[Grue3]

1. Control the vast majority of web-search share ensuring the vast majority of users go through your site before buying anything.

2. Introduce a buy button for the cooperating retailers, which is obviously displayed at the very top of search results.

3. Other retailers have to either pay Google or be pushed down in search results below the retailers who have a buy button.

This is why Google Search desperately needs some real competition.

Oh, and the next step? Buy button right in your browser (Chrome). Buy stuff just by typing into OmniBar(TM)!

[jeswin]

Actually, there is no lack of competition. Google is in big trouble and it knows.

Many e-commerce companies are going mobile-first. Here in India, some are abandoning the web altogether. If native mobile apps dominate e-commerce, Google's biggest revenue stream could face its biggest challenge in many years.

[Grue3]

There are a lot of people who won't buy the product unless they can compare prices in different stores. Maybe the Indians are different, I don't know. But it is fairly well-known that if your store is low in search results, the sales suffer substantially. Mobile only has no discovery, the only way you get new customers is by word of mouth, or some really strong advertising in order to convince people to install your app.

[etler]

Having near total control of the OS that totally dominates the market in poorer countries is kinda a nice position to be in though.

[Kenji]

I don't understand why that's a problem for google. How do you find and install apps? Oh right - through google play!

[calbear81]

- No e-commerce sites charge money on any app stores for users to download their apps since they want the largest audience possible shopping them.

- Google Play only takes a cut of in-app purchases of digital goods and not physical things. Most e-commerce companies would not survive if Google took a 30% cut of everything sold since margins in many industries are in single digits (electronics/computer parts for example are generally less than 5%).

[sreyaNotfilc]

Correct, but I think Kenji's point is that you are buying a Google phone (Android) to have the privilege to download apps from Google Play.

Android market share is at 79%. http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougolenick/2015/05/27/apple-ios...

[boomzilla]

1. There is little money in google play.

2. If the retailers are big enough, they can easily strike deals with carriers/ phone manufacturers. Or, like Amazon tried, create their own market place.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

Commerce has nothing to do with it. Google has no search competition.

[boomzilla]

Yeah, but what pays for search? Remember the early days of Google, they got the search tech right, and returned the best results, but there was concern how they would make money. They lucked in AdWords and took over the online advertising industry. Commerce is one significant (if not the main) source of the ad dollars.

[WorldWideWayne]

They have buy competition though. I have read (and it seems plausible to me) that most people go directly to Amazon.com when they know what they want to buy already, and they only search Google for things to buy when they don't know.

I myself limit my online buys to Amazon because it's more convenient than setting up a new account for each individual vendor. I don't even care if I pay more at Amazon. It's safer and more convenient.

[DanBC]

...and one of the reason people search Google is because searching Amazon is weirdly and totally broken.

I know Amazon is chock full of people who know what they're doing so it's always surprising that the search is so bad.

[mreiland]

what? I've never ever ever had an issue with amazon search, can you explain what you mean?

[DanBC]

Search for [Pure One Mini] (pure is the manufacturer, one mini is the product name, of a DABS portable radio.) you get a bunch of results that just aren't relevant. You get accessories for this device, you get accessories for other devices from this manufacturer, you get other devices from this manufacturer, you get devices and accessories from other manufacturers. You have to use the side bar to restrict the products to those from Pure. But you still get all the Pure product line, and there's no way to further restrict the selection.

Back when people were still selling the Sansa Fuze: Search for eg [sansa fuze 8GB] then sort by price. You get dozens of pages of cases, then leads, then chargers for the sansa fuze. And Amazon's next page only allows you to advance by single pages, you can't jump forward by 5 pages at a time.

Search for [microwave oven], chose a department, and search by price, and you'll get a billion things that can be used with a microwave oven (timers, cookware, books) and then actual microwave ovens. You have to do further refinement using the side bar.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

Huh, what? Amazon search works great.