Google Integrates Food Delivery into Search, Maps, Assistant
Photo by Katlyn Giberson.
More or less following the model of Reserve with Google, which has seamlessly integrated the process of reserving a table at a nearby restaurant into SERPs, Google is now integrating food delivery into search, Maps, and Assistant, keeping consumers on Google properties for the entire journey as they make transactions via third-party couriers.
Say you search for your local pizzeria via mobile, desktop, or voice. Just like we’re starting to see the oval Reserve with Google button pop up within the Knowledge Panel, we’ll now see a slew of third-party options for delivery, replete with prices, options for tipping, and total estimates.
Voice is the most powerful platform for this mode of local consumerism. That’s because voice already distills the local search process down to one top result. Search for pizza near you, and Assistant will spit back one top option. Now add in the integration of delivery right from the start, and the consumer is at the bottom of the funnel before she knows what hit her.
This will be doubly effective for repeat orders, for which loyal customers will hardly have uttered the word “pizza” to Assistant before the mushroom-topped slices pop up at her door.
Without a doubt, the news is consistent with CEO Sundar Pichai’s big statement at the company’s developer conference that Google is transitioning from a company that provides information to one that gets things done for us. The bright side is the most convenient version of the Internet, and local commerce, we’ve ever known. The dark one is the erosion of choice and human interaction, which are getting more and more streamlined and, with that, mechanic.
