Factual Global Products: Data About Over 500,000 US Consumer Packaged Goods

Looking for facts about consumer product goods in the US? Open source data platform Factual has just launched its Factual Global Products with information on more than 517,000 consumer products.

Records for each product include product name, brand, category , size, and UPC. Direct links to images for many products are also included as well as a Factual ID number that helps connect Global Product entries with other Factual services. Here’s an example of listings in the Household Supplies category:

Companies represented in the database include:

• L’Oreal (5635 Products)
• Kraft 2975 (Products)
• Gerber (960 Products)
• PowerBar (120 Products)

I found only two entries for products from Procter and Gamble, but new data is always being added.

While consumers can use the database, it’s primarily designed for use by developers. The API for Global Product Search allows searching for products a number of ways, including by name or type of product and then filter by brand. You can also search by UPC.  Entries are organized into 226 product categories. Pricing varies based on case use and amount of data used but 500 API calls per day are available for free.

Consumers and non-developers can use a web-based interface to access the data. For example, a researcher might want to quickly create and browse a list of prepared meals providers or quickly identify Glade products.

Searchers might also want to take a look at the Factual App Gallery to see and download tools using Factual data.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Gary Price

Gary Price is a librarian, author, and an online information analyst based in suburban Washington, DC. He is the co-founder and co-editor of INFOdocket and FullTextReports.com and prior to that was founder/editor of ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. He has worked for Blekko, Ask.com, and at Search Engine Watch where he was news editor. In 2001, Price was the co-author (with Chris Sherman) of the best-selling book The Invisible Web.