Insurance via Internet Is Squeezing Agents - NYTimes.com

Tangentially, see Banking Start-Ups Adopt New Tools for Lending (NYT)

"And while it might seem like an odd match for Google, whose projects include driverless cars, delivery drones and a pill to detect cancer, the key to insurance is having lots of data about people’s backgrounds and habits, which is perhaps the company’s greatest strength.

“They have a ton of data on where people drive, how people drive,” said Jon McNeill, chief executive of Enservio, a Needham, Mass., company that makes claims-processing software. “It’s the holy grail of being able to price auto insurance correctly.”"

Insurance via Internet Is Squeezing Agents - NYTimes.com