Google, Intuit Partner In Small-Business Marketing

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September 13, 2006 (5:42 PM EDT)

By Antone Gonsalves , TechWeb Technology News

Google Inc. and Intuit Inc. on Wednesday announced a partnership to provide tools that would enable small businesses to use the latter company's financial software to market themselves online.

Under the alliance, Google marketing tools would be built into QuickBooks 2007 products, so Intuit customers can list their businesses on Google's mapping service, create and manage advertising campaigns through its search engine, and post products for sale through the company's classified ads services, Google Base. QuickBooks 2007 is scheduled to ship in the fall.

In a joint teleconference, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the partnership is expected to help the company reach the more than half of small businesses that do not have an online presence. While opening up a new distribution channel for Google, the new services would hopefully drive more sales of QuickBooks. Besides its services, Google also plans to embed its desktop search software in QuickBooks, so small businesses can search their computers internal hard drive for information.

"It's a good win for Intuit, and a good win for Google," Schmidt said.

Steve Bennett, president and chief executive officer of Intuit, agreed, saying that both companies expected to expand the partnership, if the current efforts prove successful.

"Both Eric and I have big hopes and big expectations of how we can expand in the future," Bennett said.

For businesses without a Web site, Google is offering to host a Web page that would essentially be a landing page for the text ad that would appear on search results. Through Google AdWords, small businesses would be able to bid online for keywords used in search queries.

Besides offering to host Web pages, Google is offering a $50 credit to new customers as a promotion.

One feature missing from the offering that would be helpful to small businesses is a click-to-call service. Most small organizations do the majority of their business on the telephone, so the ability for a potential customer to click an ad link to place a call to the business would be very help. Such services are available on Yahoo and other local search providers.

Without making a commitment, Schmidt said Google was "experimenting" with such a service.

Financial details for the partnership were not disclosed, but Bennett said there was a revenue-sharing component.

Intuit's biggest competitor in the personal and small business financial software market is Microsoft, which recently started shipping Money 2007. Schmidt said the success of a product would depend on its ability to make money for a customer.

"To me, the trick here is velocity," Schmidt said. "It's how quickly can you get a business online, up and running, and making more money. The quicker you can do that the happier they are, and the more revenue that's going to go to Intuit, and the more revenue that's going to go to Google."

Meanwhile, earlier Wednesday, Intuit announced the acquisition of StepUp Commerce Inc., which would provide the engine for small businesses to move inventory information, including pictures, from QuickBooks to Google Base, Bennett said.

Intuit acquired San Francisco-based StepUp and its subsidiary, JGSI Corp., for $60 million in cash. Intuit does not expect the acquisition to have a material effect on financial results in fiscal 2007.