Google has quietly started testing a U.K. version
of its shopping search engine, Froogle, the Internet
star's latest expansion. The Mountain View,
Calif.-based company began experimenting with its U.S.
comparative shopping
service during Christmas 2002 and has
timed its latest English-language "="">Froogle site for the
holidays as well. The site--which is competing with
U.K. rivals Yahoo Shopping, DealTime and Kelkoo--lets
people search by shopping category or by simply typing
a product description into the search box. Google's
spider technology scours merchant Web sites for
relevant product data.
Google, which recently raised $1.66 billion in an
initial public offering, is growing at a fast clip,
with products for news search, e-mail and Web publishing.
SearchEngineWatch.com first flagged the news about Froogle U.K.