Beginning September 22, 2011, Google has updated their product feed requirements for Google Product Search that requires changes to the product feed you submit to them. Read their announcement.

To help make these changes easier for merchants to implement, we've made updates to Catalog Manager that are specific to these new requirements, and are providing the following information and instructions.

• Information about Google's new requirements for product feeds
• How do I make these changes?

Making these changes is strongly recommended for merchants who wish to ensure that their products are included or continue to be included in Google Product Search. If you are not comfortable with making these changes yourself, we encourage you to contact one of our Yahoo! Merchant Solutions developer partners that provides feed services to make these changes on your behalf.

Information about Google's new requirements for product feeds

Google now requires the following fields:

• Availability
• Image link
• Google product category

If you have multiple images for your products, the following field is recommended:

• Additional image link (optional)

How do I make these changes?

Availability

Google now requires one of the following values for product availability: in stock, available for order, out of stock, or pre-order. Catalog Manager has been updated to make these values available to select, but action is required on your part to assign these values to your products.

There are two ways to update the availability field for the new requirements.

Method 1: Removing and re-adding the "availability" attribute in Catalog Manager:

1. In the Products tab of Catalog Manager, click the "Manage Tables" link located near the top of the screen.
2. In the Manage Tables section, use the "Manage table" drop-down list to select a product table.
3. Scroll down the page to locate the Store Attributes fields.
4. If you're using the availability field, click the "Remove" link for this attribute. Note: All "availability" values for your items currently set will be lost. (If you aren't already using the availability field, proceed to step 5.)
5. Click the "Add New Attributes" link for the Store Attributes section.
6. Select the "availability" field by enabling its checkbox. Set this field to be required. You may also set a default value using the drop-down list if you wish to apply the same value to all items in your product table. The drop-down list will now be updated to include the in stock, available for order, out of stock, and pre-order values.
7. Click the "Add" button. The availability field will be added to your product table.
8. If you have more than one product table, repeat steps 1-7 to update your other product tables.
9. Click the "Manage Products" link located near the top of the screen, and edit your products as needed to set the availability status. Get help with editing products in Catalog Manager.
10. Continue to the instructions below for adding the image link field.

Method 2: Updating the "availability" field using a CSV file

1. In the Upload/Download tab of Catalog Manager, click the "Download" button located on the right side of the screen.
2. Select a table to download using the "Choose Table" drop-down list, then click the "Download" button. Save the CSV file to your computer.
3. Open the CSV file and use the find-and-replace option to replace your current availability settings with in stock, available for order, out of stock, or pre-order. Save your changes. Note that while you may do a mass find-and-replace, the availability field for each item should reflect an accurate availability status.
4. Return to the Upload/Download tab of Catalog Manager and click the "Upload" button.
5. Define the table to upload using the "Choose Table" drop-down list, and select the "Add" option. Click the "Browse..." button to select the file to upload from your computer, then click the "Upload" button. Your CSV file will be uploaded.
6. Click the "Commit" button to commit your changes.
7. If you have more than one product table, repeat steps 1-6 to update your other product tables.
8. Continue to the instructions below for adding the image link field.

Image Link

Add a custom field to your product tables called image_link and set this field to be a non-required field. Once this field exists for your product tables, Yahoo! will populate this field with the product image location in your catalog.xml file. This value may be overridden by you in your catalog.xml file if needed. If you do not wish to include an image link for one of your products, you may set the image_link value for this product as empty (using the word "empty" to define this).

To add the image_link field to your product tables:

1. In the Products tab of Catalog Manager, click the "Manage Tables" link located near the top of the screen.
2. In the Manage Tables section, use the "Manage table" drop-down list to select a product table.
3. Scroll down the page and locate the Custom Attributes fields.
4. Click the "Add New Attributes" link for the Custom Attributes section.
5. In the Add New Attribute pop-up, enter image_link for the attribute name and select text for the format. Do not make this attribute required, and do not enter a value for the default value.
6. Click the "Add" button. The image_link field will be added to the custom attributes for the product table.
7. If you are have more than one product table, repeat steps 2-6 for each table.
8. Continue to the instructions below for adding the additional image link field (optional) or for adding the Google product category.

Additional Image Link (optional)

If you have multiple images for your products and already have an existing field defined for this, we recommend renaming this field to additional_image_link for recognition by Google. The catalog.xml will contain the location of the image.

Important note: If renaming an existing field to additional_image_link, please ensure that changes are reflected in your RTML templates to prevent broken images. If you are uncertain as to whether or not renaming an existing field for additional product images will require changes to your templates, please contact your developer.

To rename a field using Catalog Manager:

1. In the Products tab of Catalog Manager, click the "Manage Tables" link located near the top of the screen.
2. In the Manage Tables section, use the "Manage table" drop-down list to select a product table.
3. Scroll down the page to the Custom Attributes section and click the "Edit Attributes" link.
4. All of your custom fields will open in the table for editing. Rename the desired field to be additional_image_link and click the "Save" button.

Google Product Category

Please refer to Google's documentation to determine the correct Google category for your products, and review the Google taxonomy.

Please note that Google has specific product category requirements for apparel and accessories (including clothing and shoes), media (including books, DVDs, movies, and music), and software (including video game software).

If you sell apparel, please note the following: The color attribute is required for all products in Google's "Apparel & Accessories" product category, and size is required for all products in the "Apparel & Accessories > Clothing" and "Apparel & Accessories > Shoes" categories. Google states that you must also submit the age group and gender apparel attributes, and that the brand attribute is required for all apparel items unless the item is custom made. Please refer to Google's required fields information.

To add the Google product category field to your product table(s):

1. In the Products tab of Catalog Manager, click the "Manage Tables" link located near the top of the screen.
2. In the Manage Tables section, use the "Manage table" drop-down list to select a product table.
3. Scroll down the page and locate the Custom Attributes fields.
4. Click the "Add New Attributes" link for the Custom Attributes section.
5. In the Add New Attribute pop-up, enter google_product_category for the attribute name and select text for the format. Do not make this attribute required. If a majority of your products fall under the same Google product category, you may wish to enter a default value and manually update products that belong to different Google product categories. Otherwise, leave this field blank.
6. Click the "Add" button. The google_product_category field will be added to the custom attributes for the product table.
7. If you have more than one product table, repeat steps 2-6 for each table.
8. Go to the "Manage Products" section of the Products tab in Catalog Manager and update the google_product_category field for each of your products with the correct Google product category, as defined by the Google taxonomy. If you do not see the field, you will need to change your displayed attributes settings.

Once you have updated your product tables with the new availability attributes, the image link field, the additional image link field (optional), and the Google product category field, publish your changes. These fields will now be part of your catalog.xml file.

We strongly recommend that you review Google's documentation to ensure that updates to your feeds meet all of Google's requirements and specifications.