Google Checkout Promo A Cause For Concern?

Google Checkout appears to be branching out, and not everyone is happy about it. Google purists are annoyed that product information is taking up an increasing amount of space on the main results page; other observers are concerned that the search engine company is no longer being fair to competitors. Danny Sullivan, it seems that they're undergoing a wider release. Increasing Google Checkout's visibility, by itself, isn't exactly a malicious act. But, "That move, along with just having dropped map links to competitors and in the wake of last month's tips fiasco, rings alarm bells that Google's not thinking clearly about the best way to balance promoting its own products and the trust of users," Danny observed. "Trust" became an issue, in part, because of the search results themselves. Thanks to the changes, the links to "product search results" and to "results available through Google Checkout" are almost equally prominent. But while there were over 11,000 product search results for Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Bookmark murdok: Doug is a staff writer for murdok for the latest eBusiness news.