Google?s strength in so different fields such as telephones, news, photography, blogs, E-mail or advertising is out of this world, unless we compare it to Microsoft in the mid 90?s. The latest innovation is Google Base, which attacks directly the Yellow Pages and newspapers? classified ads. Although, from the sound of it, it was already expected.

Google Base is a research service that allows the source to get real-time updates. That?s why it is recommended especially for Internet free access databases and, most of all, for classified ads. Another novelty is that it incorporates a floksonomy, so that the information source can include tags. Google experts find similarities between this product and another two that the company from California has in its lab:

– Google Automat will allow to publish ads automatically.
– Google Wallet will allow to make payments via the Internet.

If we put all this together, Google would be very close to competing directly with eBay, which owns Loquo (Spanish local classified ads). Maybe that’s why Loquo’s shares are not going well lately. Classified ad companies, among which there are lots of newspapers, are wondering whether they should cooperate with Google and give their adverts to the company, or keep them in their Web pages. The point is that classified adverts mean almost 50% of the benefits for many local papers. They should take into account the following ideas:

– Their ads stopped being valuable since the Internet arrived, because it is much easier to search and interact with adverts in the network. They will lose the battle if they stick to their old product.
– It’d be advisable to give their ads to Google, which would just be another access to the info.
– They should think of dividing all their adverts, so that each of them is one single Web page.

By doing this, they would make researches via Google much easier for those who love descriptive URLs. One of the most affected services is TPI (Telefónica Interactive Publicity), which is in charge of the Spanish Yellow Pages. We know that this company has been working for a long time in a bot, which was launched this week. They obviously aim at competing against Google. Another inciative that is worth mencioning are the Yellowikis.

I found out in Reflexiones Inseguras that this new business allows companies to become part of an interactive guide. The main objective is, at the end of the day, to complete the commercial area of Wikipedia, that has been restricted untill now. And last but not least, we should mention Yahoo! Shophosphere (via Yahoo! Search Blog), where users can share the products they like the most.

What’s more, each user can see their links through Yahoo 360º social network, which is perfectly integrated in the system. Another point we love is that it is possible to prepare a “list of wanted things”, so that our friends have an idea of the presents we expect from Santa Claus…