Google Compare seeking to bring auto insurance comparisons to U.S.

It goes without saying that Google has its hands in many different ventures, from Fiber to Android, but the Google search engine is still their crowning achievement. For some time now, Google has been quietly working on dedicated price comparison searches, falling under the service of Google Compare (formerly called Google Advisor).

Our friends across the pond have had Google Compare more front-and-center than those of us in the U.S. If you were to type www.google.com/compare/ in the U.S., you’re taken to a page that only offers credit card comparisons; however, if you type in www.google.co.uk/compare, you can see a much larger service being built. There are comparisons and quotes for travel insurance, mortgages, banking, and auto insurance.

Google has been offering car insurance quotes in the U.K. for several years now. Seemingly testing out the waters there, it’s been discovered that Google has been quietly getting permission in many states here in the U.S. to sell auto insurance policies on behalf of such companies like MetLife.

There are two comparison services that Google does offer here in the U.S. that I frequent often, but are not listed under Google Compare, are flight searches and hotel finder. Getting to either of these is not very intuitive and you have to hunt down the options on the Google search results page. (Alternatively you can type in www.google.com/flights and www.google.com/hotels.)

The reason as to why Google has seemingly buried its own services has not been clear. Google gets quite a bit of ad revenue from companies like Orbitz and Kayak, so it may be finding itself in a similar position it did when it had acquired Motorola, namely it doesn’t want to find itself competing with its allies.

So why is Google getting involved with auto insurance in the first place? Perhaps Google is getting situated for the day that its driver-less cars begin to hit the market.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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