The Product Feed - Where the owners manual FAILS

I think the section in the help files is called "Setting Up Web Site Product Feeds" - and it just sounds so simple...  it's almost unlike any other section in the manual - short, concise, screenshot, the end.  Only issue is - it just doesn't work that way (well it does - but there are several other steps first to get a product into the feed correctly) - and since this is a GREAT way to increase your product exposure using things you have already put the time into configuring - let's walk through one example - Google Base (since it's free) - end to end.  So let's get to the steps:

• The assumption here is you have already configured your products inside Netsuite and they have pages in your web store

1. For each product you want to include in the Google Base feed (or any feed) for to Lists> Accounting> Items and click Edit on the item.  Click on the Store Tab and select the feeds you want the product included in from "Product Feed".  (Frankly - unless you have specific plans - I'd just add all services now).  Save the item.  Do this for all items you want in the feed.
2. Now go to the other end of the menu system and select Setup > Web Site > Product Feeds.  Select Google Base from the listing.
3. What you have here is basically the results of a hidden Saved Search for these products - in a pseudo usable format.  Now - don't panic if items don't have the correct product type listing - we still need to massage the listing for Google Base.
4. Using the magic of Netsuite - Click "Edit this Search"...  we are going to change the results from this search to have the correct Google Base headers and information (accurate as of 3/2009) - here's the link to Google for the "required / optional" headers.
5. Save the search with a Name so you can use this in the future - maybe "Custom google Base Feed"
6. Head to the Search Results tab and add in the field "Vendor Code" - or whatever you have for your items that is your unique internal ID for the product.  Assign it a custom label of "id",  This is one of the required fields that Google Base needs - but it not part of the output.
7. At this time - you can refer to the link in step 4, select any of the optional headers you wish to populate in your Google Base Feed and add them in the same manner as adding "id" in step 5
8. Now - obviously there are lots of important fields here - but description is the one you really want to pay attention to - THAT's the field Google will index for search results...  if you don't like the content or want better content than the saved search is pulling off your item description - that's OK - next we will clean up this feed to make it super wonderful. (now - if you are going to be pumping this into Shopping.com or other places that consume live feeds - you will want to fix the item itself)
9. Export the list using Export-CSV and save the file...  we use CSV because Google Base won't accept Excel files.
10. Now - you can change things in here as you see fit - as I already mentioned the description is important but you might also want to change your "product type" to match the listings of the Google categories - check this out for guidance and auto-generation.
11. When you open your file there will be the following headings: link, title, description, image_link, product_type, price, brand, condition... Make sure things make since - at the time of writing this - Condition is NOT correct.  Use your eyes and the tools in the links above to "scrub" the output to be accurate - and if you have other pieces of information as you learn the attributes for Google Base - go back to the Saved Search and add them in there for future feed generation.  there is no easy way to do this part - it's a lot of trial and error to get things the way you want them.
12. When you are done - save the csv file that you worked so hard on as a TAB DELIMITED file - this is key in getting Google Base to accept it.  And a nice tip here is - save it as a friendly name because you will have to name it that inside Google Base as well.
13. Head into your Google Base account and just work through the New Data Feed screens.

I'd say "and that's it" - but this isn't exactly a 3 step process - but - if you follow these steps you will end up with a file that Google will accept and incorporate into their Shopping searches.

And take notes.

(What is Google Base? - it's a free directory of products that google indexes and compares prices for consumers - sometimes refereed to as Froogle, sometimes as Shopping.  Bottom line for your products - it's a free service you can register for and increase your exposure.  Ever Google for a product and see those  or so listings with prices below the AdWords and above the actual search results - that's Google Base...  so for all your SEO work - here's a easy Netsuite friendly way to get a "top search result" with minimal work)