Yesterday we took note of a Business Insider report that "Google's latest e-commerce push appears to be bearing fruit, as new data reveals that more people are starting their online shopping journeys using Google, taking valuable market share away from Amazon."
One M NB reader responded:
Doesn’t surprise me, I always go to Google first and find the “real” review“ before I purchase. Too much junk on Amazon from 20 different providers of the same product with different brand names.
MNB reader Steve Anvik connected this story to the question that I asked on the "Pivot" podcast about Amazon being potentially subjected to greater regulation of its approach to private label than traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers:
I find inconsistencies. Seems many are for breaking Amazon up, or severely regulating it, at the least. Yet many people of the same persuasion give Google a pass. I think both are invasive ‘species’, if we’re consistent. One wants to know about your product and service purchases, the other wants inside your entire life. Is that picking winners and losers, or some deeper idea which I’m not understanding. Please educate us, KC.
I can't speak for everyone, but I think it is fair to say that on "Pivot," hosts Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway don't feel that way, and I certainly don't … and regulatory/legislative impulses toward putting greater restrictions on technology companies seem as equally aimed at Google as Amazon.
My question was Amazon-centric, but it could've been broader. (I needed to pose it in 30 seconds or less.)
I do think that your characterization of Amazon as wanting "to know about your product and service purchases," while Google "wants inside your entire life," may underestimate Amazon's ambitions.
