[Sigia-l] Froogle

[paula.thornton]

Looking over an old digest re: Froogle.

I didn't see any scenario-based responses so I'm offering one. As an online
shopper, Froogle is fabulous. I'm not sure how they're accomplishing what
they're accomplishing, but if you've ever tried to find a particular
shopping item online, like a bookcase, the typical engines just didn't cut
it.

I found that I'd have to begin to just think of some of the major retailers
and do individual searches from each of their sites. But have you seen the
search results in Froogle? Try "bookcases".  You don't just get a simple
summary return set, you get photo image and price clearly
represented...after all those are the two primary pieces of data needed for
differentiation during the searches I conduct. Most retail sites don't even
provide this level of service!

This is not your mother's search engine...specifically designed for a
shopping scenario...it goes to prove that there is more than one way to
optimize design for scenario needs. And it proves that there is still a lot
of room for improvement in the industry, if designs focused more readily on
specific scenario needs.