Moving close towards achieving its “being everything an internet user wants” philosophy, Google has today announced that it is offering a new car insurance comparison site, called “Google Compare for Auto Insurance”.
The site, which is currently functional only in the U.S., shows up if a web-searcher searches for ‘car insurance’. Once searched, Google presents users with a grey questionnaire, which is upto user’s wish to fill. The questionnaire asks you various details like your zip code, your car model, range of insurance you are looking for etc.
If you do end up filling the questionnaire, Google then opens up its “Google Compare for Auto Insurance,” comparison site, which displays various insurance options available as per your filled requirements. Alternatively, if you are a U.S. citizen, you can visit google.com/compare to take the questionnaire and get results to your queries.
However, neither “Google Compare” nor Google’s latest car insurance comparer are new. Google has been running its “Compare” branding for quite some time now, with some prominent comparison sites like Credit Card comparison running successfully in the U.S.
As for Google’S Auto Comparison site, it has been live in the United Kingdom since 2012, but its U.S. launch, though imminent, has still been continually pushed back several times, before finally getting released today. Moreover, a Forrester report noted that Google Compare Auto Insurance Services, Inc. had already been licensed to do this business in over half of the states in the U.S.
Google’s insurance partners include reputed names like Mercury Insurance and MetLife, as well as local providers. Google says that the entire algorithm is based on a flexible cost-per-acquisition (CPA) model and that payment isn’t a factor in ranking or eligibility.
If you’ve been following the news lately, Google’s debut into insurance comparison services must definitely not come as a surprise. While this particular service had already been suggested by a WSJ report, many of other Google’s search powered services, aimed at keeping visitors to its site have been launched in recent past.
Google is also reportedly working on a Buy button, which would directly take the user to the e-retail website listed there. That buy button is yet to materialize though.
