Google Base launches

After months of speculation, Google Base has launched. Yesterday it was analytics, today it’s something like an open content management system. The basic idea is rather simple. You can post nearly anything, such as a recipe, movie review, or classified ad. Each item posted is given a directly-accessible page where you can contact the poster or browse for other items listed under the same tags (which they refer to as labels). For example, here’s a recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala. It seems like Cragslist in some ways with the added benefit of getting items into Google’s index more easily.

Google Base is probably not for everyone. It seems particularly suited for people who have information to share but don’t already have a platform or audience. Businesses may find it more useful. Google suggests posting all types of content, including a database of products, weblog posts, or news articles. There is an interface for bulk uploading data, and I suspect there will be an API eventually, making it easier to provide Google with even more data and giving businesses new interfaces for their content.

It’s still unclear to what extent Google may use the data provided by content owners other than simply adding it to their main search index. A recent press release says, “The goal of Google Base is to improve the overall quality and breadth of Google Search results by collecting even more information about a wider diversity of content.” However, with so much data available, I wonder if Google isn’t planning to somehow market its offerings.