New animated Google Shopping microsite highlights 1,000 of the most popular products

Google Shopping has gone through quite the metamorphosis over the years. Back in 2002, it was called Froogle upon launching – a pun on the term frugal – and was later renamed to Google Product Search in 2007. Then, it was renamed yet again to Google Shopping in 2012 and went through several iterations even within itself relating to how information was presented to users. Prior to being baked right into Google Search as a complete service, it remained a standalone website. Now that it’s become central to Google’s strategy and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai loves it so much, it’s begun to innovate in how it approaches shopping content.

In addition to integrating Shopping products into Youtube videos and even releasing a 2020 Holiday Gift Guide, Google Shopping just launched a new microsite that features 1,000 of the most popular products across shopping categories. What’s exciting about this microsite is that it’s fully animated and lets you click and drag to pan across a large board filled with category cards. You can also simply scroll down the page with your mouse wheel – either way, you’re presented with a seemingly endless wall of content. If you scroll long enough though, you’ll notice that it’s all just looping, but it’s still really neat.

Once you click into a category or use the dropdown at the top, you’ll be taken to a page with several top-ranking products for that category and then to a Google Shopping listing where you can purchase it. Not only is this going to be extremely helpful for those of us looking for ideas on what to buy for that next birthday, holiday, or special event, but even just from a web development standpoint, this is a technical marvel. Google continues to impress with its web dev prowess, and they have been no slouch with Google Shopping! Actually, that Holiday Gift Guide I mentioned above has just updated to reflect Valentine’s Day shopping, and it’s also developed quite well.

Google created the ‘Best Things for Everything Guide’ in an effort to boost consumer confidence in decision-making while shopping. The about page for the website states that you should feel confident in knowing that you’re making a good decision and buying the best product for your needs. It also says that these suggestions will only be available ‘For a limited time’, leading me to believe that this microsite may one day be repurposed or updated to reflect more up-to-date information, similar to how the Holiday Gift Guide was morphed into a Valentine’s Day promotional when it was previously designed around Christmas and such.

So how do products make it onto the ‘Best Things for Everything’ guide? Well, Google says that they look at how products are discussed online and then factors in several talking points. Things that are popular and things that are being searched frequently help to inform a view of the products they’ve hand-picked for the microsite. Don’t forget that back in October, Google added several new tools to Shopping like price tracking and insights to help you find the best deal, so when you click into a specific product there, you’ll be able to utilize those as well. Check out the guide by clicking the blue button below and let us know what you think about the new site’s design, development, and content down in the comments!

Best Things for Everything Guide