google insurance

Cars in the United States and possibly rest of the countries could soon have a Google Insurance. According to Forrester Research analyst Ellen Carney, the search giant is planning to step into the auto insurance world in the U.S. Google's this move will also include launching a comparison shopping website which will allow users to buy insurance policies online.

According to Carney's 7th January post on the famous Forrester blog, an entity called Google Compare Auto Insurance Services is fully licensed to sell insurance in some 26 states. The company is further authorized to sell policies in at least one state on behalf of six insurers, which include Viking Insurance Wisconsin, MetLife and Mercury.

[caption id="attachment_97986" align="aligncenter" width="553"]An image of Google 's comparison-shopping site for auto insurance in the U.K An image of Google 's comparison-shopping site for auto insurance in the U.K[/caption]

Google Compare and CoverHounds, an auto-insurance comparison site based in San Francisco, are rumored to be working together. The news of a Google executive winning authorization to sell insurance through both CoverHounds and Google Compare only adds further to the rumor.

The search giant has already been providing auto and travel insurance quotes, mortgage quotes and even credit cards to the people of United Kingdom. Google’s move to venture into the auto insurance world of the United States shows its efforts to displace the existing middlemen, in a similar way that it has done in travel and shopping.  The San Francisco based Internet giant provides the users with its own product-search tools on Google Shopping website and also offers specialized hotel and flight booking tools.

Google has neither denied, nor confirmed the speculation surrounding its auto insurance debut in US. It released a statement saying, "We can't comment on speculation. Don't fault us, though; we enjoy your coverage."

On the other hand, Greg Isaacs, president of Insurance solutions at CoverHound, declined to clarify on how the two companies were working together, but confirmed that the search giant’s Meredith Stechbart is endorsed on CoverHound’s insurance license.  Isaacs denied all the rumours of his company being acquired by Google.

The search giant’s plan to offer more and more services directly to its users can prove to be a risky thing, as many online middlemen like Expedia and Priceline are big Google advertisers. Google’s this move may save users clicks and bring the Internet giant revenue through commission.

The road is not all that smooth for Google. The company might have to face resistance of insurance companies that are not willing to share information that could help Google in competing with them someday.
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