Exclusive: Google Cars Is Dead
TTAC has learned that Google is shutting down its car shopping service, which existed only in beta form for San Francisco Bay Area shoppers. Visitors to the site have received a message stating
“The Google San Francisco Bay Area car search beta program has been discontinued as we focus on building the next version of our experience for car-related searches. Stay tuned for more news!”
Google previously tweaked their new car search in late 2013, allowing users to see results on the main search page. TTAC had previously touted Google Cars as a potentially disruptive car shopping tool, though dealers apparently had some reservations about the way their inventory and pricing was displayed (namely a lack of differentiation among different stores), as well as the higher cost of leads.
One can only wonder what’s next for Google.
More by Derek Kreindler
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"One can only wonder what’s next for Google." Probably more half baked endeavors that waste tons of cash and don't produce any meaningful usefulness or revenue.
I don't think Google Cars was headed by anyone remotely interested in the industry, mostly because searches for certain cars would feature concept-car images, images of the previous model, images of the wrong car, or some other kind of "Image Search" detritus that seemed to have been picked out by an algorithm instead of an actual person, who could do it properly.
Are there any sites that have detailed searches for specs, options, etc? I want a query like: "all cars new or used under $20,000 that have at least 42" of rear legroom, power seats with memory, moonroof, and at least 250hp".
Is this really surprising? Google is famous for having tons of "beta" projects that it abandons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products#Discontinued_products_and_services