Google Base went live, as predicted yesterday. Uploading items is a piece of cake. I added myself in the database with with this blog and tried to get my rss feed listed, but Google requires some special tags to get it all done. I don’t want to go through all that trouble, so I got refused for that entry. My entry is only valid for 31 days, and that’s too bad because I uploaded it as a ‘People Profile’, and I don’t think that should expire. – but it does.
Then I thought : let’s upload the entire contents of my blog and see what happens. I created an FTP account through the ‘direct upload‘ and created an account on the uploads.google.com server. (You need a different login and password, for logical security reasons). I was able to connect and put the files online, but the server isn’t really an FTP server. I can’t make a folder to put the images, and .html files apparently aren’t accepted. – Here’s how to upload bulk.
Bulk doesn’t seem to expire, which I find very funny. You can’t delete uploaded files.
No bulk files, and just two listings. That’s it for me. I don’t mind, I have nothing to sell anyway, except for my conscience, which also expires in 31 days. You never know the devil is watching (or Googling, in this case) or maybe some crooked dude needs to have a clean conscience. :)
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Here’s how to list an item.
If you want to know more about the entire Google Base thing, read this.
I tried to send an email through the ‘contact the poster’ link, and that worked fine. Only thing is, it took three hours for the mail to arrive. Quote Nathan : "Its not awful, but it adds more on the ‘Google can’t do anything in real-time’ meme."
Read reviews on Google Base :
Philipp on Google Blogoscoped aka ‘The Birdcage’
Nathan on InsideGoogle & a second post
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I’ve been quoted in ‘PC World’ Magazine, the December 2005 issue. Too bad I can’t buy it in my bookstore, but I’ll ask Erik Larkin if it’s possible to send me a copy. For the record : I did get contacted before he started to write his Software Surprises article, so no stealing text or whatsoever. I was hoping for a link though, but I’ll nicely ask him if it’s possible to add it. Online only is good enough :)
– Correction to be clear : I got contacted by Andrew Brandt, the Senior Associate Editor.
The article Erik is referring to is : Toolbar Needed To Run FlashPlayer from June 23rd 2005.
A spin-off can be read here : The Comment.
Indeed. This incident was the direct reason I added comments on this blog. Something I still don’t regret having done.