Google Hacks

Froogle

Shop `til you drop with Froogle, Google’s online shopping index.

Google Catalogs is a great way to do offline shopping, especially if you like to browse with nothing more than a couple of keywords. However, if you’re the modern type who insists on doing all shopping online, you’ll want to check out Froogle (http://froogle.google.com/). Froogle, a combination of the words “Google” and “frugal,” is a searchable shopping index that looks a lot like the Google Directory with a focus on getting you right to an online point of purchase for the item you’re interested in. The service was launched in December 2002 and, at the time of this writing, is still in beta.

There are two ways of finding items in this directory: browsing and searching. In the same way as browsing and searching, Google can lead to different results, so too will you find different products depending on the road you take in Froogle.

Browsing for Purchases

The Froogle home page lists a set of top-level categories, each with a representative smattering of subcategories. To browse a particular category, just click on the link. You’ll find that even after some drilling down to just the subcategory you’re after, there are still bound to be a lot of items. For example, there are over 2,500 results on the flower arrangement category.

Listings include a picture when available (as is most often the case), price, the store selling the item, a brief description of the item, and a link leading to all items from that particular ...