Google launches tool to map shopping trips

Google wants to catch in on the shopping season by launching its own little online service, which enables the travelers to map their shopping trips on the internet. This new feature will complement Google’s Froogle web service and would help the consumers pinpoint the merchants selling a specific item within a designated ZIP code. Users would also get to see a map showing all the local stores carrying the merchandise.

Google would be giving away this service for free to help consumers avoid the frustration of traveling to a store looking for items, which they might not even be carrying. They could use the Froogle to check out the prices and the range of products available on a particular store in their region. Of course, Froogle would also enable them to shop for these items from the net itself.

With the shopping season arriving in a couple of days, many online shopping sites are enhancing the facilities available on their stores to attract more and more customers. Yahoo! too recently expanded its shopping site so it spans 90 million products, up from 60 million a year ago. Some other shopping sites including Shopzilla and Shopping.com expect to generate a lot of traffic and revenues in the coming days.