If you are looking to purchase auto insurance, all you have to do is GOOGLE IT!
And I don’t mean using Google to find links to current auto insurers websites, per say. I mean Google will be SELLING auto insurance. Seriously.
According to Insurance Journal, Google already offers auto insurance online in the United Kingdom, and will be making landfall in the United States, possibly by the end of this quarter.
An entity called “Google Compare Auto Insurance Services Inc.,” Google’s own online auto insurance shopper, has ALREADY been licensed to offer auto insurance in 26 states, according to Ellen Carney, Forrester Research’s blogger. The states include New Jersey, Delaware, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. That is more than HALF of the country. And more states could jump on board.
Several auto insurers are already working with Google as well, including Dairyland, MetLife, Mercury, Permanent General Assurance, Viking Insurance of Wisconsin, and Workmen’s…with the potential of many more to hop on the bandwagon.
Google may also be working with CoverHound, “which currently offers online quotes for multiple insurers including Hartford, Esurance, 21st Century, Travelers, Safeco, National General, Progressive, Foremost, Plymouth Rock and others.”
In addition, Google has formed “a partnership with the Virginia-based insurance comparison shopping site Compare.com,” according to Conor Dougherty of the New York Times Technology Blog. “Compare.com, which was launched in 2013, allows users who complete a single, simplified form to obtain comparison quotes from multiple carriers, and buy a policy online, by phone or through a local agent.”
The biggest search engine on the globe is about to shake up the insurance industry a bit.