No surprises - Google Base has gone live as a beta. There were a number of reports from the usual reliable sources that this time it was really going to appear (and not disappear). I did some quick random searching against a number of simple topics and found a surprising number of results - heavily skewed toward listings of the job wanted sort.

In an effort to encourage rapid population of the Base, Google is offering a bulk upload (via FTP).

The introductory text on the home page reads:

"Help the world find your content.

Google Base is a place where you can add all types of information that we'll host and make searchable online.

You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they search Google Base. In fact, based on the relevance of your items, they may also be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local."

The official Google blog has an announcement.