Business
Google Base replaces Froogle Merchant Center
Froogle Merchant Center is no longer -- it has been replaced by Google Base in what seems to be an attempt to merge the two data sources. This move isn't surprising as "products" exist in Google Base already.
In the conference call today, Eric Schmidt mentioned that Google Base is not intended to be a place where people go to find items -- it's main purpose is to gather structured data that can be consumed by other Google services. The obliteration of Froogle Merchant Center is a good example of how the data in Google Base will be consumed by other Google services.