Google is prodding merchants to provide more information to make its search results more effective–and more like Amazon. The question is whether merchants will play ball.
In a blog post Tuesday, Google said that it will add ratings to its so called “product listing ads,” which are used by merchants to sell everything from juicers to microwaves to flat-screen TVs via Google search pages. Such ads appear in comparative grids of search results, and Google said U.S. shoppers will see ratings of up to five stars and a count of reviews below each item.
The company said the rating system is based on aggregated rating and review data from multiple sources including merchants, third-party aggregators, editorial sites and users. But the Google plan faces a question: will merchants who gather customer ratings decide to share that data with the Internet giant?