Google Catalogs
 |
 | |
| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Owner | |
| Created by | |
| URL | google |
| Registration | Optional, included with a Google Account |
Google Catalogs is a shopping application for Tablet personal computer, which was produced by Google in August 2011. The application is currently only available for the iPad, although Google has announced that a version for Android tablets will be coming out in the future. Google Catalogs delivers virtual catalogs to users from merchants like Nordstrom, L.L. Bean, Macy's, Pottery Barn, and many more. Merchants are still being added, through a process by which they submit a form with information and a sample of their catalog, which will then be reviewed by Google’s editorial team. [1]
User Experience (UX)
The catalogs available on this application are grouped by several product categories, including Women’s Fashion and Apparel, Jewelry, Beauty, Home, Men’s Fashion and Apparel, Kids and Baby, and Gifts. After choosing a product category, users can select a specific catalog, which then brings them to the cover page of that catalog. Shoppers using the iPad can flip through the catalog and tap the products they are interested in, which are linked to the merchant's website for purchase. For those who don’t want to purchase online, store locations could be found by loading Google Maps within the application. Further exploration of the products is supported by features such as the ability to zoom in on products as well as being able to view tags to garner additional information. Users are also able to create collages of their favorite products across catalogs in the iPad application, and share these collages with their friends and the public. In addition, products can be marked as favorites, and then all of those that were previously marked can be viewed on the same page by clicking the Favorites button on the bottom of the screen. If a user is looking for a specific product, there is a search function that will show all the products related to the keyword that the user types in.[2] [3]
History
Google Catalog search was first conceptualized in December, 2001 as a search function on the web only. This was a free Google service. Catalog search was a major digitization project for Google, as thousands of merchant catalogs were scanned and made accessible to the public. Users were able to flip through pages of catalogs from a variety of industries, except those that focus on liquor, tobacco, firearms, or similar products. [4] Google ended this service on the web in January, 2009 stating: Catalog Search hasn’t been as popular as some of our other products. So tomorrow, we’re bidding it a fond farewell and focusing our efforts to bring more and more types of offline information such as magazines, newspapers and of course, books, online.[5] On August 16th, 2011 Google Catalogs was announced on Google's official blog, and was immediately available for download. [6]
References
- ^ http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/08/17/google-catalogs-targets-the-couch-shopper/
- ^ http://www.uxmag.com/design/first-look-at-the-google-catalogs-user-experience 6
- ^ http://www.localfind.biz/google-catalogs-new-digital-catalogs 9
- ^ http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2049009/Google-Launches-Catalog-Search
- ^ http://infodocket.com/2011/08/16/remember-the-google-catalogs-service-its-back-as-an-ipad-app/
- ^ http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/shop-your-favorite-catalogs-with-google.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FMKuf+%28Official+Google+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
 | This software article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |