FAST DATA FEED

Froogle no longer uses a fixed basic feed, so this module is discontinued. Take a look at our TDF. It can create data feeds in just about any order the specification requires and allows more than the basic feed fields.

Export your MIVA Merchant product data in the basic file format required for Froogle^TM (© 2002 Google) data feed submissions for inclusion in their ecommerce search engine. Fields included: product_url, name, description (html removed), price, image_url, category, and isbn (if applicable). This MIVA Merchant plugin module works with both MMUI and OpenUI. No mmui.mv edits required.

Most agree, Google is the mother of all search engines on the Internet. Their new venture to create a listing of actual items for sale across the Internet, rather than pages with hits on keywords, is a bold attempt to better target customers and buyers in a symbiotic relationship. This is a giant leap in eCommerce, providing comparison shopping using the Google search engine. If you are a MIVA Merchant store owner you CANNOT afford to miss this opportunity, especially since inclusion in the Froogle^TM index is free. How much have you invested in getting your store's search engine rankings?

A big side benefit to getting listed in Froogle^TM is that the Google company is spidering your site, thus it may increase the number of your pages listed in Google. There is no direct indication that listing in Froogle will effect your listing in Google, only time will tell.

A module designed for the specific purpose of creating a data feed for Froogle^TM (rather than a generic data export) can include features which make it the best solution for the task:

• Include an affiliate code in the URLs so that you can better track where actual sales are coming from
• If your store is a single store in the domain, you can remove the Store_Code from the URL to aid in search engine spidering
• You can have directory style links which improve search engine indexing.
• If you are using MIVA's custom fields module or our Flexible Product Description or our Edit More modules, the additional field data can be added to the description.
• Fast Data Feed plugin module creates the datafeed flat file directly from your admin
  • Frequent, no hassle submissions keep your data current in Froogle^TM
  • Eliminates the need to copy product and category databases from the server to your PC to produce a flat file export with software such as MS Excel
  • Uses your data as it exists within admin at the moment it is run
• Control over category insertion
  • Limit export to specific categories
  • Automatically builds the category hierarchy from each product's category up to top level category
  • Optionally modify category placement, overriding actual category hierarchy
• Removes html from your product descriptions; converting the brackets to escaped characters or even hiding html using the !-- technique did not satisfy Froogle^TM support staff - it must be completely removed
• Included in the module are features to eliminate timeouts when generating the data feed export of large numbers of products
• Exports to your documents directory rather than your data directory for ease of capture and transmittal

Don't delay. The Froogle^TM index is still new. As such, knowledge about it is not yet widespread due to limited promotion. The Froogle^TM support team has been reviewing requests for inclusion and currently have reasonable turn around time. Your store may or may not be accepted and I would expect it to take longer and have more stipulations for acceptance and continued inclusion as this service becomes more popular. You should request acceptance into Froogle^TM as soon as possible. Once accepted, whether you use our module for building the datafeed or some other software, you should do it now while time is on your side.

As this is a new endeavor for Froogle^TM, I expect them to change their format and add new capabilities over time.

Please ensure you select the correct module version for the version of Merchant you have.

MIVA Merchant (© 2002 MIVA Corp.), Google (© 2002 Google), and MS Excel (© 2003 Microsoft Corporation) are copyright by their respective owners. Froogle^TM is a trademark of Google (© 2002 Google).

Steps

Submit request to Froogle^TM for acceptance into the program INFO

Install this module and run it

Once accepted, upload resulting (username).txt flat file to Froogle^TM through their Google Base panel. Make sure to select feed type as "Products"

Check your pages in Froogle^TM when they show up

Froogle no longer uses a fixed basic feed, so this module is discontinued. Take a look at our TDF. It can create data feeds in just about any order the specification requires and allows more than the basic feed fields.

Online overview and initial setup instructions for our MIVA Merchant modules.

Screen shot showing configuration in admin

Screen shot showing screen to run the export