Google stated to The New York Times that: “We’re constantly looking for new ways to help people find what they are looking for on the Internet. As part of that effort we are currently working on a small ad unit test that will run against a limited number of mortgage-related search queries in the US.”
The move follows the Google Merchant Service experiment in the UK, last year, that allowed searchers to compare loan offers but only after submitting information about themselves. To this extent it was more than just a comparison search and more resembled a way to deliver leads on a pay-per-call or cost-per-action basis. In this case many of the advertisers were small businesses (mortgage brokers).
The content or category used in this test just happened to have been Mortgages. The service was named “merchant search” not “mortgage search” and as such keeps the experiment in line with Google’s current business model of increasing relevance for its customers rather than heading directly into the mortgage market place.
The final look and feel of this test is yet to be determined and Google are, quite understandably playing their cards very close. If however it increases customers access to relevant information while at the same time increasing Google’s bottom line then everyone wins.
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