Google Shopping Express looking for Bay Area testers | Hacker News Reader

Google Shopping Express looking for Bay Area testers

googlecommerce.blogspot.com

46 pointsrahulroy45 comments

When this service will be retired? Should somebody invest time to Google Services?

I'm looking forward to the day when "when will Google drop new X?" is retired.

You shouldn't feed the trolls :)

This day is in past actually.

Remember Webvan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan) and Kozmo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozmo)? It will be interesting to see how Google manages the logistics.

Funny to see things like this when Google retired Reader b/c "...as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products".

Yet this clearly fits into Google's product vision where (for example) you could be shopping with your Google glass, see a product that is offered at a discount, but you can't fit the product into your small autonomous vehicle. You purchase the product and continue shopping, have a google now card pushed to you warning you that the product will be delivered to your house in 30 minutes, use your Nexus phone to turn on the A/C in your house as well as the outdoor lights and the room in which it will be delivered and have the back door unlock for the delivery person. Receive a confirmation of the product being delivered as well as a visual recap of the product being placed in your home as well as a request for adjusting your home's settings (relock the door, turn off the lights and A/C). It sounds like a pretty focused plan IMO.

Why is Google getting into this? I don't see the value in this. I agree they will get my day to day purchase data but is it worth going through the hassle of launching a physical delivery service? Its just not scalable as quickly. It consumes way too many resources and is a mess to handle the logistics and at the end of the day the margins cannot be high unless they are also selling the goods themselves. Will it be competing with Amazon soon?

If not unless my daily purchase data can offset that revenue somehow I don't see how they can sustain this for long.

> Why is Google getting into this?

Two reasons I'd suggest: it can, and it wants to. Google is a great story and it's continuing to unfold.

Six months of free same-day delivery, but what's the value of my purchasing data to Google? Shouldn't testers be compensated for that, or does that fall under the altruistic "Google needs your help?" Am I to think of Google as just another buddy who needs a lift to the bus station?

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how six months of free same-day delivery somehow doesn't count as compensation.

There are two elements provided to Google here: service viability and the purchasing data from the testing period.

It's certainly open to debate, but I'm questioning that the delivery itself is compensation enough for everything that Google is receiving from the testers. Obviously Google (and you) thinks this, but I don't agree that there's only one possible value-based assessment of the relationship.

Whether or not free same-day delivery is fair compensation for your participation is a relevant topic.

But your characterization of it I found disingenuous: "Am I to think of Google as just another buddy who needs a lift to the bus station?"

There's no reason for the snark, and to pretend like Google is just trying to score a freebie like your hypothetical mooching friend is framing the argument disingenuously. The cost of delivering something same-day is non-trivial - Google is not expecting a freebie, though you are of course welcome to value your privacy above that dollar amount.

I don't think that it's unreasonable to say that Google gets the purchasing data for free in this deal, but these things are quantifiable, right? The value of the shipping and the value of the data? The data might be harder to arrive at a number, though, since purchasing data can be reused over and over for different metrics, increasing its value.

Yeah, but you're not all that. Same day delivery has a pretty decent value.

I'm not sure what, "you're not all that" means, but as mentioned elsewhere, Webvan and Kozmo provided the same product and, I'm guessing, value...for naught.

And you don't think they were storing that delivery data for mining and optimization purposes?

My point was the quant side.

This is what I call being entitled. You get free same-day delivery but it's not enough, he needs more than that.

You realize I'm just asking some questions, right?

'just another buddy who needs a lift to the bus station' makes it sound like they're mooching off you.

That Google could be considered a buddy is the hyperbole here, not the ride to the bus station.

come to think about it, it's more like they're giving you a ride to the bus station, while you complain that they're spying on your travel arrangements. I know the purchasing and delivery patterns in the aggregate constitute valuable economic information, but free same-day delivery has a non-zero economic benefit as well.

I know what I meant, but go ahead and ride that metaphor wherever you like!

Do you demand compensation from Amazon when it gives you free shipping?

Free market works - if there weren't enough people to try this out, Google would've certainly paid people to try this out. But I am sure there are a lot of folks who find this deal attractive.

EDIT: Fixed typo

Um, google, are you really targeting the right people with Target, Toys R US, Staples, and Office Depot? I was about to give it a try, but I don't think I've bought anything from any of those stores ever - nor do I really plan on it either...

if you've never bought anything from target, then you're definitely not in the set of "right people" for this program. it goes without saying that the key to success here is logistical optimization, and big-box stores are the easiest place to start.

Ah, if only the whole world existed inside the Bay Area.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area (in the city of San Francisco, and the Peninsula from San Mateo to San Jose)

What, no love for the East Bay :-p

does that exclude SSF and Daly?

SSF & Daly City are excluded.

Peninsula covers San Mateo to San Jose.

Doesn't this compete directly with Instacart and eBay Now?

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