Google takes on Paypal

June 29, 2006 6:29 AM

Google Checkout is officially unveiled today; the latest service to join the Google arsenal in their race to control the entire www. It has been suggested in the news that the Google payment service was also a big factor in the recent Yahoo and eBay partnership, since eBay's Paypal service might finally have some real competition. More info on the service here.
posted by p3t3 (32 comments total)

I'm considering creating an online Yiddish dictionary and calling it Shvoogle.
posted by jonmc at 6:32 AM on June 29, 2006

jonmc - how about koogle?
posted by triv at 6:44 AM on June 29, 2006

How in the hell did they get my Credit Card number?
posted by Optamystic at 6:47 AM on June 29, 2006

The spam protection looks like a promising improvement over PayPal.
posted by scottreynen at 6:51 AM on June 29, 2006

Interesting that they don't let you sign up with a bank account (ACH). That was Paypal's original big idea, because the transaction fees are much lower — usually flat rather then percentage.
posted by smackfu at 6:52 AM on June 29, 2006

[I]f you don't use AdWords, you can process them at a low 2% and $0.20 per transaction.

This is better than the standard rate for Paypal, 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. And also, better than their merchant rates, unless (perhaps) you process over $100K monthly (1.9% + $0.30).
posted by CrunchyFrog at 6:54 AM on June 29, 2006

Yet another place that wants my CC info to store semi-permanently... online commerce must be propped up mostly by drunk people making silly impulse purchases at 3am.
posted by clevershark at 7:03 AM on June 29, 2006

If they are less censorious and controlling than Paypal, they should do well, fast. I don't know why it took this long to set up a serious competing service when Paypal leaves so many obvious holes in the market (they won't pay for gambling sites, for example, I think).
posted by grobstein at 7:07 AM on June 29, 2006

online commerce must be propped up mostly by drunk people making silly impulse purchases at 3am.

Hey! I wasn't drunk!
posted by grubi at 7:08 AM on June 29, 2006

... online commerce must be propped up mostly by drunk people making silly impulse purchases at 3am.

Have you been spying on me, clevershark?
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:11 AM on June 29, 2006

Well, it is still a long ways from PayPal; you need a different account to accept money, you need a US Billing address, ...

Still, It will be very nice to see more competition.
posted by Bovine Love at 7:17 AM on June 29, 2006

I'm considering creating an online Yiddish dictionary and calling it Shvoogle.

Google, schmoogle. I'm probably in the minority here but I don't think that much of their stuff, with the exception of googlemaps/google earth, is that good. The search is getting worse, and gmail is in permanent clunky beta (3 GB storage is cool, but the interface/usability is bleh). They're going to be the Microsoft of web before long - lots of half-baked, half-tested, half-integrated apps with more features than functionality.
posted by carter at 7:45 AM on June 29, 2006

Not so much like Paypal as like the failed Microsoft Wallet. Except that the Wallet just stored your credit card data and used the merchant's processor, whereas Google also acts as the processor. But same difference from the consumer's perspective.
posted by smackfu at 7:46 AM on June 29, 2006

online commerce must be propped up mostly by drunk people making silly impulse purchases at 3am.

Shut up! You just...shut up!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 7:51 AM on June 29, 2006

But same difference from the consumer's perspective.

Sure, but the fact that Google is doing the CC transactions means that the consumer gets to use his/her CC for a much larger variety of transactions.
posted by rxrfrx at 7:53 AM on June 29, 2006

grobstein, Google Checkout won't be allowing gambling sites, either. Here's their content policy.
posted by ijoshua at 8:00 AM on June 29, 2006

As time goes on, I find that each new Google service is pretty much just an item of momentary interest, and the only one I ever really use time and time again is, well, Google search. Has Google really been all downhill from there? Here's I was thinkin' Google was The Beatles of the interweb, and it turns out that maybe they're really just The Knack?
posted by spilon at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2006

I don't know why it took this long to set up a serious competing service when Paypal leaves so many obvious holes in the market (they won't pay for gambling sites, for example, I think).

I think it is easy to underestimate the risks taken in this kind of business - the problems of fraud are great and varied. Paypal is quite an achievement for pulling it off. Given Google's recent inability to seriously compete in some far simpler markets, and the unimpressive google wallet, finance and froogle, and all the rest of the betas, I for one would be surprised if this succeeds.

Interview with the PayPal founder on Google's Wallet - from 2005 but anticipates this move somewhat.
posted by MetaMonkey at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2006

Thanks for this. Since I have an irrational loathing of both Paypal and Yahoo, I'll be keeping an eye on this.
posted by Gator at 8:01 AM on June 29, 2006

their race to control the entire www

Isn't that what we were saying about Microsoft a few years back?
posted by Todd Lokken at 8:12 AM on June 29, 2006

Start killing those *.google.com cookies. Now they can correlate your CC# to which ads you see and what sites you visit, across the entire adsense-using web.
posted by migurski at 8:13 AM on June 29, 2006

So I guess I'm the only person here who thinks this might be useful?
posted by myeviltwin at 8:34 AM on June 29, 2006

I think this might be useful too, but they have first to get vendor's to accept the "Google Checkout" method of payment, and buyers to start using it.

Competition to force Paypal to rethink their model and their fees can only be a good thing, but I think even if Google is successful here, its going to take years for this to start getting the kind of buyer/seller base that Paypal has.
posted by p3t3 at 8:49 AM on June 29, 2006

Sounds awesome to me. My entire business is based around Paypal- having an alternative option can't possibly be a bad thing.

More options is always better, within reason.
posted by clango at 9:14 AM on June 29, 2006

Now they can correlate your CC# to which ads you see and what sites you visit, across the entire adsense-using web.

So? How is a CC# any more useful for them than any other unique id?
posted by smackfu at 9:20 AM on June 29, 2006

How is a CC# any more useful for them than any other unique id?

It's an entry point to real name, address, phone number, etc. - information advertisers pay big money for.
posted by migurski at 9:30 AM on June 29, 2006

myeviltwin, no you're not.

The hosting industry is very aflutter about this. I expect it will be a big topic of conversation at HostingCon in a couple weeks. This really does open up some very interesting avenues for people.
posted by FlamingBore at 10:08 AM on June 29, 2006

I wish Google could make its search results more acurate and filter out all the junks and spams. These days, if you search for products or services, chances are that Google will dump a lot of useless .gov, .edu, .org or news items in their natural search results. Because of their incentive to force businesses to buy ads, they tend to lower the rankings of relevant commercial sites.

Their brand name depends on web search. If people don't get the search results they look for, Google's brand name isn't worth that much. Just how many people use their cute gadgets?
posted by TurkeyWalk at 12:44 PM on June 29, 2006

Here's the google checkout privacy policy. There's nothing I find too scary, personally, though I did send both the opt-out emails.
posted by exogenous at 1:26 PM on June 29, 2006

You should all check out the deals they have, too. slickdeals.net today mentions $10 off $20 coupons for using it.. and Citicard accounts can receive a $5 gift for linking to google checkout, too... nice.
posted by twiggy at 2:47 PM on June 29, 2006

Finally, something I can use instead of Paypal.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 3:53 PM on June 29, 2006

These days, if you search for products or services, chances are that Google will dump a lot of useless .gov, .edu, .org or news items in their natural search results.

i wish google were so useful as to provide such helpful links...these days my searches bring up links mainly to bogus 'search summary' (link farm) sites...it used to be easy enough to avoid links to such results as:

Dolphins
Get new Dolphins
on eBay Express. Happy Shopping!
www.eBayExpress.com

...and they mainly stuck to the sponsored links section, but now most of the results are crap...

so i'm not particularly inclined to trust them with credit card info myself...i imagine my credit card statement would contain amazon contextual ad links...
posted by troybob at 8:43 PM on June 29, 2006