Is Google In Danger of Becoming Irrelevant?

Why bother? When you want to buy something online, why would you bother going to Google? Doing so means taking extra steps that could be a waste of time. And if this is a culture that prizes convenience, than how long will people be willing to tolerate that?


This is becoming an issue for Google - and even for Amazon - as others are aggregating data about smaller sources that may have exactly what you need at the same prices with the same astonishing delivery cycles.

The business of search depends on an intangible: that knowledge you want is worth enough that you will pay and be willing to endure some inconvenience whether it be the time it takes to find what you want or the effort required to slalom through the ads placed in your path as you navigate your way towards finding what you need. But that calculation of worth may be changing as is the tolerance of inconvenience. Ironically, it is another, rather old-fashioned intangible that may sustain Google et al long enough until they can find a new source of dominance.

That intangible is familiarity. And it has value because it provides assurance which is short hand for quality, safety, ease of use - in other words, convenience. JL

Nicholas Carlson reports in Business Insider:

On mobile, using Google as a starting point when you want to buy something makes less sense.
Google is a search company, but the searches it makes money from are the searches people do before they are about to buy something online.
These commercial searches make up about 20% of total Google searches. Those searches are where the ads are.
Two and a half years ago we wrote, "What Googlers worry about in private is a growing trend among consumers to skip Google altogether, and to just go ahead and search for the product they would like to buy on Amazon.com, or, on mobile in an Amazon app."
We noted that, according to ComScore, "the trend is real." Searches on Amazon.com were up 73% year over year.
Well, we checked back with ComScore recently, and the news remains bad for Google. Desktop search queries on Amazon increased 47% between September 2013 and September 2014, according to ComScore.
Even worse for Google, that number doesn't tell the whole story.
In the past two and a half years, the number of mobile internet users surpassed desktop internet users.
Comscore
On mobile, using Google as a starting point when you want to buy something makes even less sense.
Think about it. Why go through these steps?

• Open your web browser on your phone.
• Google search "bike gloves."
• Scan some text links.
• Click on a link to go to a product page at some e-commerce store.
• Click to add the item to your cart.
• Input your credit-card info.
• Type in your address.
• Select the shipping preferences you want to pay for.

When you can just ...

• Open the Amazon app on your phone.
• Search "bike gloves."
• Click one button to buy the product with your usual credit card, and have it shipped to your usual address free.

Bad news for Google execs trying to get eight hours a night.