More On Microsoft Classifieds Service — And Why Comparing To Google Base Doesn’t Make Sense

More on the forthcoming Microsoft classified ads service is coming out, with
some good remarks on why Microsoft’s service may be more suited to classified
searching than Google Base — though as I’ll explain, Google Base isn’t what
people should be using to measure Google’s entry into the classified listings
space.

Why Microsoft?s classifieds service will be better than Google Base from
Charlene Li at Forrester has her talking about what’s she’s seen so far from
Microsoft and how it’s more suited to specialty classified searching.

Microsoft tests
classifieds service from News.com and

Microsoft tries classifieds from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer also give
more details on how the system came to be, with Microsoft adamant it’s not an
instant Google Base clone, plus how it is designed specifically for classified
ads.

I agree with Charlene. The Microsoft system probably will be better for
classified ad searches, since it’s specifically built for that. But comparing
Google Base to any specialized search service is missing the point.

Google Base is, as I wrote
before,
the master way Google wants to accept content of all type. I don’t expect that
many people will really be turning to Google Base for specialized searching,
however. Instead, as content of particular types grows, we’ll see more
spin-offs.

In other words, Google Base will help power a future Google Classifieds, a
Google Jobs, a Google Housing, perhaps a Google Auctions and so on. These
specialized services, standalone sites — like Google’s shopping search engine
Froogle — will have more refined features to help with the specific searching
task you’re doing.

In other words, it’s not Google Base versus Microsoft Fremont or Craigslist.
It’s Google Classifieds (when it comes) versus Microsoft Fremont and Craigslist.
That’s when the comparisons really will begin in earnest.