In This Chapter

• Introducing the Google shopping portal

• Searching and browsing in Froogle

• Special Froogle search operators

• Advanced searching in Froogle

• Introducing the dazzling Google Catalogs

• Browsing mail-order catalogs with the Google Catalogs control bar

Google, the world’s most intelligent search engine, has an academic, ivory-tower sheen. The science behind its index and the insightfulness of its results lend Google an other-worldly feeling. Except . . . shopping! Shopping is the common denominator of the Web — everybody likes to buy stuff. Google turns its all-seeing eye to the swarming, steamy jungle of e-commerce.

Yes, Google is a shopping portal, but not of the sort you might be familiar with in AOL and Yahoo!. Google provides two shopping directories and applies its insightful, destination-ranking intelligence to them. The result is a sharp, objective, results-oriented virtual window-shopping experience.

This chapter covers the details of Froogle, a keyword-empowered shopping directory, and Google Catalogs, an online mail-order browsing environment. Both are delightful — and more powerful than many people realize. The following sections cover basic keywords and clicks, and then introduce a few tricks I use in Froogle and Google Catalogs.

• For Froogle: froogle-support@google.com

• For Google Catalogs: catalog-support@google.com