What's happened to the product feed

[drivetowin]

Just received the latest tradedoubler newsletter and the promised product feed does not even get a mention.

I for one am really looking forward to this feed as tradedoubler have some great merchants so am disappointed that it was promised for the end of September and now not a whisper.

Come on guys - the other networks - in particular AF and AW are leaving you behind on this - and all us affiliates really need the product feeds now if we are going to integrate the content in time for the Xmas rush...

[TD Nick]

The "Product Search" system will be launching in 2 weeks, and although I have not had a chance to preview it yet, just hearing what it will do regarding functionality, flexibility and customisation has got everyone here excited...

It will be available to all affiliates.

It requires no technical skills for the standard implementations, simply copy and paste the source code.

Advanced features are naturally there for those who require it.

Not long to go now...

Nick.

[drivetowin]

Nick

Why do I feel a little bit twitchy about this - maybe I've spent too long surrounded by developers

It was trumpeted as being launched at the end of September, now it's going to be another two weeks - fair enough but how realistic is two weeks if it has not even been previewed to TD's own people yet - feature lists are one thing, reality is another...

Also - will it be possible for us to get our hands on the raw data (as csv or xml) as well as whatever the search tool will do.

I, like many I am sure, prefer to integrate the results from all product files into one database to search for visitors to our sites.

[Liz T]

Hi there,
The reason it was not mentioned in the newsletter is due to the fact that it is not live yet, and I didn't want to talk about it until you could action its availability. I am glad that this is eagerly awaited - trust me by nobody more than me - and the following are some reasons why we deliberately put the launch date back.

1. We would like to provide you with some really exciting style sheet samples (i.e. how the products should be displayed), before we launch the functionality.

2. There are some minor changes that would increase the usability and we would like to include those in the first launch.

3. Most importantly, we want to launch with as many live advertiser's databases as possible. For any of you who have worked directly in this area, you will know that it can be a massive project.

Believe me when it comes out, it will be worth the wait. It will be in place in time for you to implement in order to make the most of quarter 3.

Thanks
Liz

[bulbo]

Kbudden... forgive my insolence but...

Would you rather the feed be released when it's working completely to TD's liking or released half-baked as a rush job?

Another major affiliate company released their product feed months and months ago... I suspect you know who I mean...

Would you consider theirs to be fully working or even to a completely acceptable level even now?

[drivetowin]

Hi Bulbo

You're forgiven!! - I don't want anyone to rush anything - I'm happy to wait another couple of weeks - my initial concern was only that something that had been trumpeted two weeks ago in the newsletter was now not even getting a mention.

I would agree that the AW feed (I guess that's who you mean) has not been ideal - but without their lead I doubt that the others would be where they are now.

I think AF are doing incredibly well with what they are doing and hope the TD offering will be as good but at the end of the day as long as merchants can provide CSV or XML files then to me personally anything else is icing on the cake. Sadly until AW took the initiative even getting CSV or XML data was nigh on impossible - and still is for the majority of TD merchants.

[999gi]

I think several of the networks have missed the point.
What most of the high volume affilaites want is access to merchant databases. All this fancy formatting and search stuff for the beginners is great for the new affiliates but isnt going to drive the reveneues.

[Qui Gon Jinn]

It's taken time, but it will be worth it.

It seems networks are gradually getting there, we certainly are looking forward to the release.

What we must remember are that some merchants are very protective of releasing their product databases, seems daft, some say is database protection issues etc...etc...And it is frustrating for some networks to get this information obo affiliates.

But once a these merchants see their competitors forthcoming, i.e. say the TD datafeed is for 25 merchants, then it is very likely the others will follow suit and even more will be readily available.

[ianm]

Originally posted by 999gi I think several of the networks have missed the point. What most of the high volume affilaites want is access to merchant databases. All this fancy formatting and search stuff for the beginners is great for the new affiliates but isnt going to drive the reveneues.

Totally agree - the fancy formatted stuff is great for a quick fix - but if it's provided by Javascript then it's totally useless for SEO.

Direct access to the raw data (either CSV or XML I'm not fussy) is a lot more use for what I want to do.

The first network who can give us something like Amazon's AWS is going to be miles ahead of their competitors. I'd love to be able to sent an XML request to a network with a merchant name and product code and get back an XML structure with all the product details in it.

[Tooled-Up]

Tooled-Up is awaiting its launch and will be signed up and ready to go with a Datafeed.