Google Entering E-Commerce in a Big Way

Google is huge, but the company is having a mid-life crisis. Their revenue is under direct assault. They make most of their money from ads on websites. But now that people are migrating so heavily to smartphones, the ads don’t bring the same money yet. So Google is like, ‘What are we going to do? Where are we going to grow?’

Their latest idea is to be in e-commerce in a big way. Here’s how it works: Let’s say I am a merchant and I buy ad listings from Google. You’re the consumer. You search for a product you want and the search presents results where there will be these things that pop up with a click to purchase button, but the things are people who’ve paid Google in a pay-to-play kind of scenario.

They don’t know if the product is any good, they don’t know if the prices are any good. Or if they do know, they don’t care. So Google is not the merchant, they’re just an advertising vehicle in this circumstance for the items being there.

I just don’t see this as a serious effort yet. Google may get their whole act together on this, but right now I’m skeptical.

If you’re into saving money, know that with electronics there are 2 sites to always look at: NewEgg.com particularly for techies and BHPhotoVideo.com for the general population. Both sites are known for superior customer service and offer great deals.

The problem with Google is if something goes wrong, who do you turn to? Where do you go? And with that being a big open question, I’m not really hot to go click to buy on any of these Google-inspired purchasing sites.