Marketing company, Channel Intelligence, yesterday announced on its blog that it had been acquired by Google (News - Alert) for $125 million. The company specializes in tracking online retail sales of a variety of products, including computer and consumer goods.

According to businessinsider.com, this acquisition is part of Google’s effort to increase its presence in the online shopping and retailer traffic areas. The online retail environment is dominated by Amazon, and customers will often bypass Google’s search engine to search for products within Amazon’s site.

This increased effort by Google is thought to be part of an attempt to siphon some of Amazon’s traffic through its own ad revenue-generating engine, rather than customers going straight to Amazon, and improve on the user’s shopping experience by providing them with more relevant results.

Channel Intelligence’s role in Google’s efforts will likely be in the area of results optimization based on search queries, with both specific retailers and customer needs in mind.

Chief executive officer and president of Channel Intelligence, Doug Alexander, expressed how proud he was of the company’s accomplishments so far, particularly in the last year, and explained how excited he was for the coming acquisition.

Walter Buckley, chief executive officer at ICG Group, Channel Intelligence’s parent company, also expressed his pride in the recent accomplishments of Channel Intelligence with Alexander at the helm, and particularly praised their navigation of such a complex and ever-changing environment as the e-commerce industry.

Founder and Chairman of Channel Intelligence, Rob Wright, placed the origins of the company in a desire to simplify the online retail experience for customers, and added that this acquisition was a testament to the leadership of Doug Alexander and ICG, who increased the value of the company tremendously in the eyes of both its customers and partners.