There is so much going on at Google base camp that affects affiliates and retailers today, that I’m just going to lump it all together into one post and link out to the sources in case anyone missed some of this news.

Molander and PepperJam both speculate that Google will get rid of Performics, the 3rd largest affiliate network. Last but not least Google rolls out CheckOut in the UK and affiliate tracking problems arise just like they did in the US.

Molander at ThoughtShapers.com – Performics on The Block? “Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt is already signaling that Doubleclick’s Performics division (which it is acquiring as part of the $3.1 billion cash buy-out arrangement slated to execute later this year) may very well get spun out or sold off. In fact, it appears that Google has little interest in operating the company’s marketing services division.”

PepperJam Blog: Google to Close Down Performics “Sources suggest that Google has or is in the process of closing down Performics, Doubleclick’s (DCLK) Affiliate Marketing Network.”

UPDATE: Stuart Frankel, President of Performics responds to PepperJam and stresses business as usual, Performics is not closing down.

Google Drops Froogle, Re-Brands as Google Product Search – Story Scooped by John Battelle: Goodbye Froogle: It’s Time to Grow Up
“This is Google getting real about Froogle, a product, and a category, that never quite hit it with consumers. Why? Well, it might have something to do with the way we interact with search. We’re still learning about how we interact with this beast. Froogle never made it as a destination, but then again, neither did any other product search categories, really.”

Last but not least – Bad News – Google Checkout UK – Fraser’s Affiliate Marketing Blog

“Google Checkout has launched in the UK but it seems there have been no lessons learned from the US launch. More about that over at the 5 Star Affiliate Blog.

At the moment it seems that customers who complete their transaction by paying using Google Checkout are not going to be tracked by most of the affiliate networks so affiliates will lose out.”