Some things I've learned about Google that May help with 1.0. Attn: Renlok

[Box Lot]

You may very well know all this stuff but can't hurt.

Google Merchant Feed has it's own format and along with it some basic rules that might effect your build.

1. GMF does not support auction format items.
Therefore the feed file must only contain buy it now items or auctions with a buy it now price (with THAT price noted in the feed file).

2. Items must be noted as either "New" or "Used".
This may require an additional sell field for sellers. This in itself is another enhancement and I think a look at the future of 2.0 with additional item criteria check boxes.

There is of course a distinct format.

The header/footer, if you will, currently looks like this:
TOP PORTION/HEADER:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0">
<channel>
<title><![CDATA[YOUR SITE TITLE]]></title>
<link>http://www.YOURSITE.com</link>
<description><![CDATA[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR SITE]]></description>*
ITEMS GO IN HERE, see below for format
BOTTOM PORTION/FOOTER
</channel>
</rss>

*Not sure of the briefness required for the site description but best to keep it simple and not try to cram keywords, etc. as that is not the purpose of this file and you can do that elsewhere.

ITEMS are formatted like this with the basic required criteria. There are others available that you might want to look into but I think most would require additional fields in WeBid. In fact it turns out my example has more then what is required:
Required

• Condition
• Description
• id
• link
• price
• title

Though some of them are recommended and most use those as well:

Recommended

• brand
• image link
• isbn
• mpn -manufacturers part number or internal number for sellers item like an offline product number.
• product type
• upc
• weight

Note that for the payments they should have a : between the "g" and "p" but the board saw it as a smiley and wouldn't allow it.:

<item>
<title><![CDATA[ITEM TITLE]]></title>
<g:condition>used</g:condition>
<gproduct_type><![CDATA[Sports]]></gproduct_type>
<g:expiration_date>3/1/2010</g:expiration_date>*
<g:id>AUCTION ID NUMBER</g:id>
<g:image_link>http://www.YOURSITE.com/uploaded/ITEMS FILE/ITEM.jpg</g:image_link>
<link>LINK TO ITEM</link>
<gprice>167</gprice>
<g:mpn>30152</g:mpn>
<g:weight>3 pounds</g:weight>
<g:currency>USD</g:currency>
<gpayment_accepted>Paypal</gpayment_accepted>*
<gpayment_accepted>Visa</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>MasterCard</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>AmericanExpress</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>Discover</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>Check</gpayment_accepted>
<description><![CDATA[ITEM DESCRIPTION AS WRITTEN ON THE SITE, unsure of length limit but most sites I've worked with have never hit a wall.]]></description>
</item>

*30 Days maximum, just set to start plus 30 I think.
*Payments for other sites I've used. I believe "Cash" is not allowed.

I've noted filled in field with all caps for emphasis but they should be all small for non-sentences and properly capitalized/small where applicable. Sellers should be told that all caps will get the feed killed. This is also true with Google sitemaps. This is important as my experience shows many are either lazy or think they get a better exposure on the site this way.

I'll look deeper into this and add or fix missing information. It's all on the site but I think it can be confusing....like mine isn't!

[Box Lot]

So a 2 item feed would look something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0">
<channel>
<title><![CDATA[YOUR SITE TITLE]]></title>
<link>http://www.YOURSITE.com</link>
<description><![CDATA[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR SITE]]></description>*
<item>
<title><![CDATA[ITEM 1 TITLE]]></title>
<g:condition>used</g:condition>
<gproduct_type><![CDATA[Sports]]></gproduct_type>
<g:expiration_date>3/1/2010</g:expiration_date>*
<g:id>AUCTION ID NUMBER</g:id>
<g:image_link>http://www.yoursite.com/uploaded/ITEMS FILE/ITEM.jpg</g:image_link>
<link>LINK TO ITEM</link>
<gprice>167</gprice>
<g:mpn>GOT TO GET BACK to this one, on other (Zen Cart mostly) sites it is a space for another inventory control number in addition to the above number which in Zen's case is the SQL id number.</g:mpn>
<g:weight>3 pounds</g:weight>
<g:currency>USD</g:currency>
<gpayment_accepted>Paypal</gpayment_accepted>*
<gpayment_accepted>Visa</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>MasterCard</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>AmericanExpress</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>Discover</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>Check</gpayment_accepted>
<description><![CDATA[ITEM DESCRIPTION AS WRITTEN ON THE SITE, unsure of length limit but most sites I've worked with have never hit a wall.]]></description>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[ITEM 2 TITLE]]></title>
<g:condition>used</g:condition>
<gproduct_type><![CDATA[Sports]]></gproduct_type>
<g:expiration_date>3/1/2010</g:expiration_date>*
<g:id>AUCTION ID NUMBER</g:id>
<g:image_link>http://www.yoursite.com/uploaded/ITEMS FILE/ITEM.jpg</g:image_link>
<link>LINK TO ITEM</link>
<gprice>167</gprice>
<g:mpn>GOT TO GET BACK to this one, on other (Zen Cart mostly) sites it is a space for another inventory control number in addition to the above number which in Zen's case is the SQL id number.</g:mpn>
<g:weight>3 pounds</g:weight>
<g:currency>USD</g:currency>
<gpayment_accepted>Paypal</gpayment_accepted>*
<gpayment_accepted>Visa</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>MasterCard</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>AmericanExpress</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>Discover</gpayment_accepted>
<gpayment_accepted>Check</gpayment_accepted>
<description><![CDATA[ITEM DESCRIPTION AS WRITTEN ON THE SITE, unsure of length limit but most sites I've worked with have never hit a wall.]]></description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

[Box Lot]

Of course going to the source is recommended:
http://www.google.com/support/mercha...&answer=160073

[Box Lot]

Ok, now here is are the sitemaps which are easier. By the way, these should all be saved at the root level and Google provides the option for automatic or manual loading (use when major changes before automatic load date):

1. This is the top level one that points to the others, file name format "sitemapindex.xml". Note they use a different date format here for some reason.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="gss.xsl"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9
http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/siteindex.xsd"
xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<sitemap>
<loc>http://www.YOURSITE.com/sitemapezpages.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2009-10-09</lastmod>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>http://www.YOURSITE.com/sitemapcategories.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2009-01-10</lastmod>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>http://www.YOURSITE.com/sitemapproducts.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2010-01-30</lastmod>
</sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

ALL OF THESE REPEAT THE <URL> </URL> portion for all pages/cats/items.

2. I'm not sure if the name sitemapexpages.xml is inherited from Zen Cart and my experiences or what but it is used to point out important "extra" pages like FAQs, etc.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="gss.xsl"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>PAGES URL</loc>
<lastmod>2007-03-24</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>*
</url>
/urlset>

3. sitemapcategories.xml
As above but link is to each category.

4. sitemapproducts.xml
as above but link to each product AND 1.0 priority.


*You will get a warning when all your pages/cats/items have the same priority but it wont bother the process and without hand prioritizing all of them I can't think of anything else then setting them all to this. Truth is one is probably no more important then then the other anyway, maybe the ezpages (eg. terms & conditions=1.0).

[Box Lot]

Learned yet again from Google at about 1am for a site I work with so I've edited the posting to remove the "brand" attribute.

This site has --none-- for years but I think they are fine tooth combing feeds to get them in line. This site had 3 days of work to "fix" things that worked for years....guess who did the work!

Also, categories need to be in full tree format like:
Toys &amp; Games&gt;Board Games
(which reads like Toys & Games>Board Games)
Prior to today they accepted the last category like "Board Games".

It's clear to other that any added 2.0 fields previously mentioned need to be carefully thought out so that every item can have an acceptable choice or if not selected would not be added to the feed. Might ber easier to , in the brand example, have something like "generic" or "unknown" though I can't say with certainty that it would be accepted. Getting ahead of myself but might help the overall thought process of putting it together now.