New Compulsorary Product Search attributes for Google

[Carju1]

Had a note from Google which in summary said:

Starting May 3rd, 2011, we’ll require your product listings to include at least two of the three unique identifiers (Brand, MPN, GTIN(aka EPN)). In order to provide as much information as possible to our users, we need your help in matching your products to our "product pages", where users are able to view useful data such as product specifications or reviews. While these attributes will not be required for your data feed to process correctly, they may prevent your items from appearing in Product Search results if not included. For more details, including what specific identifiers you should include for each category of item, please see our Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/mercha...?answer=160161

With 1000+ products this will be a major task to hand edit the Google Product Data feed which I get out of Actinic every time we make a price change or add a product. How soon can we expect these identifiers to be added to Actinic (same as they added product condition) so it can be automatic.

Julian

[brucet]

Hi Julian, we are adding fields for the Brand, ISBN, EAN and UPC in v10.0.4, which will be available before this new requirement comes into force.

[Carju1]

Excellent news

Hi Julian, we are adding fields for the Brand, ISBN, EAN and UPC in v10.0.4, which will be available before this new requirement comes into force.

Thats the response I really wanted, we can start collection of the info and wait for 10.0.4 to come out, lifesavers and major timesavers.

Thanks - Julian

[Goz]

Just to clarify Bruce, you are adding Brand against a product - will we be able to use it within Actinic or is it only for the Google feed? If its available in Actinic then we will no longer have to create a UDV for Brand.... or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

[brucet]

All the new variables are basically UDVs, so you will be able to make more general use of them if you want to.

[Steve G Griggs]

Due date?

Hi Bruce.
I know you can't give a specific date, but any idea when 10.04 is due?

[brucet]

v10.0.4 should be available by the end of this month.

[Darren B]

Hi Julian, we are adding fields for the Brand, ISBN, EAN and UPC in v10.0.4, which will be available before this new requirement comes into force.

v10.0.4 should be available by the end of this month.

Does not leave much time for testing and upgrading, do you have a date for the beta?

[Jan]

You can add them yourself and tick the 'include in google products' to have them included in the feed before then. If you do this then you will just need to untick"include in google products" option for the actinic variables once they are added so that you don't get two.

The biggest thing here will be adding the data to Actinic itself.

Mole End will have a beta available very shortly with these values available by the way. FYI. Contact support if you would like a copy.

Regards,

[brucet]

Does not leave much time for testing and upgrading, do you have a date for the beta?

I understand the need but I'm trying to leave some wriggle room

We are testing a beta candidate. Hopefully the beta will be out later this week and the production release a couple of weeks after that. It all depends on what turns up in testing, but it's a fairly small release with not too many fixes, so I'm hopeful that it will go smoothly.

[Steve G Griggs]

Hope so because it's going to be one mad rush to do the job... pass the triple strength coffee

[brucet]

The v10.0.4 beta is available now: http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=50070

[chickenhouseman]

I've already added those fields (and had them in place for over a year) so will the new version clash with what i've already done?

Good to see actinic reacting as soon as it was published

From my point of view it's good news. A large number of my items I sell under my own brand name with my own EAN numbers whereas my competitors have the same items as unbranded products with no EAN. There's a good chance that those items may get dropped from the search results.

[leehack]

You can just disable the ones actinic add, leaving yours in place.

[FrazerPart]

So it looks like v10 users will get an update to address the Google Product feed listing requirements.
How do you suggest a v9 user gets around these new requirements?