Search Engines Taking Over Comparison

[Discovery]

This thread is shall we say, a little less read than others. Could that be because few are going after the comparison shopping model these days?

With Google, Yahoo and Bing all now taking over the roll of a comparison engine, do they have any chance of providing added value to the end service? Certainly I would not pay to be on BankRate.com when Google will list me for free or for just a small PPC cost with all the same features and the power and reach of Google.

Mortgages and Real estate have already been taken over, what will be next? Autos, Insurance, Legal services, business directory services (google maps already does this to some degree). Kind of makes whitepages, yellowpages, local directories and other sites irrelevant no?

At what point does the search engine become the competitor to everyone except the end service provider? Will they attempt to eat the entire Value Added ecosystem? Will we let them?