Google and Major Retailers Team Up Over Search Listings

[engine]

Now, on the face of it, looking at this report, this doesn't look good to me: This really looks like pay-to-play.
Major retailers are likely to get a larger share of the pie.
Farewell mom and pop sites.

Under a new program, retailers can list their products on Google Search, as well as on the Google Express shopping service, and Google Assistant on mobile phones and voice devices.

In exchange for Google listings and linking to retailer loyalty programs, the retailers pay Google a piece of each purchase, which is different from payments that retailers make to place ads on Google platforms. Google and Major Retailers Team Up Over Search Listings [reuters.com]

[rustybrick]

I think this is more related to [adwords.googleblog.com...] - Reuters story is a bit confusing.

[engine]

I agree, it is a bit confusing because it does specifically mention search and shopping.

[engine]

Added, here's Google's Danny Sullivan trying to clear up the confusion.

I'm checking on this, but I'm 99% sure that Reuters used "Google Search" as shorthand for "Google Shopping" which isn't organic search at all. You're making an assumption that isn't confirmed and almost certainly isn't right. I'll come back more in the AM.

[twitter.com...]

[Robert Charlton]

(Some overlap in posting here)...
Thanks, Barry. Yes, it looks like AdWords or Google Shopping with a voice interface.

Something like this was clearly going to be necessary if Google... and also these other online retailers... were going to be able to compete with Amazon's voice search, which, lacking competition, might otherwise significantly change the ecommerce landscape.

One key aspect of Amazon's voice search was that, by being more personalized, it was able to fill in assumed parameters based on a customer's history, which voice search alone might not otherwise specify. I assume that it was vital for Google and its retail partners to be able to add much the same to the ordering experience, or else lose a sizeable chunk of online retail to Amazon. Not something that each store could do on its own. I understand that Google's voice interface is much better than Amazon's, even getting things like inflections more human-like and less mechanical. An ingenious solution, but not helped by a tinfoil hat distortion of what's actually involved. .