Google has an unfair advantage when pushing its own products. Take Google’s car insurance comparison tool as an example. Just recently, adverts for the tool have started to appear in GMail – at the top of the lists of emails in the Promotions folder.
This is a very prominent position, the advert appears as follows:
These positions are open to all advertisers, of course, for a fee…
It is only Google that can occupy this prime location for free.
The advert takes the reader of their GMail promotions to the car insurance comparison research tool. The following screenshot shows how the advert appears within GMail when clicked… notice the calls to action to share the tool with others, not simply use the comparison tool – but pass it on too.
What do you think about Google using GMail to its advantage in this way ?
Car insurance aggregators (such as Confused.com) must look closely at these types of adverts and fear the possible domination of the price comparison sector by Google one day.