- Seeking Alpha — the most-trafficked in August with 2.5 million unique visitors — also had the highest increase in number of unique month-over-month visits with 300,000 more visits in August than in July.
- Budgettracker.com saw the highest monthly growth percentage with more than 6.5 times the number of unique visitors in August compared to July.
- Betterment had the highest percentage growth year-over-year, up 88x.
- Cortera had the highest number of unique year-over-year visitors, growing by 1.5 million.
mFoundry & SecondMarket Hit Deloitte’s 2011 Technology Fast 500 List
Google Advisor Allows You to Check Mortgage and Credit Card Rates in Real Time
“With Google Advisor, you enter information about what you’re looking for in a mortgage, credit card, CD, or checking and savings account. We show you a list of the offers that match your criteria, along with rates and contact information. Google Advisor is designed especially to help you make these difficult financial decisions easily, with:
- Speed: As you change your criteria, the results update instantly. You’ll still have a list of all your options in one place, so you can quickly compare different offers.
- Trust: By setting your own search criteria, you’re able to see only those offers and rates that apply to you, which means you can compare applicable offers without even contacting a provider first.
- Control: You only need to provide the minimum amount of information we need to show you offers that are right for you. You have full control over what you want to share, and which providers you choose to talk to–and you don’t have to submit any personal information until you want to.”
HQ Location: Mountain View, CA
FinovateFall 2011 Sneak Peek: Part 2
More than 60 leading fintech innovators, both startups and established companies, are gearing up to present at the biggest Finovate ever, Sept. 20/21 in NYC.
ti-media content directly to your clients’ Apple, Android, BlackBerry, or Microsoft smartphones and tablets.
the support center. IND Mobile banking is more than just the extension of online banking features, unique ergonomic design, user experience, security and the fact that it is always-online.
o create missions.
Op Ed: Thoughts on Google Wallet
This guest post was written by Daniel Thomas, a 25-year strategy and product development veteran of the financial services industry. He is a principal consultant with Mindful Insights LLC.
Google’s announcement two weeks ago certainly raised a few eyebrows in the mobile payments arena and took a giant leap toward putting to rest the debate about the use of NFC.
However, there’s an interesting twist that hasn’t been explored in the many articles written in the aftermath of the announcement. How will Google’s effort impact revenues from the merchant-funded rewards programs (see note 1) banks hope will increase loyalty while softening the blow of the now-certain Durbin Amendment losses?
But has Google just killed banks’ dreams of grabbing a share of the online advertising pie ?
Merchants today are offering higher discounts and rebates to bankcard users because the banks, via various rewards vendors, are letting merchants in on their customers’ spending history. That data obviously has a lot of value and the merchants compensate the banks for it in the form of commissions on purchases made by the bank’s customers after targeted offers have been presented. On the surface, one might think that regardless of the mobile wallet used, Google’s or otherwise, so long as the payment is made from a bank-issued product, the bank will still own the spending history data and be able to trade it for a commission.
However, Google, or whoever owns the mobile wallet (but especially Google), will be able to “see” the purchases as they take place and can begin recording its own spending history data. That, coupled with other non-mobile spend-history gleaned from browsing on the web across multiple cards per individual or household, potentially gives Google a leg up on the richness of its data (assuming Google can tie the two together, is there any doubt?). Combine that with general browsing history and Google has a pretty good profile of each person to offer up to merchants.
Privacy issues aside, this seems to trump bank spending history data placing Google in a much better position to bargain with merchants and ad networks. But privacy issues may well loom large over all of this once consumers and Congress put 2 and 2 together and figure out what Big Broth… er, that is, Google is up to.
Meanwhile, not everyone will have an Android phone nor a Google Wallet. Plenty of other mobile wallets will soon hit the scene, but even so it will take a long time for mobile wallets to replace plastic (amusing thought– which will go away first: plastic or the perpetual paper check?) so merchants will still want to keep banks in the equation by compensating them for allowing them to use their spending history to develop targeted offers.
So, merchants are going to need to decide: should they allow Google to make the reward offer or the banks? Surely, they won’t compensate both for bringing in the same purchase. That leaves the decision in the hands of the consumers. Do they want to receive points and cash back from Google or from their bank?
Undoubtedly, consumers will decide based on which one offers the greatest value for the least amount of work. Online usability has been a trademark of Google, banks not so much.
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Citibank and MasterCard are key banking partners
On its website, Google asks prospective visitors if they have a Citibank MasterCard
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Note: For more information, see Online Banking Report: Merchant-Funded Rewards (published Feb. 2011)
Out of the Inbox: Chase Invites Business Clients to a Free Webinar with Google
On the one hand, it’s easy for a bank to get the attention of business clients and prospects. Just announce a streamlined commercial loan-app process. But since that’s unlikely to happen in the wake of the Financial Meltdown, a Webinar with Google is a pretty solid Plan B.
Chase has a winning effort here. The topic, 7 ways to sell online, is so compelling that Google is tossing in a $100 AdWords credit for attendees (see note). And it never hurts to associate with a powerful and well-regarded Internet brand.
The email design is good with an interesting subject line, an email to ask questions, and a big green button for the call-to- action. The copy is a bit predictable, but it’s short and to-the-point and doesn’t distract. There are small quibbles regarding design-layout; perhaps, a Gmail issue; and they forgot to capitalize the W in AdWords, but those are minor glitches.
Grade: A-
Chase email to existing business clients (6 May, 10:33 AM, Pacific)
Landing page hosted by Google and co-branded with Chase (link)
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Notes:
1. Google usually offers the $100 only to new clients, but I don’t seen any fine print limiting the bonus. I hope they don’t add a restriction after the fact, which could negate the positive energy Chase generates from the Webinar offer.
2. For more info on the space, see Online Banking Report: Micro- and Small Business Online Banking (published Oct. 2009)
Customer Service Tips: Google Verifies Contact Info via Interstitial Page
From time to time (2x per year?), Google drops an interstitial after login to verify that it has the correct email address and mobile phone number on file.
While financial institutions are far more likely to have current contact info on their online banking customers, it’s still advisable to check in annually to verify contact info, especially with the growing importance of mobile.
And while you are at it, ask customers for alternate email address(es) and phone number(s).
Google interstitial page displayed after logging in to Gmail (7 March 2011)
Prioritizing Financial Information Flow
I’m just finishing an enjoyable novel by Cory Doctorow, Makers. It chronicles two inventors operating in the United States 15 to 20 years from now (the actual time period is not revealed) after another economic/tech downturn, similar to the 1999/2000 dotcom crash.
Readers will recognize most of the technology and information services used, e.g., email, IM, blogs and Twitter. But Doctorow’s vision for these services a decade or two into the future is quite enlightening.
One area that’s much improved over today’s practices is the use of technology to prioritize the avalanche of information bombarding users. Here’s a passage from the book:
He’d been tuning his feed watchers…for nearly a decade, and this little PR item rang all the cherries on his filters, flagging the item red and rocketing it to the top of his news playlist, making all the icons on the sides of his screen bounce with delight.
All you news junkies out there, isn’t that how you want your email/RSS/Twitter/ Facebook streams to work? The most-important info pops to the top and alerts you at the same time. Google is doing great work along these lines with its Priority Mailbox introduced in August (previous post), which now works on mobile phones as well (see inset).
Opportunity for Netbankers: I’m looking forward to the time when my bank, card issuer and/or third-party aggregator does the same for my finances and alerts me to odd transactions, excessive charges, and potential savings. And more importantly, helps me take action to resolve the issue.
But it can’t be delivered in a pile of email alerts sent every day. I tune those out. Just tell me about the IMPORTANT transactions triggering the “financial alarms” and keep mum about everything else. Thanks.
Google Launches More Financial Product Comparison Pages: Savings Accounts, Checking, CDs, and Mortgages
Today, I ran into Google’s new savings-account comparison chart for the first time (see notes 1, 2 and screenshot below, link). The search giant now offers separate pages with financial product comparisons for mortgages, credit cards, CDs, checking, and savings accounts. And the comparison matrices are at times positioned prominently on searches potentially reducing traffic to top advertisers and to organic results as well (see screenshot below).
Savings account search results
Let’s look at an example search today for “savings accounts.” The results include a blue-chip lineup of paid advertisers. Following is a list of the top 10 paid results compared to their position on the Google comparison page (note 3):
1. American Express (#1)
2. ING Direct (#7)
3. US Bank (#24, 30, 32, 33)
4. BECU (local advertiser)
5. Citibank (#19, 25, 26 )
6. Capital One (#10, 15, 31)
7. Navy Federal CU
8. TD Ameritrade
9. Zions Bank (#4, 5, 22, 23, 27)
10. Discover Bank (#2, 11)
Analysis
I still don’t understand why Google would risk antagonizing its financial advertisers by drawing traffic away from their ads and into the Google-powered comparison matrix. The company says its focus is on the user experience. So I guess they believe that long-term this approach will generate more traffic, more searches and ultimately more revenue, possibly from commissions for actual accounts generated, rather than just pay-per-click.
But in its current beta stage, there are some odd results. How would you feel if you are US Bank, bidding high enough to be number three on the search results page, but not shown until page three of the savings-account comparison page? Worse, three top-10 advertisers, BECU, Navy Federal CU, and TD Ameritrade aren’t even listed on the savings comparison page.
Which brings up a bigger question. How does Google determine which FIs are listed? The savings-product comparison indexes only 17 banks, of which five aren’t even playing the rate game at this point with rates of 0.25% or less (note 4). Furthermore, there’s not a single credit union and just one smaller bank (Bank of Internet) listed.
I understand this is just a trial balloon from Google and that product comparisons could make it easier for users to find the best rate. But right now it’s unfair to any financial institution not in the chosen 17, and it doesn’t allow users to easily choose from criteria other than rate, monthly fee, and whether a branch is nearby.
It also looks like the system could be gamed. What’s to prevent one of these banks from launching ten, or 20 or 30 different savings accounts, all with temporary teaser rates, to soak up more space in the matrix?
Sure, Google will eventually build algorithms to prevent that, but that will take time. Meanwhile, it’s an odd transition time for the search engine and its financial advertisers. But if you rely at all on Google to deliver new customers, you better pay close attention to developments with its product-comparison pages.
Google search for “savings accounts” (12 Jan. 2011, 4:00 PM Pacific, Seattle IP address)
Google’s “savings” comparison page
Offer details page for American Express High-Yield Savings
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Notes:
1. According to MyBankTracker.com, Google started running the deposit-account comparisons in late December 2010 in the U.S. market.
2. We wrote about Google’s credit card comparison matrix in November.
3. Google’s savings-account matrix listed a total of 44 results, from 17 unique banks, displayed 10 per page
4. 14 of the 44 results, almost one-third of the matrix, were accounts paying 10 basis points or less.
Google Testing U.S. Credit Card Comparison Ads
Today, when searching Google for “credit cards,” a small Comparison ad appeared on the top of the results page, above the individual paid spots (see first screenshot below; note 1). The title was “Credit Card Offers” and clicking on it delivered me to the following URL: google.com/comparisonads/uscredit (see second screenshot).
Google had previously disclosed United Kingdom tests for credit card and mortgage comparison ads, but this is the first I’d heard of them in the United States (note 2). The comparison page had 101 credit card offers that could be searched based on certain card attributes such as “no annual fee” and/or by the user’s self-evaluation of their credit quality.
Clicking on one of the offers delivered a page that summarized the salient points, but according to the fine print at the bottom of the page, Google isn’t currently being paid for these credit card ads. However, there was a source code in the URL that delivered me to the U.S. Bank application, so Google may be banking referral fees for completed applications.
If this practice becomes widespread, card issuers will need to adjust their Google search buy and figure out how to gain better exposure on the comparison-results page. Right now, APR (interest rate) is the default sort mechanism.
1. Google search for “credit cards” brings up comparison ad (10 Nov. 10)
2. Credit card comparison page includes sort and search options
3. The offer page provides detailed price info
Note: Clicking on the “application form” button takes users to the issuer’s site to complete the application
3a. Fine print at bottom of the page
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Notes:
1. Searching from a Seattle IP address on 10 Nov. 2010 at about 5:00 PM Pacific Time via Firefox 3.6 on WinXP.
2. Apparently a few others have seen them; for example, Search Engine Journal reported on the practice in an October post (here).
Gmail’s New Priority Inbox Should Inspire Banks to Do the Same with Electronic Statements
I’ve been on a bit of a campaign this summer (writing in Online Banking Report here and here), about the need to move beyond the static online “data dump” model to a more measured approach in delivering precise financial info when and where the customer needs it.
We mostly looked at outbound messaging and streaming systems: email, text, RSS and third-parties such as Blippy and Swipely. But the same logic can be used to improve the financial home base, the online statement.
Google’s new email option, Priority Inbox (aka Magic Inbox), introduced to Gmail users this week (note 1), is a great example of how this could work. Instead of always displaying email (or transactions) in chronologic or reverse-chronologic order, use algorithms to show items in order of importance (see screenshot below).
The bank-transaction importance-ranking would obviously include the size of the item. But it would also position unusual payments of any size at the top of the list so that users could more quickly identify fraud or errors. And, as with Gmail, users should be able to label and flag transactions for future reference (note 2).
A service like this would have saved me hundreds of dollars this year, by alerting me immediately that my cell phone bill had mushroomed, and that I needed to switch to an unlimited-minutes plan.
Gmail Priority Inbox (1 Sep 2010)
Note: There are no messages in the top priority area called “Important and unread” because I’d read them all. Google provides a little note of congratulations for clearing out that portion of the inbox.
Notes:
1. Google has offered similar algorithm-based ordering in its RSS reader for some time. I’ve been using it for almost a year and am a big fan. It really helps lift the best posts to the top of the 600 or so I get each day. I will use Twitter a lot more when it offers the same type of functionality (Does anyone know of a Twitter client that arranges tweets by importance?)
2. And like Google, banking users should be able to store their transactions for as long as they are customers. See our Online Banking Report on Lifetime Statements for more info.
Bank of America App Shown in Sprint Android Microsite
Once again, the first mover gets the attention. Bank of America, long a fixture in Apple iPhone advertising, now figures prominently in Sprint’s marketing for the Google’s Android marketplace.
In a whirling dervish of apps on the Sprint microsite, Bank of America’s mobile banking app appears in the second set of four apps displayed (see screenshot below).
Spring microsite featuring BofA app (link, 21 Oct 2009)
Android market has BofA mobile banking on the second page of top free apps (link)
Note: For more info on mobile banking via apps, see our Online Banking Report: Mobile Banking via iPhone (March 2009)