GTINs (Global Trade Item Numbers) Attribute
What Google says
In this attribute, you will include Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) for your products. These identifiers include UPC (in North America), EAN (in Europe), JAN (in Japan), and ISBN (for books). You can include any of these values within this attribute. It is required to provide identifiers for all products except for those under the apparel and custom made goods categories.
What that means in English
Every commercial product has got some type of code, usually on the back of the packaging, there is a bar code with a unique product number. On Books it is the ISBN number on the back cover.
The ISBN, UPC and MPN have their own attributes in the component, and there is nothing wrong with filling these in instead. Google says
"Note: If you are already including an attribute named 'upc', 'ean', 'jan', or 'isbn', you don't need to add this attribute. We are automatically mapping these attributes to the 'gtin' attribute."
So it makes no difference which field you put it in, Google pops it in the GTIN field at their end. But it may be easier to put them into the correct fields, as this allows you to see what the code was in the future.
We are also working on a system which allows you to put a tag in the Product Fly page in VirtueMart, which displays the details on the product page. So if you have the tag {ISBN} on the fly page and an entry in the ISBN field, it will be shown on the product page. This means if you enter the details in the correct place, you will have everything ready for when this it is released and working.
There is much more detailed information here about identifier numbers
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=160161
Also it is a requirement to supply the identifier numbers with all products now except "Apparel" (clothing) and "Custom Made" products, if you cant supply them, you must fill in this form and explain why to have an exemption on those.
http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/request.py?contact_type=unique_id_exemption
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