
Google Shopping Express looking for Bay Area testers - rahulroy
http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com/2013/03/calling-all-sf-bay-area-residents-help.html
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EugeneOZ
When this service will be retired? Should somebody invest time to Google
Services?

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NegativeK
I'm looking forward to the day when "when will Google drop new X?" is retired.

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EugeneOZ
This day is in past actually.

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asciimo
Remember Webvan (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan>) and Kozmo
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozmo>)? It will be interesting to see how
Google manages the logistics.

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Sym3tri
Funny to see things like this when Google retired Reader b/c "...as a company
we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products".

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psbp
Yet this clearly fits into Google's product vision where (for example) you
could be shopping with your Google glass, see a product that is offered at a
discount, but you can't fit the product into your small autonomous vehicle.
You purchase the product and continue shopping, have a google now card pushed
to you warning you that the product will be delivered to your house in 30
minutes, use your Nexus phone to turn on the A/C in your house as well as the
outdoor lights and the room in which it will be delivered and have the back
door unlock for the delivery person. Receive a confirmation of the product
being delivered as well as a visual recap of the product being placed in your
home as well as a request for adjusting your home's settings (relock the door,
turn off the lights and A/C). It sounds like a pretty focused plan IMO.

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yalogin
Why is Google getting into this? I don't see the value in this. I agree they
will get my day to day purchase data but is it worth going through the hassle
of launching a physical delivery service? Its just not scalable as quickly. It
consumes way too many resources and is a mess to handle the logistics and at
the end of the day the margins cannot be high unless they are also selling the
goods themselves. Will it be competing with Amazon soon?

If not unless my daily purchase data can offset that revenue somehow I don't
see how they can sustain this for long.

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amac
> Why is Google getting into this?

Two reasons I'd suggest: it can, and it wants to. Google is a great story and
it's continuing to unfold.

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rhizome
Six months of free same-day delivery, but what's the value of my purchasing
data to Google? Shouldn't testers be compensated for that, or does that fall
under the altruistic "Google needs your help?" Am I to think of Google as just
another buddy who needs a lift to the bus station?

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turing
I'm sorry, but I fail to see how six months of free same-day delivery somehow
doesn't count as compensation.

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rhizome
There are two elements provided to Google here: service viability and the
purchasing data from the testing period.

It's certainly open to debate, but I'm questioning that the delivery itself is
compensation enough for everything that Google is receiving from the testers.
Obviously Google (and you) thinks this, but I don't agree that there's only
one possible value-based assessment of the relationship.

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potatolicious
Whether or not free same-day delivery is fair compensation for your
participation is a relevant topic.

But your characterization of it I found disingenuous: "Am I to think of Google
as just another buddy who needs a lift to the bus station?"

There's no reason for the snark, and to pretend like Google is just trying to
score a freebie like your hypothetical mooching friend is framing the argument
disingenuously. The cost of delivering something same-day is non-trivial -
Google is not expecting a freebie, though you are of course welcome to value
your privacy above that dollar amount.

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rhizome
I don't think that it's unreasonable to say that Google gets the purchasing
data for free in this deal, but these things are quantifiable, right? The
value of the shipping and the value of the data? The data might be harder to
arrive at a number, though, since purchasing data can be reused over and over
for different metrics, increasing its value.

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anigbrowl
Yeah, but you're not all that. Same day delivery has a pretty decent value.

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rhizome
I'm not sure what, "you're not all that" means, but as mentioned elsewhere,
Webvan and Kozmo provided the same product and, I'm guessing, value...for
naught.

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anigbrowl
And you don't think they were storing that delivery data for mining and
optimization purposes?

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rhizome
My point was the quant side.

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toufka
Um, google, are you really targeting the right people with Target, Toys R US,
Staples, and Office Depot? I was about to give it a try, but I don't think
I've bought anything from any of those stores ever - nor do I really plan on
it either...

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yummies
if you've never bought anything from target, then you're definitely not in the
set of "right people" for this program. it goes without saying that the key to
success here is logistical optimization, and big-box stores are the easiest
place to start.

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marknutter
Ah, if only the whole world existed inside the Bay Area.

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anigbrowl
_If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area (in the city of San Francisco, and
the Peninsula from San Mateo to San Jose)_

What, no love for the East Bay :-p

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yummies
does that exclude SSF and Daly?

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dannyr
SSF & Daly City are excluded.

Peninsula covers San Mateo to San Jose.

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bankim
Doesn't this compete directly with Instacart and eBay Now?

