November 8, 2005
Google’s Next Step: Are Print Mail Order Catalogs Dead?
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Are Print Mail Order Catalogs Dead?
- by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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One of the great joys of the holiday season involves
receiving the stack of catalogs that invariably clog the
mailbox at the end of my driveway.
Not withstanding the hernia I get from carrying them to the
house, or the three acres of rainforest timber it took to
print them, holiday catalogs provide a never-ending
opportunity to look at stuff I don’t want to buy.
Unfortunately, when I do finally decide what I want to buy
for those on my holiday shopping list, I find the one
catalog I need mysteriously absent from the 6-foot stack.
Fortunately, a new service at Google makes hunting through
catalogs to find the perfect gift for yourself or others an
absolute breeze.
Log on to http://catalogs.google.com/ and test out Google’s
latest offering in an attempt to organize all information on
the planet.
At the time of this writing, Google’s database of catalogs
boasts over 6,000 catalogs covering everything from golf to
music to footwear.
The index allows you to browse catalog content either by
entering keywords in a search box, or choosing categories in
their directory-style listings.
If you want the latest L.L. Bean or Harry and David catalog
(or any other), you can perform a search for a specific
catalog by name.
If Google doesn’t carry a specific catalog, you can click
the “Help Google Add More Catalogs” link on the main page of
the catalogs directory to suggest they take a look at it.
I personally think Google is very serious about developing
this service because they do something here I’ve never seen
them do before: they provide a physical mailing address and
invite you to actually “snail mail” them a catalog you want
added.
I decided to put the service to the ultimate test by
searching for what, at least for me, represents the ultimate
catalog purchase from 2003: the singing trout (a.k.a. the
“Boogie Bass”)!
If they could find that honey of a holiday gift, the service
gets my seal of approval.
Of course, in a nanosecond, Google found it in multiple
catalogs along with such holiday gems as the “singing fish”
and the “TV Caddy.”
On a serious note, a search for “Ford F250 accessories”
yielded some very helpful information on catalogs where I
can get parts and goodies for my truck.
So, this service goes way beyond searching catalogs with
only the “As Seen On TV” gadgets, and gets into some serious
niche product information.
Back before the Internet, search engines, and online
research, catalogs actually represented an inexpensive way
for vendors to publish product information targeting a niche
audience.
It makes perfect sense that the Web’s largest search engine
should start cataloging catalogs and combine print
publications with online search.
The only drawback to Google’s new catalog browser is that
you can’t circle the items you really want (writing on your
monitor tends to damage it) and then strategically leave the
catalog where Santa (or your wife) can conveniently find it
and catch a clue as to your greatest wish.
But, you can always send Santa a web link to the items on
your list!
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
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5 Comments »
November 11, 2005
Tracy :
Thanks so much for the info about Google catalogs. The only thing that Google does that disappoints me is that they don’t advertise their new features adequately enough for the casual internet user, without your article possibly thousands of people would have never known about this newest feature.
Hey, there’s a new article for ya, explaining ALL of the Google features for the newbie.
November 12, 2005
Sean :
Hello Jim: Great find Jim. I have a lot of friends in the mail order business and they are quite excited about google cataloging catalogs as this will give them more exposure to a different group of people.It will be interesting to see what there click thru rate will be.
November 16, 2005
Wayne Clayton -Michiana Shopper Newspaper :
Jim,
I have been hearing for years how the web was the giant-killer of print. Of course, it has affected print…but having both a print newspaper and a website, I can tell you from experience that a website cannot be easily scanned. Print can. Also if you are sitting in a restaurant of waiting for a plane, the print publication you are browsing through never needs batteries not an internet signal.
Googles attempts with catalogs may ultimately be met with the same hesitation that publishers had when Google said they wanted to put books online. Why should I let Google monitize and profit from my catalog? Sure they may be giving me better exposure…but at what cost?
Just my 2 cents…
November 17, 2005
Arthur Buchanan :
Dear Jim,
I found some stuff on mental health disorders by using the google link above, thanks for your tip. I just wanted you to know that the last post I made to your blog helped save some lifes.
They wrote me and said the article help them in a way that is hard to explain, let me dig one of the testimonies up for you to see! Without futher pussy footing around, I wrote an article on live like you were dying, I think it could help all kinds of people even your readers, thank again for your tips:)
Live Like You Were Dying
This song by Tim McGraw has a great message for all of us! I went sky diving, rocky mountain climbing, I love deeper, and I gave forgiveness I been denying so day I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying? As if tomorrow was a gift, what did I do with it, and what did I do with it?
To live as if you were dying, live like you were dying. Are you getting the hang of it here and what this song about? If not let me try and inciting you just a bit. This is totaling different from the chapter I wrote early about six days left. This is actually a positive thing, to actually live as if you were dying.
I mean if you lived everyday like you were dying, you would get all the things done that you wanted to get done, you would want to prioritize the things that were most important to you. I mean we would get lean and mean with are time and we would get ride of the fluff and concentrate your efforts on the stuff that mean the most to us.
I mean it’s like a new philosophy, one were you are move alive than you used to be, the colors outside seem crisp and cleaner and love seems to be fun again, life is less stressful, I mean you can take a deep breath and try to be totally be present in the NOW, the only time you are ever promised.
The only place you can experience God is in the now, that’s were he is, if you are thinking about what you did yesterday, you are missing the point. If you project your self in the future and you lose sight of the now, then you aren’t living like you were dying and that’s what being in the present means. Loving what you do and doing what you love, I mean I went sky diving, went rocky mountain climbing, I rode a bull 2.6 seconds and his name was ku-man-foo, so please live like you were dying.
What if you live like most people wake on Monday morning mad as hell because they have to go back to work, and all they can think about is Friday, when they could get off and drink all weekend, now don’t get me wrong, I used to be one of those people, drunk all the time, it was the only way I could make it through the week, because I knew that Friday was drinking after work until two in the morning, then of coarse drive drunk home.
Then at one time, I ask, is this all there is? I mean there has to be more. That is the day that I quite drinking and stated living each day as if I was dying. What would I do that was different, from the past? I had a quicker bounce in my step, I always have a smile on my face, I would look for opportunities to help others out.
I would go out of my way to do things for people who I didn’t even consider friends and that would be classified as loving thy neighbor, yes I felt different spiritually, I felt if I was talking to God and being more in tune with him. I even found myself prying, something I didn’t even believe in to much and now I do it at times that I don’t even know it and the better I felt, the more I talked to God.
Now do you want to know something funny, now, I can see myself in my minds eye, as being there or getting this or that and I find myself thanking God on things that I haven’t even got yet, I mean I put the movies in my mind to work and that is just a example of how I would live like I was dying,
I went sky diving rocky mountain climbing, and I was living like I was dying and so can you if you will but open your mind to a new dimension that you never knew you had and that is being present in the now, and living every day as though that it is your last, so go sky divining, go rocky mountain climbing, ride that bull for 2.6 seconds and most of all don’t leave anyone steal your thunder if it’s what you want then go for it, you are now living like you were dying!
Please know you can share this article with anyone you feel it may help friend, family, associates and just anyone who you feel this my help, please just leave the footer intact, Thanks and please live like you were dying!
Leading Psychiatrists are calling Arthur a ‘walking miracle’-After 15 years in mental institutions, absorbing inhumane shock treatments, abusing alcohol, he’s now being called worldwide’ The Zig Ziglar of Mental Illness ‘Read about his amazing comeback and what #1 best-selling author Mike Litman has called The Most Inspirational Book of 2002′ Out of Darkness - One Man’s Journey From The Depths Of Mental Illness to Pure Joy
They are calling Arthur Buchanan’s methods of recovering from mental illness REVOLUTIONARY! (MEDICAL COLLEGE OF MICHIGAN) ‘Arthur Buchanan has given us a revolutionary blue print for recovery in these uncertain times, when Mental Illness at a all time high in the United States of America, yet if you follow this young mans methods, we assure you of positive results and I QUOTE ‘If these methods are followed precisely, their is no way you can’t see positive results with whatever illness you have’ Dr. Herbert Palos Detroit, Michigan’
Listen to Arthur Buchanan on the Mike Litman Show!
http://freesuccessaudios.com/Artlive.mp3 THIS LINK WORKS, LISTEN TODAY!
With Much Love,
Arthur Buchanan
President/CEO
Out of Darkness & Into the Light
43 Oakwood Ave. Suite 1012
Huron Ohio, 44839
www.out-of-darkness.com
567-219-0994 (cell)
November 21, 2005
Scotty Stevens :
As with everything in life…
Some people will like this, some won’t.
I think it’s cool.
Scotty