Expected to be introduced today at Google's invitation-only Zeitgeist conference (see " The first rule of The Google Partner Forum is, you do not talk about The Google Partner Forum. The second rule of The Google Partner Forum is, you DO NOT talk about The Google Partner Forum."), Google Base is a service that will allow people to submit listings about all manner of goods and services to a publicly searchable database maintained by Google. Analysts were quick to identify Google Base as an online marketplace that will put Google on a collision course with eBay, Craigslist and newspaper classified advertisements, and it most certainly is that. But it's quite a bit more as well. Along with typical classified ad fare, Google hypothesizes that one might upload "a database of protein structures," "original poetry," or "a research paper on cancer receptors." And that suggests to me that what we've really got here is a Web-based collaborative database application and self-publishing service, one that expands Google's lucrative listings business and its mindshare as well.
Parenthetical note: It is a measure of Google's omnipresence that these days, when one starts typing the letters "g-o-o," one's fingers almost automatically finish up with "g-l-e." So we completely understood the other day when Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch started a post this way: "Gary wrote earlier of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently denying any chair throwing at a conference, but Google Morning Silicon Valley highlighted another quote ..." (Once alerted, a slightly chagrined Sullivan wrote, "But John, it just sounds so much better. Google Morning Silicon Valley! Such a friendly sounding greeting. But I can understand the concern. Once Google owns everything and Silicon Valley becomes Google Valley, then Google Morning Google Valley would just sounds silly :)." Still, mysterious forces seem to be at work. Just the day before, reader Sean Toomey hinted at things to come with the attached reworking of GMSV's banner art. 
