Google Base is a database provided by Google. It lets users add text, images, and structured information into formats such as XML, PDF, RTF or WordPerfect.
This is now considered Google Merchant Center as of September 2010. When Google finds this relevant to a search, the content submitted can appear on its search engine, Google shopping, or Google Maps. This content can be labeled with attributes associated with the product. This was implemented to complement existing methods and Google Sitemaps.
We have added new required fields to Google Base Feed / Google Merchant Center.
Required for all products: gtin, availability, google_product_category
Required for apparel: gender, age_group
Required for apparel and variant products: color, size
Required for apparel (if applicable): material, pattern
GTIN will pull from the new GTIN field on products:
Availability is mapped as follows:
In Stock – any product status that isn’t unavailable or backorder
Available For Order – product status is backorder and stock is <= 0
Out of Stock – unavailable product statuses
Preorder – not supported for automatic mapping, can be set with custom field override
Availability can be overridden at the product level by adding a custom field called “Availability”.
Products with variant inventory will split into separate items based on the available variations. All applicable fields will be overridden with information from the variant inventory record. Assuming the variant group names are Color, Size, Material, and Pattern, those attributes will map from the variant inventory’s variant names. They can also be set at the product level with custom fields of the same name for non-variant apparel.
The remaining attributes are mapped from the following custom fields:
GoogleProductCategory
Gender
AgeGroup
See Google’s article on Products Feed Specification for more info.