Purchases on Google - helping you buy products straight from search results

Google is one of the most dominant adventurers in technology. Their reach extends to nearly every market, but the business still revolves around our beloved search engine… and the advertising within it. In an effort to make shopping more convenient for consumers and increase ad revenue, the Mountain View-based company will soon enable retailers to offer their products for online purchase straight from Google’s search results.

The new service is currently undergoing testing, but we know it goes by the name of Purchases on Google. Essentially, it will work as follows: users will be able to search for any product and get shopping results in the form of Google-styled cards. The customer can than choose to buy the suggested items using Google’s pre-stored payment credentials (Google Wallet, Android Pay and the like), all without ever leaving the search results.

Google claims they have seen a 115% increase in shopping searches on the past year alone. It’s only sensible that they see this as a natural progression to their business model. And they won’t only offer shopping results for direct purchase searches. Reports suggest these shopping cards will also appear after searching relevant information on products, such as reviews.

As mentioned above, Google is still testing this. Some believe Purchases with Google should be arriving just in time for back-to-school season, but those are only assumptions. All we really know is it should be launching “later this year”.

I am having a hard time trying to figure out whether this is good or bad. There’s no denying getting actionable shopping results on mobile searches will make buying anything a breeze, but this could also bring negative effects (and not only because we will be more likely to spend all our cash). Google is already jam-packed with advertising! Do we need more? Sound off in the comments to let us know how you feel about Purchases on Google.