2. Introduce a buy button for the cooperating retailers, which is obviously displayed at the very top of search results.
3. Other retailers have to either pay Google or be pushed down in search results below the retailers who have a buy button.
This is why Google Search desperately needs some real competition.
Oh, and the next step? Buy button right in your browser (Chrome). Buy stuff just by typing into OmniBar(TM)!
Many e-commerce companies are going mobile-first. Here in India, some are abandoning the web altogether. If native mobile apps dominate e-commerce, Google's biggest revenue stream could face its biggest challenge in many years.
(I work for Google)
I am really interested in how this is going to work. Unless the buy button sends people directly to a reseller Google is going to drown in customer support. Trying to make customer understand that despite you buying this one Google, you didn't buy it from Google is going to be VERY tricky. Likewise handling returns could be a major pain.
From the business side I just hope that payments are going to be more business friendly than PayPal.
In some cases this can be caused by the background colors chosen for ads being perfectly eliminated by cheap laptop LCDs at slight vertical angles. The pale yellow or blue completely disappears to white. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that A/B testing of colors stumbled upon the perfect color to disappear into a cheap LCD screen ;-).
Seem quite easy to me and all the merchants would be on board.
http://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/37i2f4/someone_pirat...
Or... are you still "good" Google? Is this guy getting any help from Google yet?
How is this any different that the link to the product and you than hit purchase. I fail to see the "Evil" in this.
However think of these scenarios from the retailer's point of view:
1. Where Google button shows up on all links except my link, would it come under pressure and cave in; since all my competitors are selling by "Buy button".
2. Google may give priority to links who provide Buy button "integration". Pending anti-trust looming, this could put retailers under pressure as well.
3. Given an option to the end users to buy from Google vs. buy from another website, the end users could start seeing Google as a good brother.
Even though it could be an opt-in, it does not look like an opt-in when it comes to monopolies.
You'd probably be wrong, but most people are wrong about something every day. There will be clicks. Revenue will be steered.
Speak for yourself! I am always right. :)
> There will be clicks. Revenue will be steered
All that really matters. As long as it doesn't negatively impact search, i expect i'll be able to ignore it and others will be able to use it and life will be swell.
Google and Advertisers have figured out that constant small changes to search Ads prevent "PPC Blindness" and every new extension gives a temporary incremental lift in regular ad clicks.
This will most likely go the way of google wallet
- Google Play only takes a cut of in-app purchases of digital goods and not physical things. Most e-commerce companies would not survive if Google took a 30% cut of everything sold since margins in many industries are in single digits (electronics/computer parts for example are generally less than 5%).
Android market share is at 79%. http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougolenick/2015/05/27/apple-ios...
2. If the retailers are big enough, they can easily strike deals with carriers/ phone manufacturers. Or, like Amazon tried, create their own market place.
I myself limit my online buys to Amazon because it's more convenient than setting up a new account for each individual vendor. I don't even care if I pay more at Amazon. It's safer and more convenient.
I know Amazon is chock full of people who know what they're doing so it's always surprising that the search is so bad.
Back when people were still selling the Sansa Fuze: Search for eg [sansa fuze 8GB] then sort by price. You get dozens of pages of cases, then leads, then chargers for the sansa fuze. And Amazon's next page only allows you to advance by single pages, you can't jump forward by 5 pages at a time.
Search for [microwave oven], chose a department, and search by price, and you'll get a billion things that can be used with a microwave oven (timers, cookware, books) and then actual microwave ovens. You have to do further refinement using the side bar.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3D...
The top 3 results, in order,
- 4 GB sansa Fuze player
- sansa Fuze player clip
- 8 GB sansa Fuze player
Here's a search that finds the portable radio using the search terms "pure one mini portable radio"
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dap...
and a search for "microwave" http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3D...
All 3 searches have the relevant items at the top.
I'm not saying Amazon search is perfect, but you know, sometimes I have to modify my search in order to find what I want on google too.