Google has soft-launched Google Base, its much talked about quasi-classified service. 

The site, currently in beta, is something of a shell at the moment, but users are invited to create thousands of categories for listing commercial and non-commercial information. The company expects that the service will improve the overall quality of its search results because it unlocks a broader selection of information that it currently does.

"Anyone, from large companies to website owners and individuals, can use it to submit their content in the form of data items. We'll host the items and make them searchable for free," said Bindu Reddy, a Google product manager.

Current listings include recipes, cars, jobs, charities, classified ads and events. There is no UK service at present, although it is open to postings from users worldwide.

One unique aspect of the posting system is that Google allows users to create 'labels' and 'attributes', in essence extra tags that help index the information.

A website with recipes for instance can rate the dish's spiciness or indicate that it is vegetarian. Through the Google Base webpage users will be allowed to refine their search using those attributes, for instance searching only for mild or spicy dishes.

Google also signed deals with several niche content owners including the job listings website CareerBuilder and the art information website and marketplace ArtNet. The search engine will allow users to search for information from those services through the Google Base webpage.

While Google Base for now features its own search page, Google in the future might decide to add information from the service to general search results, said Charlene Li, a principal analyst for devices, media and marketing with Forrester Research.