Google as an aggregator?

The web is awash today with news about a lawsuit between the US based aggregation website LendingTree and one of its technology providers, Mortech.

It seems that Mortech may have entered into an agreement with Google to provide them with technology that will allow Google to provide users with similar aggregation services.

Last year in the UK we saw a test that was being run for secured loans. This was called Google Merchant Search. This was where the top PPC spot was replaced with a drop down of secured loan amounts. This then redirected you though a list of providers and their relative loan rates for the user to choose from.

As a test it was small, only 1 in every 1000 searchers got the option and in order to apply for teh loan teh user was prompted to enter in telephone details, a time to receive a call and there chosen provider called them back. Pretty backward for the big G really. Each provider who took part in teh test paid £20 per lead.

This sounds like a whole new beast however. This sounds like, should it ever take off and reach UK shores, that the likes of Moneysupermarket, Tesco Compare and Compare the Market could have some veruy serious competition.

Google certainly has a lot of weight to throw around!