Verizon, Google Close To Mobile Search Deal
Verizon Communications Inc. is nearing an agreement with Google Inc. on a wide-ranging partnership, according to people familiar with the situation, in what could be a much-needed jolt for the anemic mobile search business.
Context & Ripple Effects
The reported partnership follows talks between Google and Verizon Wireless disclosed in 2007, alongside Google's stated plan to build a search service for mobile content. The new report suggests those parallel efforts may be converging around carrier distribution for Google's search product.
Mobile search is described as anemic, making Verizon's potential role important: a carrier agreement would give Google a route to mobile users that a standalone service lacks. The agreement itself remains unconfirmed.
First-order effects
- If finalized, the reported partnership would make Verizon a distribution partner for Google's mobile search offering and give Google access to Verizon's mobile customer base.
- Verizon would attach its mobile search experience to Google rather than relying solely on its own search proposition.
Second-order effects
- A Verizon-Google arrangement would raise the value of carrier placement in mobile search, pressuring other search providers to pursue comparable operator relationships.
- It would make control of the handset and carrier portal a more consequential channel for reaching mobile-search users, rather than leaving discovery entirely to standalone web services.
Third-order effects
- If carrier partnerships become the route to scale, mobile search competition may consolidate around a small set of search providers with operator distribution rather than around independent mobile-content services.
- The reported deal points toward carriers acting as gatekeepers and commercial partners in mobile search, with terms of distribution shaping which search products reach users.
The trend: Mobile search is moving from standalone web-style services toward distribution deals that pair search providers with wireless carriers.