My last blog post was on Google checkout (I like the product). This one focuses on something new I saw today. Google using its most expensive real estate (www.google.com) to promote checkout as a “faster, safer online shopping” method.
Now had they been simply linking to the checkout homepage I wouldn’t have even blogged about it! Instead they link to this page in which they explain what Google checkout is all about. The 3 step process that Google sums it up as is:
Step 1: Search on Google (presumably for things / services that can be bought…). Look for the shopping cart icon in “sponsored links” (doesn’t say “click” … but then its assumed, otherwise you can’t go to step 2).
Step 2: Do your shopping
Step 3: Click on Google checkout and complete your order @ Google.
The image below (from here) highlights step 1, since thats the most contentious one.
I think had Google not advised users to click on sponsored links or put the link to this page on their main page, it would have been OK. By doing so the number of non-converting clicks will increase drastically in the near term. I don’t know if its a good or bad thing for the companies that advertise with Google though (at least in the short term). But this definitely is the first instance I have come across of Google promoting people to click on ads. Given this fact I would buy at least some Google stock (if I had the money)! 