Google announced big news, they are doing away with Google Product Search and replacing it with Google Shopping. The name change isn’t a big deal but the model is, they are going from a free product search engine to a paid one!

Danny Sullivan said this is the first time Google is removing a free product to a paid product. And it is upsetting webmasters and SEOs in the forums. I recommend you read Danny’s article for perspective before I share the response by SEOs and webmasters in the forums.

Before I do that, so you know, this feature was first named Froogle, then named Google Products, then named Google Base, then Google Merchants, then Google Product Search and now Google Shopping (although it might have been named shopping also for a period of time).

Anyway, here is some of the reaction from WebmasterWorld and Cre8asite Forums.

My favorite, well, I’ll embed it as an image:

For more on how this will work and what it will look like see Danny’s article and Google’s blog.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Cre8asite Forums.