In a world where the Internet competes directly with retail stores around the world, it's getting more difficult for the everyday mom-and-pop shops to stay in business because of the ever-increasing popularity for people to shop online.
Back in October 2004, Google integrated their Froogle price comparison website with their Google SMS (Short Message Service). As the Internet becomes more popular, especially with the accepted popularity and integration of mobile devices, I feel services this are something retail stores should be aware of. As people are shopping offline, a user can simply text message Google and receive a quick result of price comparisons from various online outlets back to their mobile device.
For those of you who are not familiar with Google SMS, it is a Short Message Service that enables you to search Google, via a mobile device, and have your results returned as a text message back to you. For all of us who are familiar with text messaging, all you have to do is text message your search query to 466453 ('GOOGLE' on most devices) and Google will text message the results back to your mobile device. For a complete list of the available queries, visit the Google SMS homepage.
For those of you who are not familiar with Froogle, it is Google's price comparison website and allows a user to search for specific products in the Google database to compare prices. The results are generated, listing the various prices and websites where the user can purchase the product from.
Put these two together and you have a way for users to compare prices while they are shopping in your store. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that this will definitely take business away from you anytime soon, but I am suggesting you should be aware of services like this and realize the importance for you to stay knowledgeable to keep your business competitive in the rapidly growing Internet world.
If you have a website and are interested in having your products included in the Froogle database, you must first submit them manually to . By including your items in Froogle, they will automatically be searchable through their Google SMS - Short Message Service.
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