Last week Google replaced its circa 2002 shopping engine, Froogle, with a new product comparison & shopping engine called Google Product Search. At a quick glance, it looks like a simple re-brand of Froogle with the standard Google Search interface and a less clever, but more universally understood name.

The refinement/attributes menu has moved from the top of the page in Froogle, down to the bottom of the page in Product Search, along with some slight changes in the refinement/attributes interface. This means users are more likely to click on the top ranking products rather than skimming down into the refinement and attribute options, although Google does provide a link to narrow the results down to those that support Google Checkout.

Rumors have it that Google is not finished changing and experimenting with Product Search and how it will integrate with the main search results page via OneBox. I believe that we will soon see an expanded product results box with a secondary search form as well as attributes or refinement options. These are all reasons why you better be on top of your game with an optimized data feed.

Optimizing your data feed really consists of two main parts:

1. 1. Providing as much information about your products as possible, utilizing all required, optional and custom attribute fields.
2. 2. Optimizing Feed Content

I can tell you there really is no science to optimizing the content in your feed, your best bet is to just test, test, test. I have been getting some good results lately by just breaking each field down to its most simple, but descriptive form, sometimes including a common misspelling or alternative formatting in addition to the correct product name.

Google will also factor in how much information is attached to your product when determining when and where to return it as a search result. This is why attributes are so important. The information attached to your product in a feed is much more useful, and usually much more accurate than an organic search result, and Google recognizes this. It also helps the user by allowing them to dig down into refined product searches based on attributes.

Paid Search Advertising and SEO are common topics these days, but Data Feeds and Optimization are rarely discussed in comparison. Going forward, this channel may take the main stage as Google continues to change the way it organizes and returns product information.

Are you going to be ahead of the game, or left trying to catch up?