One thing i noticed about google base, you can get your logo next to your listing!

Adding an entry was categorized pretty well by default. but searching was no more unique than keyword digging.

Is there an open Google Base API yet? Why contribute if you can’t use it yourself for commercial gain?

The thing I don’t like about their API agreement is it’s restricted use to non-commercial applications without expressed permission. This is obviously a bottle neck since they are a proxy, the weight is on their shoulders, which is understandable.

I emailed Google asking for permission for an idea I had (wanted to make it a legal commercial entity before I started writing the code). They said “no”. A few months later, they bought Urchin ( a web stats application). I’m not saying they stole my idea, but I think they saw it as a competitor.

Is there were a distributed solution, with no centralized bottleneck?

This is like the cddb.com problem (winamp, etc.), everybody contributed, but then when developers wanted to access some of the data they submitted everytime they popped in a CD, they had to pay-to-play.

Thus the creation of freecddb.org