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Froogle turns to Web for product reviews

Google's shopping engine is quietly paring snippets of consumer reviews from other sites with electronics such as the iPod.

Stefanie Olsen Staff writer, CNET News
Stefanie Olsen covers technology and science.
Stefanie Olsen
In the weeks before Christmas, Google has quietly added third-party product reviews to its comparison shopping engine, Froogle.

In a move to make its site a one-stop online shopping service, Google has started taking snippets of editorial and consumer reviews from sites such as Bizrate.com, Circuit City and CNET, and pairing them with select electronics such as Apple Computer's iPod and Canon's Powershot. CNET is the publisher of News.com.

The service, which is similar to the company's aggregated site for news around the Web, highlights Google's ambition to bring more content to its own site with the use of its "spidering" technology.

Company representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Froogle Product Reviews include a score rating and a tally of reviews available with each product.

The service adds to a growing number of shopping services from Froogle. The company recently introduced shopping wish lists.

This month, the company also registered several shopping-related domain names, including Googleshoppinglist.com, Googlereviews.com and Googlewishlist.com, according to domain registration information.