Google Base Products Froogle Feed Settings

[maroni35]

I have a question with regard to how people and Actinic are implementing Google Base feeds.

One of the columns of data that they require is condition, and Actinic added this in as a Variable in the Library with a default of New.

There is also the issue of Brand and now EAN.

This former forum comment shows the email from google, that states they are brining EAN in in the New Year

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=47761

They certainly seemed to have now implemented that change with regard to EAN and electronic products as I can see that companies which have submitted it are coming top in the Google base rankings.

Now with regard to getting the data out of actinic you can use the facility that is built in or go with Mole End Google Base Feed Exporter.

Do Actinic have plans to include Brand and EAN as standard variables in future products?

If they are not how are people entering and getting this data out of Actinic? There is a Knowledge Base article which deals with Condition before is became standard.

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=44817

But if Actinic are going to put them in a future release I would prefer to possibly wait a couple of months and use their standard method.

Cheers and Happy New Year to all
David Sewell

[mediamole]

If you follow the instructions you listed for the condition field

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=44817

Could you not use that to create the other desired enteries?

I personal add the following field categories for client websites that I build:

brands
merchant category
stock
delivery
currency

As added fields to the feed

ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP FIRST OF SITE BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES - JUST INCASE

[maroni35]

Hi,

I have just tried this as you suggested for one of our smaller sites, and created UPC, Brand and Part Number. They are just appearing in the properties layout at the moment. Presumably I would have to add a Block If statement or similar for them to actually appear on the website (which is not needed at this stage).

We use Mole End so have been easily able to modify the feed to include these new fields.

I suppose my main concern is with Actinic themselves.

You have created a field called Brands, if Actinic now implement the Brand field, it will presumably be different to yours and either cause a conflict or would entail you moving the data into the new Actinic field.

It is just that by going down the road of following Google and implementing the condition field will Actinic continue down this road and add in the required fields when Google makes new announcements or are we left to guess which ones they will implement?

Also what fields (if any) have users found to be of real significance in placing them higher up the Shopping rankings.

With Google now showing Shopping results for many searches now, then being in the top three Shopping results is another way of getting on the Google front page.

[mediamole]

Correct. Just follow the same installation as the condition variable. The variables wont appear on your product layouts unless you place them there which you dont need to do.

All the new variables will appear at product level in the same location as the condition variable. You dont need to create a condition variable as by default version 10 has this as standard, and if you duplicate it Google will conclude your feed is invalid.