I couldn't help but make a joke with the title, because it's seemingly
right on the money. You see, Google is getting ready to take the wraps
off of a new service called Google Base. If it can be posted online, it
would appear that they would, in fact, prefer it belong to them. At
least, they'll store it for you and make it searchable.

"Yahoo: What you say?"

Rumors surrounding this service have been spreading over the past few
days, and a handful of people have managed to catch the site when it's
up (it's currently down). It is not known when Google will officially
launch the service, although they are holding a special invitation-only
event today. Here's the text off of the front page of the site:

Google Base is Google's database into which you can add all types of
content. We'll host your content and make it searchable online for
free.

Examples of items you can find in Google Base:

· Description of your party planning service
· Articles on current events from your website
· Listing of your used car for sale
· Database of protein structures

You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help
people find it when they search Google Base. In fact, based on the
relevance of your items, they may also be included in the main Google
search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local.

Just what does Google have in mind? The last sentence there really
speaks to what they're after: eBay, Craigslist, and classified ads.
Users will be able upload all kinds of items for sale, and you'll be
able to geo-locate them, compare them, and search them via Google.
Think about it. When using eBay or Craigslist, how often do you think
"I wish I could search this with Google"? Recall, too, that Google has
a payments service in the works.

If we grant that, then let's think about the next level: a Google Base
API of sorts. If Google remains the middle man, it's great for Google.
Ergo, an API that would allow other sites to use Google Base could
really generate a great deal of traffic.

There's another level to this as well. By letting people post nearly
anything, Google will get their hands on a massive database of items
that have been given user-created attributes. Google then can use that
data to try and generate a kind of universal tagging schema for
information and items, which could then be used to classify information
across the net. Far fetched? Google is already trying to do that with
information layout via Google Site Maps.

Google has briefly commented on Google Base in a statement:

"This is an early-stage test of a product that enables content owners
to easily send their content to Google. Like our web crawl and the
recently released Google Sitemaps program, we are working to provide
content owners an easy way to give us access to their content. We're
continually exploring new opportunities to expand our offerings, but we
don't have anything to announce at this time."

So the waiting, and the speculation, begins.

There's not much more to see right now, but Wouter Schut managed not
only to see the service live (I saw the front page, but that's it), but
he ventured in and took additional screenshots.