Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reports that Google is to compete with Amazon and eBay by offering a new ad model to enable advertisers to let Google be their shopping site, where you click buy now and checkout directly at Google.
This is beyond Google Shopping or Google Checkout, this is buying the product on Google.com.
There is huge amount of buzz around this news over the weekend.
Google Inc. will launch buy buttons on its search-result pages in coming weeks, a controversial step by the company toward becoming an online marketplace rivaling those run by Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. The search giant will start showing the buttons when people search for products on mobile devices, according to people familiar with the launch.The buttons will accompany sponsored—or paid—search results, often displayed under a “Shop on Google” heading at the top of the page. Buttons won't appear with the nonsponsored results that are driven by Google’s basic search algorithm.
If shoppers click on the buy buttons, they will be taken to another Google product page to complete the purchase, the people explained. On that page, they will be able to pick sizes and colors and shipping options, as well as complete the purchase, one of the people said.
For those not on AdWords yet, if Google takes this approach, it means you will likely need to get on AdWords. I can just imagine the search results interface, with all these Google merchant pages and then trying to find the organic listings somewhere beneath it all. It is not hard to imagine at all. 8 years ago, you'd think I am drunk but now, anything is possible.
One advertiser said at WebmasterWorld, "It appears ecommerce is heading in a direction where organic visibility continues to shrink and control over the payment process is being lost."
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
