratings
• A ‘user reviews’ tab featuring syndicated reviews from multiple sources
• A ‘technical specifications’ tab featuring genera and detailed specs

Price Ranges & Sellers:

As you can see in the graphic above, Google now shows a range of prices for the item in the regular Google Product Search results and also on the comparison page itself. This helps tremendously when shopping, since lets face it, there are a ton of options available when shopping for certain items, especially electronics. In addition, the results show the number of stores that are included in the comparison page for a given item. i should note that these compare price buttons do not currently show up for all items, it appears as if they are testing it with popular items that are sold by many different store, that have reviews.

Product Title, Brand & Category:

I like how the product title, brand and category are right at the top left of each comparison page. It makes it easy to see what you’re looking at, who makes it and the shopping category it belongs to. They also make the title font bigger, which makes it stand out more to shoppers who may be browsing a comparison page.

Review Stars & Available Reviews:

Product Search has used reviews for awhile now, but now they look to be using them in a totally new way. Each comparison page has a star rating average according to the number of reviews for a particular item. Next to each star rating is the number of reviews that are available and a link to see them all down in the read reviews tab.

Product Description:

The product descriptions on the comparison pages are from Google, the merchant descriptions are still on individual pages but I like how Google uses their own description at the top of each product comparison page. They are accurate, up to date and not too short or too long, they look good and are very helpful for determining whether the item you are viewing is what you are looking for.

Comparing Prices:

The price comparison tab is the best one, in my opinion. On this tab, items are sorted by relevance and seller rating. The tab also shows the prices of the item for each merchants and whether or not they accept Google Checkout. It’s simple, easy to use and gives all the pertinent information a shopper could want to view before clicking through to buy an item they are interested in.

Reading Reviews:

The user reviews tab features syndicated reviews from a variety of sources including Epinions, DigitalTrends, PriceGrabber, Pricerunner and more. Reviews are sorted by star rating and freshness, so you will always see the newest ones, from the highest raters, or you can click back a few pages to see the lowest ratings or bad reviews. I assume in the future they will make this page more sortable, including the ability to change the ordering of user reviews.

Technical Specification:

The technical specification tab features general specifications and information including audio system, built-in display, equalizer, digital player (recorder), headphones, connections, miscellaneous, battery, system requirements, manufacturer warranty and more, depending on the type of items you are comparing. These match up with specific item type attributes that can be used within a data feed upon submitting to Google Base. The specs page tells shoppers anything and everything they could possibly want to know about the items they are interested in buying.

Conclusion & Final Thoughts:

This is a great addition to google Product Search. Frankly, I am not sure why they haven’t done something like this before, but that’s neither here nor there. What matters is that they are doing it now. If you couldn’t tell already, I am stoked about this. It makes a good service even better. It makes Google Product Search more usable and useful to shoppers. It helps merchants to get the information shoppers want into Google’s product services.

I will continue to post more as I find out. Remember, not all the products show the compare feature, so if you see one while searching, take a second to check it out. Look at the tabs and information, if you notice anything different, especially for different item types, let me know so I can report it here (I’ll give you credit too). So, what are you waiting for, get over to Google Product Search and start shopping.