A Look at Google’s Pop-Up Microsite: Best Things for Everything Guide

Launching on March 26th, Google unveiled its latest e-commerce venture: The Best Things for Everything Guide, a pop-up microsite that collected over 1000 of the most popular searched items from the platform.

“When you shop for products – whether for your home, your family or yourself – you should feel confident knowing you’re making a good decision and buying the best products for your needs,” Google explained in a statement.

The pop-up microsite will be available for a limited time and offers products in categories such as Health & Beauty, Babies & Toddler, Electronics, Home & Office and many others.

Google has created this list based on the searches over the past few months, including the terms, product pages, brands and where users will predominantly find their products online.

According to a spokesperson, there was a 100 percent increase in product searches for ‘best air fryers’ and ‘best exercise bikes’.

“We look broadly at how products are discussed online,” the site shared. “Products are included based on several factors, including, but not limited to, what’s popular and what’s being searched on Google. All of those factors help inform a view of the top products across these categories.”

The microsite itself is fascinating to scroll through – it acts like a globe that you can spin, scroll and explore in almost any direction. It’s a smooth and calming experience to play with, even if you end up going around in circles trying to find the product you’re interested in trying.

The Google-esque drop down bar breaks down the most popular searches and pulls up a handful of related categories.

Another interesting factor that they have introduced is the category language. Rather than the stock-standard ‘Pet Costumes’, it’s ‘For pups who dress up’; instead of ‘Birds’, it’s ‘For your beaked buddies’ – You get the idea.

If you want to experience it for yourself, I recommend you give it a quick look.

It’s not just a fancy aesthetic they’ve mastered, it’s also the in-depth details they’ve produced alongside the categories and products.

Under each category features a series of products with specs, product reviews, and even editorial reviews from publications, so shoppers can understand the full breadth of the products up for offer.

While this platform will be available for a limited time only, it could provide the search engine with an excellent tool to implement at a later time. Is it something that retailers should be worried about? Probably not, but it’s certainly an excellent tool that retailers should experience, and take note of for the future.

Google launches Best Things for Everything Guide, which is a “microsite that highlights 1,000 products based on what’s popular on the web, so you can easily find great choices” https://t.co/dbJIhkgcEa pic.twitter.com/6fo6ntwfGb

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 26, 2021

The platform itself is understandably a tool that the platform is using to funnel its Google Shopping site, and there’s currently a mixed bag of reviews of the site.

Many reviewers have highlighted the issue that small content creators may face with the arrival of this platform. “RIP Wirecutter… And the millions of little blogs writing about their little niche making a living from affiliates,” wrote Ross Simmonds, Founder and CEO of Foundation Inc.

What are your thoughts of the new pop-up microsite?

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