Almost 5 years ago, Google launched Google Advisor, which ultimately turned into Google Compare. In short, it was an affiliate model for Google to allow advertisers to promote credit cards, auto insurance, mortgages and travel insurance products and services on a CPA model.

Well, Google has told their Google Compare partners that it is closing down in a month, on March 23rd.

Search Engine Land secured an email from a partner, which Google confirmed it legit:

When Google first launched this and expanded into more and more markets, many SEOs were not happy. Why should they place their ads above our mortgage search engine or credit card search engine that specializes in this service. Well, Google tired, and decided for one reason or another that they should close it down. So this should be good news for those in this space.

Google did close mortgages in Advisor back in 2012, only to try launching it again later. It is not like Google didn’t try to make it work but clearly this is not the space they want to be in.

Google often tries things and closes them, so ultimately, this should not be a huge surprise.

My bigger surprise is how much more attention this is getting compared to the four ads change.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.