The next time you use Google Search on your iPhone, you may notice a brand new “Purchase on Google” button, a feature that has been rumored for several months and confirmed today at the company’s presser in New York City.
According to Venture Beat, it will let consumers purchase items directly from ads in Google search results using the payment information linked to their Google account.
The new button will begin rolling out in the next few weeks.
Launch partners include more than a dozen merchants in the United States who will be rolling out ads featuring the “Purchase on Google” buttons soon. Tapping the button will take you to a microsite within Google which resembles that particular retailer, allowing you to choose specific details for the item such as color, size and shipping speed.
You can then buy the product or find another one from that retailer. It’s important to note that Google is only hosting these pages: you’re actually ordering products straight from retailers as if you purchased them directly from their online store.
“We built this because we saw a lot of people asking Google for advice,” said Jonathan Alferness, vice president of product management for Google Shopping.
The new initiative should also boost the value of ads for merchants.
The Internet giant has also announced a new price drop card in Google Now designed to ping you when a product’s price drops significantly and another one showing reviews for a certain product.
Moreover, conversational search with natural language processing for Google shopping will soon go live, Google said, adding that Android Pay will support both in-app and in-store purchases.
The company also showed off deep linking apps from shopping ads.
Here’s how it works: if a product from eBay appears in your mobile search results, and you have eBay’s mobile app installed on your phone, tapping the link will take you directly to that product page within the eBay app.
Google is betting its sheer reach in search, coupled with the prevalence of Android as the dominant mobile platform and the impending release of Android Pay, will reduce the friction associated with actually buying products found through search.
As if that weren’t enough, Google will soon be able to better rank products in search results, too, by taking product reviews into account.
“So, if you ask Google what the best sunscreen is, it will rank the three best sunscreens based on reviews,” Business Insider said.
The new “Purchase on Google” feature will be available in the U.S. for the time being.
What’s your take on shopping through ads?
Chime in with your observations in the comments below.
Source: Venture Beat, Business Insider