Google have quietly introduced their new Merchant Search system. This tool is currently being tested to help find products and services matching a search, for example, secured loans.
It seems Google will benefit financially as they’ll receive payment once someone has successfully sent a quote to the merchant.
The interesting part of this is that Google will arrange a call via one of its operators and the customer will then speak to the chosen provider.
And Google are taking data privacy very seriously as at no point will any information be passed onto the provider, Google are purely responsible for introducing the parties.
Google may have been a little slow off the mark with this tool but I imagine if they start appearing prominently in the search results they will eat up a large percentage of the page 1 click-through rate.
The comparison market is already heavily saturated but Google’s muscle in moving in on this market will start to upset regular listings on page 1 searches.
I estimate there will be a queue for partners to join the system – if you can’t fight them – join them!
It will be interesting to monitor how search positions / page layout of Google results change over the next few months, and to see how they expand this service.