Google may be planning to try its hand at yet another service: Home services such as plumbing and home cleaning, says a report from CBS News. To do so, the search giant is scooping up the engineering team behind Homejoy, a startup that connects online users directly to such professionals.
Confirms hiring, but keeps details secret
With Google hiring Homejoy’s engineering team, there are speculations that it is facilitating net-savvy users to hire home service providers such as electricians and plumbers online. Of note, Homejoy will cease operations as of July 31st.
Dan Ackerman, CNET’s senior editor, told CBS News that Google has “apparently” hired the engineers from Homejoy, which was doing very well. But “they are being forced to shut down partially because of the same issues that plagued Uber in terms of who’s an employee, who’s a contractor.” So, with Homejoy closing, Google sensed an opportunity to hire an already assembled team to add to their services list.
Although Google confirmed that “a portion” of Homejoy’s team has been hired, the Internet firm abstained from sharing additional details.
A good fit for Google
Ackerman told CBS the move by Google makes sense, even though the firm noted during its second-quarter earnings call that it is working to lower its costs.
“I think it’s much more of a bread and butter issue than let’s say inventing virtual reality glasses to just kind of give people referrals to local contractors in their neighborhood,” Ackerman said, adding if a user searches Google Now or Google Maps for anything, he or she gets a lot of info without leaving the site, and the new service could be “sort of the same thing.”
Google’s main aim by expanding into home services would not be to earn revenue, but to make it “a one-stop shop,” to prevent users from leaving the site, Ackerman said, adding Amazon is another big name interested in the same space.
He also notes the new service fits in Google’s mission, which is to provide users with all available information in an organized way. The new service fits well with the mission as users do not need to go anywhere else when searching a plumber or an electrician.
As of 10 am EDT Tuesday, Google shares were down 0.33% at $690.55, and year to date, the stock is up over 30%.
