San Francisco: Joining the herd of websites jostling to cash in on the holiday shopping season, online search engine leader Google Inc. is adding a tool designed to make it easier for consumers to map out their local trips to the mall.
The feature, to be unveiled on Tuesday at Google's Froogle shopping site, will pinpoint the merchants selling a specific item within a designated zip code.
Besides displaying a map showing all the local stores carrying the merchandise, Froogle also will list price differences.
The Mountain View, California-based company developed the free tool to help consumers avoid the frustration of traveling to a store that no longer has an item on their shopping lists, said Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer products.
Froogle, a comparison shopping site that Google launched three years ago, will continue to give visitors the option to buy the merchandise online. Google receives a commission for the online referrals.
Initially, Google is depending on a contractor to pull the inventory information from several hundred major merchants.
The search engine hopes to make the service even more comprehensive by encouraging stores to submit their own customized merchandise list to the newly created "Google Base" an information clearinghouse for everything from family
recipes to scientific formulas.
Froogle will pull the product inventory lists from Google Base and include them in its index, Mayer said.
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