Google recently launched video chat for Gmail. But, you obviously cannot have a video chat without a video camera. So Google has generously offered some links through Buy.com to purchase a camera.
As far as I can tell after looking at the links (in the source view), they are clear HTML clears. No onClick’s, no redirects, and no affiliate links. Just pure, straight HTML [and keyword targeted] links.
This brings me to my point though. Why did Google choose to go through Buy.com? Why not Amazon? Why not Newegg.com? Why did Google choose Buy.com as their partner?
It’s obviously not because they’re running Google ads, because they aren’t — in face, they are running Yahoo! ads on their product pages. It’s not because they’re getting some million dollar kick back from affiliate links — described above, no affiliate links. It’s not because Buy.com is a major investor in Google.
My opinion to why Google chose to use Buy.com as a partner is because I feel that Buy.com was one of the first merchants to jump on board with Google Checkout.
Google very well could have just pointed those links to any cameras at the Google Products pages, but they chose to give specific products. With that in mind, this could also be a partnership between Logitech and Google, but I have my doubts about that.
In short, I’m just surprised that Google decided to even partner with a specific company to refer sales to.
