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Google Wallet May Compete With Paypal
theskeptic writes "According to the WSJ, Google plans to offer an electronic-payment service that could help the Internet-search company diversify its revenue and may heighten competition with eBay's PayPal unit. Codenamed Google Wallet, a payment service could represent a significant expansion beyond online advertising, which generated 99% of its $3.2 billion in revenue last year. Google's move could potentially threaten eBay's successful PayPal service, which generated $233.1 million, or 23% of eBay's revenue in the first quarter."
www.gwallet.com is currently owned by a domain squatter.
Having used paypal and ebay when selling, I know well that the fees and such add up quickly when using these services. I didnt even use all the special junk they try to push on you like bold headings, gallery etc and I still wound up paying 11 dollars to sell a 75 dollar item...thats robbery. Hopefully this google wallet will make paypal's credit card use fees come back down to earth.
This could lay the foundation for Google to introduce paid services. It would certainly ease them into it if people already use Google Cash.
It's also nice to see some competition to Paypal. Ebay has done a pretty good job with it IMO, but too much of a monopoly for me to be comfortable with.
How about Goopay? Goopal? Paygoo? Palgoo? Paygle? Paygle?
So people can donate to the projects they rejected for the summer of code.
Transcend Humanity. Please.
I had an eBayer complain about a transaction and PayPal did not just set aside the amount of the sale which was small - they locked out my entire account which had a ripple affect with other auctions I was running. By the time I was exonerated I had taken a beating. I am not opposed to competition if it might reduce some of this heavy handed behavior.
http://www.busyweather.com/
With Google coming up with their own PayPal, they're halfway to coming up with a full eBay-killer auction site. Imagine being able to create an auction that'd show up whenever somebody searches Google for the product's name....
Now Google can store my e-mail, remember my searches, know who all my friends are, know where I'm driving, and know all my finances :-D
Good job!
The more you know, the less you understand.
Provided Google can somehow use their branding to reflect reliability, security, and stability -- I'd trust them with money. Feed the fear about paypal's insecurities and you've got yourself a deal.
Perhaps a business link through Froogle could prove beneficial, too. You know, "preferred customer" type scenario.
In the end, though, I really do think we should start worrying about the amount of information Google collects. Searches, identity, e-mails, and with this thing, buying trends and other financial information. Yeah, we love 'em...but their capacity for evil is growing and becoming a bit more scary.
How long until google branches out to the point where they're in direct competition with eBay. From google wallet to google auction.
You get to use google's extra-spiffy search features to find exactly what you're looking for. Plus, google would probably be able to create something 10x less cumbersome and akward than ebay's interface.
If Google's going this way, it might be just as easy to tie it into the Froogle service: let people find the item they want, then pay for it from the same interface.
In time, they could introduce their own eBay like system. Odds are, eBay won't just let Google Wallet into their system and people would have to do payments manually (they way they used to with Paypal). But if Google builds off of Froogle and inserts themselves as a middleman, it would be an effective way of getting extra revenue and balancing out their ad system.
Just a random thought - naturally, I could be wrong.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
I find that the rates are incredibly high for what these companies do. Credit Card validation over the internet should be a relatively easy process, but there are so many middle men in the business that it's crazy. Visa, Mastercard, etc issue the cards, why can't I deal with them directly?
Just about everybody trusts Google.
I trust PayPal/Ebay, but less than I trust Google.
As long as Google Wallet can keep away from either a financial scandal or a security breech, they should eat Ebay's lunch -- except on Ebay.
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
I *really* hope they go through with that. So far, PayPal has what is pretty much a monopoly on online payments; there's alternatives like Moneybookers, but few people even know about them, and PayPal has consistently and systematically abused its monopoly by imposing more and more unreasonable restrictions.
Two that annoy me the most, personally are the fact that you can't use it for "adult" transactions, and that it's quite limited with regard to how you can get your own money that sits in your own account in many countries outside of the USA. In fact, there is a list of countries where the only available option is transferring the money to a US-based bank account - which really is ridiculous when you think about it. It may not matter much to the average US citizen, of course, but think about it - what would you say if you found out that the online payment service you used to have people pay for the stuff you sold on eBay only allows you to transfer the money to a bank account in - say - Uruguay?
PayPal's policies are consistent with those of eBay, though (its mother company nowadays); like eBay, PayPal is entirely inconsiderate of its users, a stark contrast to Google's "do no evil" philosophy.
Let's hope that Google will revolutionize online payments the same way they revolutionized searching, and let's also hope that PayPal will soon be just as forgotten as Hotbot, Northernlight, Mamma and all the search engines we used before Google was there.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
F*** it, I'm getting drunk.
Hmm - on second thought, seems you actually just made my night. Cheers!
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
Finally!
:)
It's about damn time a company with a reputation like Google's got into this area. I hate PayPal with a passion; they wouldn't accept one of my credit cards for an online payment (there were no other choices for the site I was paying), so I contacted their support. Guess how that went? Long story short, two automated emails and one "we won't help you" email over a few weeks. They don't want to help you, they just want your money. Also check out the horror stories of frozen accounts floating around the web.
Another guide to these type of sites is how many hoops you have to jump through to actually contact them. Try it, drop by and click through. See how long it takes to contact someone.
Anyway, sub-rant over. Imagine how a company like google could shake up this area. It's about time a reputable company came in and did a good job. Maybe even micropayments or something similar in the future? I imagine online comic creators would love that one.
If you send a couple bucks via PayPal, even if the sender has a positive account balance (i.e. no CC transaction costs exist), the fees are quite hefty, percentage wise. (The minimum transaction fee is USD 0.3).
It would be really nice to get a break on small transactions, especially ones that don't incur CC costs.
> A lot of you won't like to hear it... But isn't google trying to get a monopoly on everything that is on our planet?
They may turn out to be the Microsoft of the internet era. However, so far they haven't shown signs of being a great evil, and their stuff isn't crap.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
[Buy This] [I'm Feeling Lucky]
*and might rebill at $100 per month.. if you forget..
I agree with you, I look forward to a viable alternative to paypal. I am not please with Paypal after having had a false charge back happen against me, and being pinged for an aditional $10.00 as well as losing the original money. Paypal sucks has more horror stories too, and I offer some advice if you have to do business with paypal:
Since google seems to be holding to its 'do not evil' policy they should make a for good competitor with customers fed up with paypal. I wouldn't mind seeing a google auction site to compete with ebay (Paypal's owner) as well :).
Getting into payment systems will expose Google to new levels of regulation that may affect user's privacy. Regulations related money laundering and anti-terrorist laws may force Google to collect and turn-over data on users of its payment service. I wonder if those rules might also force Google to turn-over other data on "customers of interest".
Having all your information (your banking, your email, your internet search activities) in one basket makes it a tempting target for government.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
For some horror stories on who PayPal really doesn't give a shit about you, go here:
http://www.paypalsucks.com/
read it and weep.
Paypal needs the competition - especially from a company like Google that professes a higher sense of ethics.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
wanna go to a bar or something?
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
Yeah, that sounds good. If you want to join me, I hope Iceland isn't too far out of your way.
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
Google wants my wallet! The next thing they want will be my first born. Sheesh... I thought Microsft was bad; they only wanted my soul.
Id say one of the significant reasons for Google doing this is for payments to and from adsense publishers and adwords advertisers.
Currently they just send cheques in the post every month to publishers, which is crazy for overseas publishers and must increase their costs a fair bit. They don't use services such as Paypal due to the fees.
It would also help in obtaining money from advertisers for adwords.
Google deals with a lot of (sometimes small individual units of) money from publishers and advertisers, and their current system would be far better off if it were handled online through themselves.
I.O.U One Sig.
Google is really trying to take over the world and the way they're conquering different internet services is just frightening. I wouldn't be surprised if they would announce a new googlebay (or whatever) online marketplace in the next few years. They are tightening their grip and it's strong! Could they really kill'em all and succeed in taking over the internet?
And with Google Maps, the path that the stolen item has taken to get in to the buyers' hands can be interactively displayed! Useful if the item is in poor condition, as you can bitch at the original owner.
I just hope for Google's sake they don't make Google Wallet a Beta when they first release it. I wouldn't trust my money to something that said Beta on it. When all your money suddenly disappears you'll get some more guarantees than just: "Sorry, this service is still in Beta and don't say we didn't warn you".
While I agree that competition is a Good Idea(tm), I've got a friend who insists on using MSN Search, as opposed to Google. She doesn't trust Google. I can't help but laugh when she tells me this ;-)
And, no, that's not why I'm not with her. I don't think she's got any problem with my political viewpoints (she agrees with most of them) or my interest in computers.
So far, they haven't. But they will eventually, as Page & Brin aren't around to enforce corporate culture, it'll probably drift. If not before. But then, I don't do anything over Gmail that is even remotely private - and I try to avoid putting such things on any email account, anywhere.
Google basically made it's own micropayment transaction system internally to handle the accounting of google adwords and adsense revenue changing hands in millions of transactions every day.
They just needed to take the next logical step with it.
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
What if the massive cluster they have going has acheived sentience, and is controlling the minds of Page and Brin? All this information they're accumulating could be a prelude to the ultra-efficient subjugation of the human race by helpful, deadly, autonymous little Googlebots!
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
Sounds like a porn payment service... scratch that one off the list - please!
No problem in a couple of years of sending and receivng money. However, they definitely need a good competitor and Google can do it. I also like the suggestion by someone that Google start its own auction site. Ebay needs competition in all areas and Yahoo auctions never went anywhere.
Why not sign up..? Everyone in the world will eventually be controlled by google anyways, so at least join now so you don't look like an ass in the future. ;)
Also, I think google would have no reason to steal the information of every middle class person in America.
If you're a billionaire, I can see why you would avoid google; if not, what do you have to lose? A Ford F150 and a two story house? Comes as a small price for such great services.
Google could do very well in this situation to the benefit of all. The greed of the banks is probably preventing them from making a lot more money by charging less on what would be a lot more transactions.
Throughout all of this, I was unable to get a reply from a human being in their Customer Service department. All I received were canned replies telling me how wonderful it is for me to "verify" my account.
PayPal has never been able to explain to me the reasons why being "verified" was A Good Thing for me, or why it was anything more than a possible security mess with my checking account.
Picture it... A "confirm" button... surrounded by 427 text ads for related products.
I already have to goto at least page 3 to find anything, because the first few pages of google results are fake sites, keyword bait, and crap not even containing the words I used.
Lets not forget what Google is, an ADVERTISING company, that want to know everything about everythign you have done and ever will do, so they can sell YOU to companies.
No, Google past the "big brother" line long ago, now they want to be a bank too? They will force Ebay to stop taking 15% of all transactions, and that's good, but Google is getting seriously scary.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
What do you think about them supporting micropayments? Is there anything that they could tie in with micropayments?
-- I was raised on the command line, bitch
And for every search, Google kills a kitten! OMG!!!1111!!!!!!
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Personally I think their fees are too high. A lot of people seem to take issue to their fraud policies, but it's really a no-win situation for paypal. If someone steals a credit card and orders goods that you ship, someone is going to get screwed in the end. The credit card holder isn't going to get screwed, they are protected under law. The credit card company isn't going to get screwed, they have a contract with Paypal - fraudulent transactions are voided as a condition of performing credit card transactions. Only two people left to bite the bullet - Paypal or YOU. And Paypal can't afford to get hosed on every bad transaction, their fees are high but not that high.
So in conclusion there's really no good way for an e-bank like Paypal to come out looking like a good guy. I think Google's reputation will suffer if they try and enter this business for the above reasons. Unless they have some new innovation for fighting fraud... maybe drive to fraudsters' houses and beat the crap out of them??
Which information is Wallet going to make accessible? My credit car number?
Once you send an email it is beyond your control and will probably be held in four places (sender, recipient, server backups at each end) and everyone with access to those four places can read a plain text email. A paranoid law enforcement official may well go on a fishing expedition through those backups on a completely differnent issue and read the mail (eg. US Secret Service vs Steve Jackson Games - long before the patriot act extended powers and a good example of people confusing a game with reality). Also your new significant person will get to read your old love letters to someone else - live with it.
lol, they should just call it G-money. I am referring to this http://www.starmakerrecords.com/gmoney.htm
When Google unveils GBay next year, eBay will become obselete...
Just wait, it'll happen...
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
From http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/:
"Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
I'm not necessarily opposed to Google creating this service, but how do they make it fit with their mission statement, assuming the information their talking about making universally accessible isn't your credit card info.
Of course it depends on how long they have owned it, and what they have been doing with it, but I wouldn't mind Google telling them to fork it over for small but reasonable price. Domain squaters are no better than the lowest type of Spsmmer, they are just the lowest forms of life.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
This is great news. I've heard enough bad things about paypal that I've avoided ever using it, but that still has all of the associated inconveniences. It will be nice to see an offering from Google that, at the very least, will let Paypal know they're not the only game in town.
I don't know too much about Google outside of search, maps and Gmail but from what I see Google has never done anything that requires mass customer support (dealing with average joe's like us, not the marketing companies that put up ads on google).
While I'd love to see Google compete with PayPal and Ebay, I think that at least in the beginning the really crazy Google fanboys (the millions of them) will be dissapointed because Google probably is not used to dealing with millions of customers (some stupid, some arrogant, some smart asses, and so on) at the same time.
Thus, at least for a couple of months, I would not sign up for this service for that reason alone. Once they got the customer support thing down (and I'm sure they will, there's a whole bunch of smart people over there) I'll join.
Good luck Google.If O2 is good, O3 must be 1.5 times better!
If Google keeps up this expanding there will be a new phrase in our lexicon:
There are two sure things in life - death, and google.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Steal a penny from a man, you're a thief, steal a penny from many men, you're a banker.
(Like others, I find competition might garner lower fees, so here's to hoping)
There is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. -- Boondock Saints
Dude - 4 letters - OFAC
Paypal doesn't want to touch that kind of transaction.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
And?
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
I like and used Hyperwallet whish is based in Vancouver and usable with a lot of Canadian banks. https://www.hyperwallet.com/
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Getting thrown on a bonfire by psychotic fundamentalists is not what I would call a good return.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
At the bottom of http://googlewallet.com/ is a little phrase: "Powered by Yahoo! Web Hosting" LOL! I wonder if Google will be able to get that domain. And if they don't we'll get another PayPai and other look-alikes!
-Palal
Comment removed based on user account deletion
A couple of months ago CBS's 60 minutes featured a 40 minute story on Google. The interviewer (the lady with short hair) asked about Google's ambitions, and used an Ebay-like service as an example of a service Google might introduce. Google's rep said something to the effect of "if that were brought up at one of our meetings, the reaction would be 'why, Ebay does a great job.'" The idea being that Google focuses its resources on more wanting industries.
Do you think this was just a ploy to devert attention, or what?
Perhaps this is a contrarian viewpoint, but perhaps it is time for Google to think about what its real core mission is. It can be argued that becoming a bank (which after all is what Paypal is) is not really part of "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful". It seems to me that Google is veering off in far too many directions, with some of them being flat out flops (Web Accelerator), while others are weakly executed or missed opportunities (Orkut, Blogger, and Froogle). Even the core product, search, is often cluttered with poor results. Google needs to focus on a smaller number of things they can execute well, rather than overextending themselves into every area just because they can.
The part most worrying to me is that they make a lot of money in various other businesses and then neglect their search. I know they're far from it now, and I know they really care about searches, I keep hearing about other ventures, maps, print, picasa, now they move into online payments. I honestly don't care if they 'go evil', I care about my searches, their search is really useful, but it has to use a ton of resources. If it gets axed because it takes 50% of their resources but only makes 10% of their money, I'll cry.
Everything in moderation, even moderation.
No, especially moderation.
At the bottom of http://googlewallet.com/ is a little phrase: "Powered by Yahoo! Web Hosting" LOL! I wonder if Google will be able to get that domain. And if they don't we'll get another PayPai and other look-alikes!
-Palal
It appears that the site www.gauction.com is owned by Naji Haddad, www.naji.com. Wish I had gotten there first. www.gauction.com only points to google's homesite though.
I'm not sure Google will see the same degree of success that paypal does because they don't have EBay pumping "wallets" full of "cash" that may be easily perceived as discretionary by the account holder. What I mean by this is that when someone has made a few EBay sales, they'll have some funds in paypal; then, encountering a paypal button for a product, service, charity or just a tip, that's a pretty easy mental step to take... you didn't have the cash in your hot little hand yet, so perhaps it isn't so difficult to let go of.
Google could -- perhaps -- accumulate Adsense dollars in the "wallet" but it is a lot more involved becoming an Adsense vendor than it is selling the dusty stuff out of your basement on EBay. Still, they're a huge market presence and maybe I'm just selling them short here. Gawd knows Adsense and Adwords are working out for a lot of people.
Along moderately related e-commerce lines, anyone know of a US-centric investment->loan mechanism similar to Zopa (Zone of possible agreement)? My company is looking for something like this to put some funds into within US borders (for both tax and accountability reasons.) I came up dry with Google; perhaps this isn't legal in the US?
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Cringley predicts this (probably other did as well). Will be interesting to see the execution/format Google decides to pursue. Should pit them against Amazon and Ebay, huh?
i didnt think paypal made any money from fees I figured they made money on the interest of average $20 x 20 million users $400 million dollars equates to a lot of interest that is why i don't use standard banks or paypal to store my money they make money out of my money and either charge me fees or offer me free storage. HSBC :) and ING may make millions from my money but at least i get some interest from it.
If Google wanted to kill ebay and paypal in one quick swoop, just offer lower pricing on auctions, and be realisitic. Extra features are nice, but eBay just kills the entire idea of the upsell, every stupid thing you do costs an added fee, until your 99 cent item costs $12.00 to list! Would I put a ton of stuff on auction if it was cost friendly? You bet -- and might end up paying more **IN THE LONG RUN** then paying ludicrous amounts now and waiting 6 months between transactions.
Secondly, dont kill sellers and buyers with fees on both ends of the transaction, maybe link both services together, with free transaction and merchant processing for auctions when you utilize GWallet on your auction - BOOM - right there, youve got them hooked, and you dont need to worry about alot of fraud auctions.
Google in their infinite wisdom I'm sure has already come up with a great idea, and I cannot wait to see it. I am so sick of EBay, and when I log in there - I just feel dirty all over again from the way they rape you with charges that you end up owing money once its all done. Sheech.
Once you have a premier account (which is required to accept credit card payments AT ALL or other payments over some small limit -- $100 per month, I think) you get charged fees for all payments you receive. Even ones that don't cost paypal a thing, like a transfer from someone's paypal balance.
Viewed in this light, PayPal == anonymous cash; while Google == Big Brother.
In many ways, this makes PayPal safer.
my reading comprehension was already better than that when I was 16.
Of course this being /. and me being a bit drunk I didn't RTFA, but I welcome some serious paypal competition. As it stands right now eBay owns Paypal, so when you use paypal to pay for an ebay purchace or worse yet, sell something on ebay and recieve payment through paypal eBay takes two cuts of your money.
However don't get too excited about all the "horror stories" of people having bad experiences with paypal. I've never had a problem with Paypal and I've had the account for over four years. Of course a few people will have problems with a new service (as paypal once was) and being what it is (paypal that is) expect it to be risk and therefore cry all the louder when something goes wrong. In fact I got my money back from a disreputable site when they ripped me off. Sure lots of people complain but a whole lot more have no problems, you just don't hear them complaining because they've got nothing to complain about.
Question everything
Whatever happened with the Paypal class action thing? Have they already paid out what they were going to pay? They locked my account for two months and never even told me why! In the interim, to unlock my account they said I needed to fax my birth certificate, social security card, drivers license, two bills and some other such nonsense. I was fully willing to walk away from my $50 rather than do this. Boy, oh boy I still fume over that one...I signed up for the class action but since they only had 50 bucks of mine, I probably didn't qualify for payout.
Posted by yintercept - "...science...[is] the study of the 'divine creation.' "
so aah, what is launch date for gbay?
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
The more you know.
Google just wants to be your online number manager
Then don't use it. I don't use Google's "My Search History" because it seems too insane that my entire search history can be tapped from any computer that cracks my Gmail username and password. Aren't there brands that you trust who you don't use for absolutely everything they offer? I may by Old Spice deodorant, but somehow I don't use the bodywash and am not antioldspice.
[ Sketchee ]
Domain Name: googlemoney.com
Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com/
Administrative Contact:
DNS Admin
(NIC-1467103)
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View
CA
94043
US
dns-admin@google.com
+1.6503300100
Fax- +1.6506188571
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
DNS Admin
(NIC-1467103)
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View
CA
94043
US
dns-admin@google.com
+1.6503300100
Fax- +1.6506188571
Created on..............: 2004-Dec-25.
Expires on..............: 2006-Dec-25.
Record last updated on..: 2005-Mar-14 12:18:43.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS2.GOOGLE.COM
NS1.GOOGLE.COM
NS3.GOOGLE.COM
NS4.GOOGLE.COM
Presumably I'll be able to buy information
[ Sketchee ]
Ebay can't stop a seller from having a google wallet account, or from being willing to accept payments through it. That's all that really matters, IMO.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Google stock price won't be dropping as many here said
Superb Hosting
I haven't seen or used a check for ages, so I am pretty happy with them just putting the money in my local account. Now if you would be so kind to click some ads on my site, i'll maybe have that money in my hands soon...
Actually I am using adsense ads as a tipjar. If I like the site I am reading, I click one or two ads. Given the amount you get for most clicks, that counts as a micropayment, doesn't it?
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
Domain Name: googlecredit.com
Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com/
Administrative Contact:
DNS Admin
(NIC-1467103)
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View
CA
94043
US
dns-admin@google.com
+1.6503300100
Fax- +1.6506188571
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
DNS Admin
(NIC-1467103)
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View
CA
94043
US
dns-admin@google.com
+1.6503300100
Fax- +1.6506188571
Created on..............: 2004-Sep-26.
Expires on..............: 2007-Sep-26.
Record last updated on..: 2005-May-05 15:42:55.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS2.GOOGLE.COM
NS1.GOOGLE.COM
NS3.GOOGLE.COM
NS4.GOOGLE.COM
..it will support all countries, I'll be willing to pay for any extra costs for money transfers. PayPal sucks for not-so-known countries (e.g. Slovenia).
No more I say.
Nothing wrong with having a monopoly , its when you start to abuse that monopoly that problems occur .
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
http://www.tinyimage.de/image.php?img_id=7504
robots.txt won't help.
To pay for your Google Adsense, you use Paypal - so eBay get a slice of Google's action. Taking Paypal out of the Adsense picture will automatically raise Google's profit.
That's actually funny. If it wasn't posted AC it would probably have gotten a 'funny' mod. Or is it just me?
Perhaps this is the breakthrough for a global micropayment currency that a *lot* of people and businesses worldwide has been waiting for. Don't be evil!
I'll use it if they give me $1,000,000,000 (1 GigaBuck) Free!
I think google will come up with some thing great here. A lot of companies have tried but failed and I beleve that google will triumph over all. But they need to be careful of fruad, scammers, and phishers. I look forward to seeing this in action!!!!
Technabyte - Read my tech news blog.
So wait, how do I get moderated 'redundant' when I was the first non-troll post? As I've said before, I think I really don't understand the 'redundant' moderation.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
This, of course, is absolutely true. I have used it in the past, and hated it. I always transfered money out same day. Once in the bank, I moved over to my non-paypal account. The account signed up with at Paypal was an empty non-minimum balance one. I constantly monitored it for any outgoing, and planned to call bank to stop payment on any activity. If Paypal terminated my account for failure to provide them money back, I really didn't care. I was looking for better payment options anyways, and closing it was not a concern for me. Here's why...
Paypal is especially nasty if you sell any type of virtual services. The specifically say that if you sell a virtual service, be it providing internet, web hosting, member only sites, program downloads... whatever, they offer you zero protection. If there is a dispute, their TOS basically says (last time I read it, and paraphrasing) "We're going to side with the buyer 100% of the time, regardless of any evidence you could provide that the transaction was completed."
Unfortunately, this is a side effect of FedEx/UPS/USPS tracking and reciepts being far more reliable, and no digital equivilant. But, imagine selling someone a years worth of hosting for a theoretical $1000, only to have them complain 10 months later that the service was not up to the advertised standards, and get every penny of their money back. I can understand giving back a partial refund for time not used, but a full refund?
That's why virtual service providers are better going with any other service. I would name what I use, but don't wish to introduce any form of slashvertising here. I'll just say, it sure as hell ain't paypal!
I8-D
Where do the denizens of Slashdot rank?
How is this organizing the world's information?
Well, I guess my account can be represented as an integer of information. Actually, a byte would do just as well...
As a bonus, here is a small stress relief game if you're annoyed with all the news being about Google.
Transfers between members/pokersites are free. Only fees paid are when sending money to/from real accounts. From what I've seen yet, it seems damn reasonable.
"" How about taking the safety labels off everything, and let the stupidity-problem solve itself? """
Signs of being a great evil? Well, my last AdSense cheque was drawn on CitiBank; does that count? :)
Me (Blog)
Well, that's the thing; a benevolent totalitarianism is the best form of government, as long as it can be relied upon to remain benovelent. Of course, it never does.
Me (Blog)
You forgot Mr. I Can Buy You Out!
That's the last time I run code posted in somebody's sig...
GOOGLE, Apple, Microsoft, ANYONE
EVEN
Yes. I'm gonna say it.
Even AOL.
PAYPAL SUCKS.
The only people I'd veto would be RealPlayer.
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
"Oh well, I'm sure someone will find a good use for it." If you don't live in the US but buy in the internet from US companies you'll find most of them, specially the smaller ones, don't accept international credit cards, even if the same cards can be used in the US when you shop in person, and even if the shipping address is in the US. So, something like Paypal and Western Union money orders by internet are invaluable since they accept international cards. Problem is many business don't accept Paypal. Hope Google Wallet becomes more popular among business.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/conference/bios/matt _cutts.htm
Here is a good alternative to paypal www.emocorp.com. If you have problems real people will answer your concerns + no frozen accounts or chargebacks. (Merchant Guide is on https://www.emocorp.com/s/template/Merchants.vm)
Cheers