Pairs up with Intuit to Offer Free Web Sites to New York Businesses

Google is offering free Web sites for small business owners in New York. To go along with this initiative Google has started a site called NewYorkGetOnline.com that will set up business owners with Intuit for a free site.

So what's the motivation? Well Google has stated that 52% of small businesses in New York don't have Web sites, and 97% of Americans look online for local products and services. That means over half the small businesses are invisible to consumers, and they're the ones that need to be the most visible. In the end these businesses will look to Google to get their sites found by mobile users.

To get the word out about the promotion, Google has been doing events around the state that teach small business owners about online marketing, and of course encourages them to use Google's AdWords to help drive traffic to their site. It's clear that Google will make more than enough money to recoup the costs of giving out free sites to owners with the sale of AdWords just from these small businesses alone. The one con to all these pros? What about small businesses that design Web sites? What kind of impact will this have on them?