android tv

Google Wallet is teaming up with Sprint and Samsung on a roadshow to introduce you to Google Wallet and give you the chance to try it, in stores. Over the next three months, we’ll be visiting merchant locations in New York, Chicago, Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles for half-day events to demo Google Wallet and help you pay for your purchase. You’ll not only get to see Google Wallet in action, but you’ll also get $10 towards your purchase when you tap and pay using one of the Samsung Nexus S demo phones.

We’ll be visiting different store locations in the five cities including Duane Reade, Jamba Juice, Walgreens, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Foot Locker, Fat Witch Bakery in Chelsea Market and others.

















Calendar of Events:
All event times, regardless of location, are in Eastern time, and events are subject to change. We’ll be in each city during the following dates:

• New York: Oct. 17 - Nov. 13
• Chicago: Oct. 17 - Nov. 13
• Washington, DC: Nov. 15 - Dec. 12
• San Francisco: Nov. 15 - Dec. 12
• Los Angeles: Dec. 14 - Jan. 12

We’re excited to give you a chance to try out Google Wallet and experience paying with a mobile phone. Take a look at our full calendar of events above (or by clicking this link), and come check out Google Wallet at a location near you.

Posted by Keren Michelson, Product Marketing, Google Wallet

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

There’s a universe of amazing daily deals out there, but it's hard to find them all in one place—and even harder to discover the ones that really matter to you.

We’re making improvements to Google Offers that help address this challenge. First, we’re delivering more amazing deals from a bunch of new categories including outdoor adventure sports, luxury experiences, family-friendly events, classes and more. We’re also introducing a personalization quiz to help you find just the deal you want, all in one place.

Google Offers subscribers in the San Francisco Bay Area will have access to these new deals, and the quiz is now available in all cities. We'll gradually roll out an expanded offers inventory to new cities in the months to come.



To make all this happen, we’ve partnered with the best deal providers in the industry including Dealfind, DoodleDeals, Gilt City, GolfNow, HomeRun, Juice in the City, kgbdeals, Mamapedia, Plum District, PopSugar Shop, ReachDeals, Active.com Schwaggle, TIPPR and zozi. Now, with one account you can easily purchase, manage and redeem all your offers in one place.


Our new personalization quiz is a first step towards bringing you more relevant deals. You can tell us what categories you’re interested in and where you hang out so we can send you just the tailored offers that match your interests—all in one email. If you’re not the outdoorsy type or interested in cosmetic treatments, then we won’t send you deals for zipline adventures and laser hair removal. Don’t worry, if your interests change you can always update your preferences.


You can subscribe to receive deals that match your interests and learn more about Google Offers at google.com/offers. If you’re a deal provider interested in partnering with Google Offers, please submit your application using this form.

Finally, thanks to The Dealmap team that recently joined Google. They definitely helped on this one and we’re looking forward to working with them to develop many new ideas in the months and years to come.

Posted by Nitin Mangtani, Group Product Manager, Google Offers

Online commerce continues to see explosive growth rates around the world. At the same time, new technologies make the online shopping experience easier for both merchants and shoppers. Over the next month, the Google Commerce Developer Relations team will be travelling to Japan, Australia, Spain and Germany to meet with developers and talk about the latest developments in online commerce.

We'll cover various topics from monetizing web apps and games with Google In-App Payments and AdSense Media Ads, to using the Google Shopping APIs (Search and Content) to build innovative applications. If you haven’t registered yet, here is the complete list of locations and dates:

• Google Developer Day, Tokyo - November 1, 2011
• Google Developer Day, Sydney - November 8, 2011
• Google DevFest, Barcelona - November 8, 2011
• Google Developer Day, Berlin - November 19, 2011

We’re looking forward to talking to you at one of the developer events.

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Commerce Developer Advocate

We’re on a roll! Today we’re launching Google Offers in four new cities including Baltimore, Minneapolis, San Diego and San Jose. Here’s more on today’s offers in our newest locations:

• In Baltimore the first Google Offer is for Blue Hill Tavern -- “one of Baltimore’s most impressive dining spaces” according to Baltimore Magazine. The artfully designed dishes are as eye-catching as they are palate-pleasing. Enjoy delicious comfort foods and views from the rooftop patio with today’s offer: $15 for $30 worth of food and drinks.
• Visit the acclaimed cultural mecca of the Twin Cities with today’s offer for the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. For $1 you’ll get admission to the MIA’s special exhibition: “Edo Pop: The Graphic Impact of Japanese Prints” (up to $8 value), where you can enjoy the finest of rendered color and texture from the Far East and beyond. The Edo Pop exhibit runs Oct. 30, 2011- Jan. 8, 2012.
• Burgers are on the menu in Sunny San Diego. Our day-one offer is for the famous local eatery, Crazee Burger. Choose from more than 25 creative burger types (including wild boar, ostrich, alligator and more!), fresh salad and savory sweet potato fries. Today’s offer is $10 for $20 toward delicious grub at this favorite local spot.
• Enjoy the “best of Silicon Valley” at Sonoma Chicken Coop, which serves up an award-winning combo of fresh fare, fast service, and friendly prices to all corners of Silicon Valley. Grab today’s Google Offer for San Jose and get $30 toward food and drinks for just $15 at participating locations.

To subscribe to deals in these cities and to find great deals in other cities across the country, please visit www.google.com/offers.

Posted by Eric Rosenblum, Director of Product Management, Google Offers

On September 22, the new Google Product Search feed specification that we announced in July went into effect. Since then, we’ve been gradually enforcing the new requirements by implementing additional checks over time in order to ensure a smooth roll out and give our merchants more time to react to errors and data problems.

We’re well on our way toward implementing all compliance checks, including those for Google Product Category, Tax & Shipping, and Variant attributes. Here are a few ways that you can make sure your product data feed is in good shape:

1. Review the information on the “Data Quality” tab in Google Merchant Center to see data quality errors. We recently changed this tab to give you a clearer view of the status of your items and to make it easier to see which errors are most critical. Where possible, we’ve also provided actionable advice and feedback on how to fix errors.

2. Also be sure to also check the “Data Feeds” tab in your Merchant Center account. This is where you’ll find error reports for feed-level issues (e.g. errors in syntax of submitted attributes).

3. Use the “New Test Data Feed” functionality (on the Data Feed tab) to submit a new test feed. This test mechanism also allows you to download a full feed processing report and get detailed insights into potential issues with your feed. Note that this functionality is currently only available for test feeds.

As we head into the holiday season, we want to thank our merchants for investing in making the necessary changes to their feeds and sending high-quality product data. We’re committed to maintaining a high bar for data quality and are working hard to make Google Product Search even better in the coming months.

Happy Shopping!

Posted by Mayuresh Saoji, Senior Product Manager, Google Product Search team

Today NJ TRANSIT became the first public transit agency to partner with Google Wallet. With a quick tap of a phone, NJ TRANSIT rail and bus customers can now use Google Wallet to tap and pay to travel at New York Penn Station, Newark Airport Station, and on select bus routes.

Rushing to catch the 5:45 PM from New York Penn Station to Montclair? Racing to catch that last flight from Newark Airport to Boston? Navigating through a sea of umbrellas to catch the no. 87 bus to Hoboken in the rain? When seconds count, don’t waste valuable time fumbling for change. Just use Google Wallet to tap, pay, and ride. It’s that simple.

Our partnership with NJ TRANSIT is just the first step for Google Wallet and transit. In the coming months we look forward to announcing several innovative transit solutions with our partners. Stay tuned for more.

Posted by Marlo McGriff, Business Product Manager

It’s been four short (and busy!) months since our very first Google Offer ran in Portland, OR. Since then, we’ve launched Google Offers in 13 U.S. cities, with 25 more on the way. Starting today, deal-hunters in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia will now have access to Google Offers. Here’s a look at some of the awesome deals we have lined up for our debut week in these cities:

Today’s deal in Pittsburgh is...
Love beer? Live music? And delicious Bavarian fare? Look no further than the Hofbräuhaus Pittsburgh where today’s Google Offer is $10 for $30 toward signature beers and savory German-Bavarian dishes. Modeled after the legendary 400+ year-old Hofbräuhaus in Munich, Germany, the Hofbräuhaus brews all its beer in-house including the famous “1810 Prince Ludwig.” This flavorful amber lager is made from the original top-secret recipe first created 200+ years ago in honor of the wedding of Prince Ludwig to his bride Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.

Satisfy your sweet tooth with our next deal in Pittsburgh for everyone’s favorite ice cream shop: Dave & Andy’s Homemade Ice Cream.

Today’s deal in Philadelphia is...
If you’re craving classic American dishes, check out today’s deal for the award-winning Marathon Grill. A family-owned and operated restaurant for nearly 30 years, many of their delicious offerings are made with fresh ingredients from local farms as well as their very own urban farm in the Brewerytown neighborhood! Stop in and try the 8oz Marathon Burger, Cheesesteak Spring Rolls or the Brownie Sundae Smoothie made with probiotic and active culture nonfat yogurt. At Marathon Grill, eating like a local means eating well -- really well. Today’s Google Offer for Marathon is $8 for $16 toward food and drinks, plus a free soup of the day.

And be sure to grab our upcoming offer for Campo’s--a local gem known for its award-winning Philly style sandwiches.



Check out www.google.com/offers (and get our Shopper mobile app on Android and iPhone) to subscribe to deals in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and find great deals in other cities across the country.

Posted by Eric Rosenblum, Director of Product Management, Google Offers

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

We’re hearing from people at check-out counters throughout the country that paying with your phone is a little like magic. Just look at the ecstatic reaction on the faces of our friends who made their first Google Wallet purchases last Thursday.



Today, our partners American Eagle Outfitters, The Container Store, Foot Locker, Guess, Jamba Juice, Macy’s, OfficeMax and Toys“R”Us are rolling out an even better Google Wallet experience. For the first time ever in the U.S., at these select stores, you can not only pay but also redeem coupons and/or earn rewards points—all with a single tap of your phone. This is what we call the Google Wallet SingleTap experience.

With Google Wallet in hand, you can walk into a Jamba Juice, American Eagle Outfitters or any other partner store. Once you’ve ordered that Razzmatazz smoothie or found the right color Slim Jean, head straight to the cashier and tap your phone to pay and save—that’s it. You don’t have to shuffle around to find the right coupon to scan or rewards card to stamp because it all happens in the blink of an eye.

The Offers tab in Google Wallet has been updated to include a new "Featured Offers" section with discounts that are exclusive to Google Wallet. Today, these include 15% off at American Eagle Outfitters, 10% off at The Container Store, 15% off at Macy’s and an all-fruit smoothie for $2 at Jamba Juice. There are many more Google Wallet exclusive discounts to come, and you can save your favorites in Google Wallet so they’ll be automatically applied to your bill when you check out.


Organizing loyalty cards in your wallet is getting easier too. Today, Foot Locker, Guess, OfficeMax and American Eagle Outfitters are providing loyalty cards for Google Wallet so you can rack up reward points automatically as you shop. More of these are on the way.

One more thing—in response to user feedback, we’ve improved transaction details for the Google Prepaid Card with real-time transaction information including merchant name, location, dollar value and time of each transaction. Here’s what it looks like:

Finally, a special thanks to Chevron, D’Agostino, Faber News Now, Gristedes Supermarkets and Pinkberry who are now also working to equip their stores to accept Google Wallet.

It’s still early days for Google Wallet, but this is an important step in expanding the ecosystem of participating merchants to make shopping faster and easier in more places. If you’re a merchant and want to work with us to make shopping easier for your customers and connect with them in new ways, please sign up on the Google Wallet site. And if you’re a shopper and want to purchase a Nexus S 4G phone from Sprint with Google Wallet, visit this page.

Posted by Spencer Spinnell, Director, Emerging Markets

Are you an internet retailer currently submitting products to Google Product Search? Join us for a free webinar on “Keeping your product data fresh using Google’s Content API for Shopping”, on October 26, 2011 at 10AM PT. This webinar is for retailers who use Google Merchant Center and are looking for a more scalable, flexible way to update their product data. If you are a decision maker for your site’s marketing and operations, then this webinar is for you.

In this 60 minute session, you’ll learn about:

• Google Shopping data freshness policy
• The Content API for Shopping
• Analytics and reports on API usage
• Available support for the API
• Using Merchant Center vs. using the API: We’ll walk through the advantages and disadvantages of each

Google Product Search team members will be on hand for Q&A.

Register now for the webinar, and you can also:



Hope to see you at the webinar.

Posted by Amanda Surya, Commerce Developer Relations Team

As you may have noticed, the Google Commerce blog looks a lot different today. That’s because we—along with a few other Google blogs—are trying out a new set of Blogger templates called Dynamic Views.

Dynamic Views is a unique browsing experience that makes it easier and faster for readers to explore blogs in interactive ways. We’re using the Magazine view, but you can also preview this blog in any of the other six new views by using the view selection bar at the top left of the screen.



We’re eager to hear what you think about the new Dynamic Views. You can submit feedback using the “Send feedback” link on the bottom right of this page, or just send us an email.

If you like what you see here, and we hope you do, we encourage you to try out the new look(s) on your own blog—read the Blogger Buzz post for more info.

Posted by Jessica Smallman, Product Marketing

If you’re in Times Square this month, drop by the American Eagle Outfitters flagship store. You might notice the large electronic billboard above the store that talks about a Google Wallet Tapping Spree.


Since we launched Google Wallet last month on Sprint Nexus S 4G phones, we have been noticing excitement among our first users. We thought it would be a good idea to give this opportunity to more of you, to test out the feeling of paying with a mobile phone. So we partnered with American Eagle Outfitters, who has become one of the first Google SingleTap merchants – meaning that you can not only pay, but also redeem offers and earn loyalty points – all with a tap of a mobile phone.

For the rest of October, if you visit this store, you can borrow a phone with the Google Wallet app and go on a "tapping spree," a concept promotion that allows you to pay and redeem offers with a tap of your phone. Look for surprise offers throughout the store as you fill your shopping cart, and when it’s time to checkout, simply enable the offer you like the most and tap the phone on the terminal to pay. You’ll not only receive the discount from your selected offer, but you’ll also receive an additional $10 towards your purchase in the form of an American Eagle Outfitters gift card.


We’re excited to invite you to participate in this promotion. We hope you can join us.

Posted by Artem Chetverykov, Product Marketing Manager, Google Wallet

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog and the Google Enterprise Blog)

Two years ago in November, we launched Google Commerce Search, which provides the search quality of Google to e-commerce websites with interactive user features such as Suggestions, Search As You Type and Product Recommendations. With Google Commerce Search, retailers such as GNC, L’Occitane and Forever21 are powering fast, interactive and relevant search and navigation for their customers. Simple integration with mobile and local search results allows shoppers to find products in physical stores nearby, helping retailers offer a great shopping experience from start to finish.

We’ve grown both in product features and user adoption in the past two years, but we’re not done yet. In fact, we want to make it even easier for retailers to adopt Google Commerce Search to help them achieve amazing results and meet their customers’ needs.

So today we’re announcing that we’re growing the Google Commerce Search family with the launch of the Google Commerce Search Reseller Program. Through this new program, technology providers can bring the unique capabilities of Google Commerce Search to their retail clients.

We’ve been working with some leading technology providers who have developed solutions around Google Commerce Search for the web and for mobile, and we’re excited to formalize the program and invite even more technology providers to come on board with us.

Our first new reseller is Branding Brand, a leader in the mobile commerce space who works with large multi-channel retailers to develop mobile and social commerce applications. The firm sought out Google when they heard about Google Commerce Search, as they knew it would deliver additional value to their customers. “Mobile users are often action-oriented--whether they’re locating a store, seeing what products are available nearby, or searching for a specific item–so it’s important to quickly provide relevant information in the proper context. Google Commerce Search allows us to do exactly this,” says co-founder Chris Mason. GNC was Branding Brand’s first client to launch with Google Commerce Search earlier this year, and here is what their CMO Jeff Hennion has to say about the results:



In fact, with Branding Brand we’d also like to announce our newest retail customer: Timberland. With Branding Brand and Google Commerce Search, Timberland has been able to make their mobile vision a reality, both in the core site experience but also in integrating the critical search capabilities provided by Google Commerce Search. Timberland makes quality and environmentally-responsible products, so we couldn’t be happier to welcome them to our family.

“At Timberland, the consumer always comes first. Our priority in developing our mobile website was making sure customers had the best experience possible,” said Chris Hardisty, director of Timberland Global E-Commerce. “Shoppers today expect fast and relevant results especially on mobile where speed and interactivity matter most. Since we launched our mobile-optimized website, we have seen mobile sales grow 20 times faster than our desktop site sales.”

We’re also happy to welcome Perficient, a leading technology integrator specializing in e-commerce. Perficient was keenly interested developing solutions around Google Commerce Search given the capabilities it can provide to their clients. “Google Commerce Search brings retailers of all sizes the advanced Google search features that were previously only available to the biggest players in the space, including Search As You Type, local product availability, and engaging mobile experiences,” says Sameer Peera, Principal of Perficient’s National Commerce Practice.

If you’re interested in becoming a Google Commerce Search reseller, please let us know by getting in touch.

Posted by Naveen Viswanatha, Product Manager, Google Commerce

More than 100 OfficeMax stores now accept Google Wallet, so shoppers can pay, use MaxPerks Rewards Membership cards, and soon redeem coupons all with a single tap of their phones. Google Wallet is a mobile application that lets consumer tap, pay and save at enabled retail locations. OfficeMax has enabled stores for Google Wallet throughout the greater New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. areas.

As OfficeMax’s Strategic Partner Development Manager, I’ve had the pleasure of working with OfficeMax from start to finish, culminating in Wallet’s deployment in over 100 of their stores. From the day I shared the vision of Google Wallet, it was clear that they grasped the short-term implications of a mobile payments system built on three pillars - payments, offers and loyalty - and also saw the long-term potential of a more robust ecosystem as we continue to iterate on the product.

Our merchant ecosystem is growing constantly, so visit our website for up-to-date information on locations that accept Google Wallet. You can start using Google Wallet now if you have a Sprint Nexus S 4G phone, or you can buy the phone today on the web or at your nearest Sprint store.

Posted by Robyn Katzman, Commerce Strategic Partnerships

One of the great things about online shopping is that it offers the opportunity to find just what you’re looking for, at a terrific price. But, shoppers often tell us they’re nervous about purchasing from unfamiliar online stores. Is this store trustworthy? How reliable is their shipping? Do they have good customer service? What happens if something goes wrong?

Today we’re announcing the launch of Google Trusted Stores, a new pilot program that helps shoppers identify online merchants that offer a great shopping experience.

The Google Trusted Store badge is awarded to e-commerce sites that demonstrate a track record of on-time shipping and excellent customer service. When visiting a qualifying store, shoppers can hover over the Google Trusted Store badge and see metrics on the store’s shipping and customer service performance.

 

To participate in the program, merchants voluntarily share data about shipments, and Google collects customer service metrics when shoppers seek Google’s help with a problem.

Starting today, Google Offers is available in the Magic City! Since June, we’ve brought you great deals from coast-to-coast. Now, we’re excited to kick off in Miami with two great deals from Joe’s Stone Crab and Fandango. 

Buy your ticket in advance and breeze past the box office with today’s offer from Fandango. Spend $5 for one Fandango movie ticket (up to a $13 value) good at any of Fandango’s partner movie theaters.

And keep your eyes peeled for our offer on Wednesday (Oct. 5th) for Joe’s Stone Crab. A family-run restaurant since 1913, this Miami legend will host an exclusive event on October 10th for Google Offers customers only. Wednesday’s deal gets you early access to the restaurant before they officially open for their 99th year in Miami. Spend $69 and get ready to enjoy Joe’s Signature meal (a $135 value), impeccable service and their famous Key Lime Pie. Yum!

Check out www.google.com/offers (and get our Shopper mobile app on Android and iPhone) to subscribe to deals in Miami and find great deals in other cities across the country.

Posted by Laela Sturdy, Google Sales Director (and native South Floridian), Google Offers