Google does a 2 for 1
and it might just be the end of 'free' search
Listen to Steve read this post (4 min audio)
They just double-ended the internet with Universal Cart. Potentially making the earth their shopping mall.
What is it? Google Universal Cart is an intelligent shopping AI hub that can search the web, find whatever you’re looking to buy autonomously—even a multitude of items from different merchants—and put them into a single cart for checkout.
Seriously, I think they’ve just potentially doubled their revenue!
Last weeks poll result: I voted for the 1st option. (Sample size over 3000)… pretty clear result - people want to Gov. to own utilities again.
Remember, Google currently makes most of its money from vendors—people trying to sell stuff or get clicks on the web… and it works. The company is currently worth US$4.47 trillion. But now imagine Google combining its entire ecosystem—Search, Gemini, YouTube, Maps, Home, Nest, Gmail, Drive, Waymo, Calendar, Docs, Wallet, etc…
…into a single, persistent, always-on deal-tracking service, scouring the entire web, to find you that deal—the single best option on the web, with time, price and delivery all calculated to your benefit.
Or a product you couldn’t find—or a product you didn’t even know you wanted…That item you’ve been watching on YouTube. (For me, it’s a 1986 Honda CR80 dirt bike. Hard to find.) Then bam—it’s found it and ordered it for you. It’s on its way… well under budget. Incredible.
*AI Video of the week - Mind blowing story telling…
But here’s where it gets economic for them. It becomes a subscription service—an always-on, best-deal service ready to book your next holiday in its entirety, replenish your café stock, or change your electricity deal in real time, daily, to save you cash. It’s a service you’d pay for—especially if it is saving you hundreds of dollars a week and precious time. And you will pay for it. Surely that’s their plan.
Google might just corner the entire e-commerce market. It could make money from both buyers and sellers. Something Amazon would love (Side note: Amazon have done some buyer centric things that really worked - like Amazon Prime - because people are getting free delivery, they hope Amazon has what they want and often don’t look elsewhere - even if it was cheaper with delivery costed up) But unlike this Amazon example, Google won’t even need any physical infrastructure to service that market. It only needs the information and Agentic layer. It will be connecting other people’s desires with other businesses’ infrastructure. This is way more significant than we realise, and it shows the power of Big Tech once more.
And for those who thought Google would lose to generative AI, it seems its code red worked and it has come back with a… “ChatGPT—hold my beer.”
Keep thinking,
Steve.
** Get me into do a Keynote at your next event. I’ll use this as my testimonial!
It would be great if people would pay for it. At the same time, consumers seem really hesitant. Very few consumers are open to agents making purchase decisions autonomously at the payment stage (Accenture 12%, Gartner 11%). So this bet only works if we can fundamentally change consumer purchase behaviour.