SingleFeed Blog

The Products page at SingleFeed has recently seen many improvements, both in usability and performance.  One of these such improvements is with respect to the upload User eXperience (UX) — leading to a quicker and easier to follow upload process.
 
You will notice, right from the start, the upload no longer covers up other important product and action information on the Products page.  It smoothly reveals, when requested. 

Click here to see the Upload Start animation.

With many of the improvements on the backend you should also experience much shorter upload times than previously.  Just…    

1. select the file you would like to upload,
2. whether or not it should:
1. replace, or
2. be appended to your existing SingleFeed product list

…then you will see next, and cool improvement – our progress bar.

Click here to see a sample Upload-in-Progress.

Now, you can easily see how much time remains when you upload; and after you upload, what stage in processing your uploaded feed our Correction Wizard is up to. 
 
BTW, you will be seeing some awesome additions to the Correction Wizard very soon — with expanded automatic correction and assistance to save you even more time.
 
I also look forward to hearing feedback from your regarding your experience with this new technology.

Enjoy! 

Jeremy Horn
SingleFeed

Google Base updated its specifications to include about 40 more pre-defined attributes (on top of the infinite number of custom attributes). Read more at the Google Base blog.

While these fields are not currently listed in the SingleFeed specification or sample SingleFeed, we now support all the new attribute fields. All you have to do is include the proper field names in your feed, and we’ll pass the data along to Google Base…hopefully we’ll soon pass it along to some other engines, too.

Google Base makes specific recommendations on including certain attributes for certain products. For example, apparel retailers are encouraged to provide: color, department, made_in, material, size, style. [BTW, SingleFeed was already sending 'department' along to Google Base - it's our category field - and we've strongly recommended including color and size since day 1.] But why stop there? With SingleFeed’s new support of Google Base custom attributes, you could also include:

c:bra_type:string (and enter sports, demi cup, sheer, padded/lined, push-up, etc.)

c:waterproof:boolean (and enter true or false)

c:pleated:boolean (and enter true or false)

c:inseam:string (and enter 32 inches)

c:designer:string (and enter vera wang, nicole miller, DKNY, etc.)

In other words, as SingleFeed has always recommended, take advantage of the flexibility of Google Base. The whole point of SingleFeed is to save you hours and hours of work creating and managing your feed so you can spend time on optimization. In using these new pre-defined or custom attributes, you’ll be part of the very small minority whose products will show up as the only options when shoppers filter or enter very specific queries on Google Base.

I have been seeing a bunch of emails about the Google Custom Attributes since we launched the new feature yesterday, basically saying, “great that you have ‘em, but how in the world do I use them?”

Well, let me start off by saying Google Custom Attributes are a great way to improve your ranking (and, in turn, your feed performance) on Google Base… the more information you provide Google, the better.

Using Google Custom Attributes with SingleFeed is SUPER EASY!!

First,

• Think about what sort of custom fields would add value to your search listings (remembering, more is better, but do NOT spam Google Base with useless content).
• These field headings within the SingleFeed upload file are unique; each Google Custom Attribute always starts with ‘c:’ (that is see-colon), then includes the attribute, then ends with the type of custom attribute (string, integer, decimal, dateTime, location, URL, boolean). Following are some examples of possible Google Base Custom Attribute column headings. Your attributes will vary depending on what type of products you sell…

c:ski_size:integer
c:operating_temperature:decimal
c:fabric_type:string
c:gluten_free:boolean
c:store_department:string
c:store_location:location

Then,

• Just like any other product field, enter the information associated with each of your products under the field headings.

“Wait!” you are saying, “is that it?” Yep. We will be adding to the FAQ and blogging about additional ways you can consider using the Google Custom Attributes that will further improve your performance. For more info right now, go to the Google Base custom attribute help page.

A very cool thing that we also built into Google Custom Attributes is that when you do specify a Google Custom field, we automatically check and validate the field values to ensure they meet Google-specific requirements. If we happen to find an invalid field value, we will highlight it and provide you added assistance on the Product Edit page to easily fix.Also, remember, these Google Custom Attributes are special to Google and will only be included in your Google transmissions. No extra work, no worries.

P.S. We are working on updating the FAQ for you to provide more details, information about Google Custom Attribute field-types, and suggestions on how you will be able to make the most of Google Custom Attributes at SingleFeed.

P.P.S. Enjoy!

My name is Jeremy Horn, and you will be seeing me as blogger ‘jhornSINGLEFEED’ quite a bit from now on.

I, along with Brian Smith, launched SingleFeed to improve and enhance the Shopping Comparison Engine <-> merchant experience.

I figure, right about here in my ‘howdy, everyone’, very first blog post, would be a good time to tell you a little bit about me. Over 10 years ago, I started my own start-up, specializing in network security products. And, since then I have led and advised many start-ups (in online services, consumer products, marketing, etc.) wearing all the different hats, at one point or another. I never thought I would so soon find myself, yet again, starting a start-up. I am very proud and excited to be a part of SingleFeed and look forward to my many future postings and getting to know many of you, as well as how we can further improve the experience.

And, remember, SingleFeed is YOUR product. Tell us where you want to go with it.

Jeremy Horn, SingleFeed

Yes. Another blog. I know, I know.

While I discuss SingleFeed over at ComparisonEngines and LoveYourFeed, SingleFeed needs a voice of its own. We’ll use this blog to keep you updated about new features (there are already a lot to cover!), problems with the shopping engines (if one of the engines is down, we’ll let you know), problems with SingleFeed (yes, there are always going to be bugs), and most importantly, we’ll hold an open discussion about what we’re working on in order to make sure we’re solving your problems and enabling you to love your data feed.

SingleFeed is your product. Tell us where you want to go with it.

We’re small and scrappy. Expect to see a steady stream of small and big releases from our excellent team.

Jeremy Horn, my co-founder, is already posting and expect to learn more about him and the rest of the team soon.

SingleFeed

PS. Yes, we’re working on the formating and will add all the nice little blog bells, whistles, and gadgets soon.

As you can tell we have just launched many cool new features and improvements on SingleFeed.

Among these new features, and particularly notable (you are taking advantage of one of these items right now), is our introduction of both a Blog and Forum. The goal of both of these is to…

• open communication with you, the merchants, users, and guests of SingleFeed
• discuss new ideas
• help with the everyday challenges of working with the various Shopping Comparison Engines (SCEs)
• improve and simplify the SingleFeed experience for everyone

Some of the other new features we just released this week are…

• robust Google Custom Attribute support
• a Correction Wizard for guided and automatic fixing of your feed
• support for large feed uploading (.ZIP)
• web application compatibility with FireFox and Internet Explorer 7
• MAJOR (and a few minor) usability and interface improvements
• and many more items that I will take the time to discuss in future postings

Over time, I will blog about these and other new features and how you can best maximize your use of them here at SingleFeed.

In addition to new site improvements as they are released, you may be wondering, what else you should expect to see here on this blog. This blog will also be used to…

1. inform the SingleFeed community of Shopping Comparison Engine (SCE) special offers, or other SCE events that are of interest, or may directly impact you
2. initiate discussions or thoughts on new concepts and approaches in UI design that will directly benefit the SingleFeed community

Often, as I blog you will hear me frequently say ‘we’ and ‘us’ and ‘the SingleFeed team.’ Here, at SingleFeed, we have established, and continue to grow, a stellar team. The majority of you already know Brian Smith. Now, with the major launch of today’s awesome suite of features, I would like to give a shout-out to Craig Ulliott (our head developer), the individual who developed the improvements I am mentioning today. Craig will be an active participant in our various Forums.