One of the joys of working for one of the Top 200 eCommerce sites in the world is having the ability to have a direct dialog with companies like Google.

Today I was notified of two features (why, I won't get into and whom, I'll never release) that I think the SEOmoz readers would be interested in.

Google Becomes a Price Engine

1.  Do a search within Google Product Search (formerly Froogle) for the following terms (more exist, but I know these work): ipod touch, nuvi 660, [i'll add more from comments]

2. Click on the COMPARE button.

3.  You'll now see the Google price compare feature which is pretty much like a lite version of PriceGrabber, Shopping.com, BizRate, etc.

Personally, I think it is great!  We need a powerhouse price comparison site out there that is free.  It will put the squeeze on the price comparison sites that are charging an arm and a leg to participate in.  Concerns?  Oh sure, it's Google.  They are taking over the world.  I am surprised they haven't purchase an oil company or two yet, but so far they have been ethical about everything they have gotten into and IMPROVED the marketplace they enter.  Will they charge for this price comparison service if it gains popularity?  Personally, I think they will but there's nothing official.

What are your thoughts on the Google Price Comparison Engine?

Next up...Google Search 2.0

Okay, so that's probably not the official name of it but it sure looks like it.  This one I don't have as much information on other than I ran across this article today.  I can't get the Google Feature to pull up for me, but I figured the SEOmoz community would be a great place to start a discussion about the new feature and help me figure out how to get this feature to display for me.

According to http://www.google.com/experimental/a840e102.html, a user can move results to the top of the results page.  Then, when they do the same search again later, it will be at the top of the page.  They can also delete results and they won't show up in the future.  This sounds like a system of consumer voting to me and I'd bet that Google is sure as hell going to track if there are a lot of users deleting a particular result or voting a particular result to the top of the page.  

Pretty radical change for Google, and as an SEO it scares the hell out of me.  However, as a user...I think it is pretty damn cool.  The results become tailored to what I think is relevant.

Google May Have Stayed Focused on Search Results the Whole Time

Perhaps Google is the king of all linkbait campaigns.  Perhaps Google launched all their latest inventions simply to make it possible to improve search results after all.  Think about it.  Google Checkout helps to drive Google Account signups.  Google Gmail, same thing.  Google's interactions with blogs, same thing.  And the list goes on and on.  Critics have been ripping on Google for taking their eye off the ball in regards to search, but maybe Google hasn't taken their eye off the ball at all.  Maybe they just simply thought farther down the road and more strategically than their critics.  What are your thoughts?  Am I giving Google too much credit?