Google gets ready to crush quote-comparison websites

Google has unveiled the next step in its plans to push into the market for online financial services with a price comparison site for mortgages and bank accounts. The search engine first dipped a toe into the market with a mortgage price comparison tool back in 2009. It has since launched products that offer surfers an …

[Absent]

well.....

If it get's those 'Go Compare' adverts off the TV, I'm all for it.

[Steve Davies 3]

Simples?

Ok, I'm outa here. It is friday after all.

[mittfh]

Never mind GoCompare...

...get rid of that darned annoying CGI meerkat.

In fact, get rid of all the TV ads for comparison websites, since unless you've been living on Mars you won't get confused by meerkats and will know how to compare prices without visiting a physical supermarket. Never mind the biggest of those is also offering its own comparison site, so I expect the others will soon be offering "me too!" services.

But if Google's planning its own comparison site, then presumably it won't be long before Bing gets in on the act...

[Rhod]

Irelephant to Blighty

"The service - which is restricted to the US - "

Yawn.

[Anonymous Coward]

For warned...

is for armed! It wont take long for it to be forced through UK. A bit longer in the rest of Europe but it will come.....

or were you being ironic?

[Anonymous Coward]

Restricted to America???

Fortunatly so is Piers fucking Morgan.

And that fat fiddling ginger whiner Fergie..

Please, fucking stay there...

[Reg Varney]

Not with a bargepole!

It's irrelevant whether "phone numbers and email addresses are not shared between Google and potential lenders" - I'd a damn site more concerned handing all of that valuable mineable data to Google.

[Colin Millar]

Reverse the process

And make em work for their money.

I'd love to see a site where I could post what I want and have companies bid to provide it.

I know there are some small scale operations in service industries that use this model but they can't work until they get scale and there's loads more variables on the supplier side to deal with.

It could be big for financial services like car insurance where most of the variables are in the customer profile and the actuarial models for analysis are well established.

[fridaynightsmoke]

So,

by your system you could, say, enter onto a site that you require insurance for your Ford Mondeo 2.0 that you park overnight at 29 Acacia Rd, and that you have 3 years no-claims etc; and then insurance companies could bid to provide you with such insurance?

Isn't that what already happens?

[Colin Millar]

@fridaynightsmoke

Not really - What you get is their price for pretty much a fixed product - I was looking for some element of bidding against each other in the mix and a shift in emphasis from supply push to demand pull.

Maybe car insurance isn't the best example because it is one of the more transparent financial products but one of the reasons why the financial services industry was allowed to blow up the world was that very few people understood the products they were buying.

[Conrad Longmore]

BeatThatQuote.com

They bought UK price comparison site BeatThatQuote.com* recently, and then immediately penalised it from the search engine results for spamming. I kind of suspect that it wasn't really worth the £38m they shelled out for it..

* "Who?" I hear you ask...

[Mikel]

Oh, noes! Google is out to get us again

Is this a weekly thing with El Reg now?

How about you try and find some evil in their green power projects: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/19/ferc-google-project-idUSN1923684520110519

That would be sweet.

[Anonymous Coward]

Now?

I don't think they ever mentioned anything good of any company, or even greenwash projects like this one until they found dirt on them.

Did you miss the Reg subtitle? "Biting the hand that feeds IT"

Now go back to reading the Google PR website, Treehugger, Mother Nature Network and so on and stay away.

[Shaun 1]

Title

"The search engine giant argues that users can get quotes through Google Advisor without revealing their personal information up front."

That's because they already know your personal information

[Justin Clements]

Antitrust incoming

Google forcing it's way into another market. This will end in tears for Google if they step into the UK.

[Anonymous Coward]

How aboutt...

A Price Comparison Website Comparison Website...

... who takes the most fees from their advertisers?

... who tries to sell you the cheapest insurance with the largest possible excesses?

... who most pretends that they are acting in the customers best interests when really they are just selling advertisments?

... etc

[Head]

Hmmm

There's been so many instances of google being amoral and even immoral with data gathering, anyone who signs up for this deserves everything they get

[Dave 15]

I wonder...

As I've yet to get a quote from ANY price comparison site that was less than 100 quid MORE than the quote I obtain directly by my self, I wonder how long it is before google in the states gets its backside sued by some irate American who has just found themselves paying over the odds for insurance/mortgage/credit card?

Personally I'm tempted to take the ASA to court for allowing the blatant and misleading lies from these sites on British TV.