Another Google Tool To Take On PayPal?

An anonymous reader writes to mention a ZDNet post about another possible product in the grand Google vision. The product, Google Checkout, may be an attempt to go after PayPal. From the article: "Since we know Google is behind its registration, what is Google Checkout going to be? I think it will be a shopping cart system to help websites accept payment for their items online. The money site owners make will be deposited into a holding account at Google -- just like AdSense works. Isn't this starting to sound a lot like PayPal? Who knows, they could even offer a Google branded Mastercard "debit card" like PayPal's ATM/Debit Card -- after all, the domain googlemastercard.com is registered to Google too."

Comments

This could only be a good thing

[strider44]

Perhaps they can make a paypal that actually doesn't suck. After all Google isn't supposed to be evil.

Re:This could only be a good thing

[killjoe]

I don't see how it could suck more or be more evil then paypal. If MS ends up buying paypal/ebay as it's rumored then all the more so reason to use Google.

As a corporation I trust google much more then I trust ebay/paypal or MS or even Visa for that matter.

Re:This could only be a good thing

[Cromac]

So is Google, at least as much as PayPal is.

Google Accepts Porn Ads but Refuses Those for Guns

And from Googles AdSense policy page:
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies
Site may not include:
Sales or promotion of certain weapons, such as firearms, ammunition, balisongs, butterfly knives, and brass knuckles

Re:This could only be a good thing

[chrisxkelley]

Would they have taken responsibility for their mistake? Yes - they offer up to $1000 of fraud protection for ebay sales, which is about how much I sold it for.

Re:This could only be a good thing

[killjoe]

Isn't it illegal to transport guns across state lines?

Re:This could only be a good thing

[yog]

Paypal is OK for small transactions, but they constantly annoy me with demands to get "verified" by giving them my bank account number, something I don't wish to do. But I have to click past this demand screen every time I log in. Also, they limit my transaction size for arbitrary reasons. I have a credit card with a ridiculously high credit limit, and I have superb credit, yet they won't let me pay more than two or three hundred dollars because I'm not verified. What's the issue here. I use my credit card all the time for multi-thousands of dollars transactions with other people but Paypal needs my bank account number to do a $500 transaction?

I look forward to Google giving Paypal some healthy competition, especially if Microsoft really does buy EBay, which owns Paypal. Google has a way of implementing very elegant solutions, such as for example their gmail product and their video search. Bring it on, Google!

Re:This could only be a good thing

[kimvette]

I have.

I don't use it often, so when I need to use it to pay for something (a vendor too fucking cheap to get a merchant account, e.g. Abit's RMA department)), Paypal sits on my money for a week before they will actually let me pay the vendor, and when I get refunded, they sit on the damn money again before I can take my money, and they're collecting interest on it all the while. Paypal is the epitome of evil and I do business via paypal only when I have absolutely no alternative. My alternative where Abit is concerned is to never buy their products again, then I do not have to deal with their crappy RMA process. I buy Asus or Foxconn instead - those companies have their act together and do it right.

Re:This could only be a good thing

[fupeg]

As a corporation I trust google much more then I trust ebay/paypal or MS or even Visa for that matter.

What a typical /. comment. Of course you trust Google more, because you've been told to do just that. And of course you don't trust Microsoft. You should think twice about this though.

Microsoft wants you to buy their software and they try to give you little choice in this. That can be annoying, but at least it's straightforward and obvious.

Google on the other hand doesn't want your money. But they want to know everything about you so they can market to you better and get advertisers' money.

So when you see speculation about a Google service that would be similar to PayPal, you better think twice about the idea here. Sure PayPal makes money, and maybe you think Google just wants a piece of that pie. That would be harmless enough, compettition is always good.

But not so fast! Think about the bigger picture. Right now you have transactions that start with Google, i.e. they start with a consumer clicking on an targeted ad. Now the same transaction can end with Google, by having that consumer pay for the advertised product using a Google payment system. Suddenly Google has knowledge of which ads not only lead to clicks, but lead to purchases. But it gets even better. Because they are able to identify you when you make the purchase, they can tie all the information they have on you to both the click-through and the purchase. Right now they can charge more for selling ad words that are more likely to generate searches, but imagine if they could charge more for advertising to people who are more likely to click-through and make purchases. They're not just selling the words anymore, they're selling you!

Of course the people at Google are very smart. So smart that they're actual plan for how to use this data could be far more sinister than what I've come up with in five minutes. The point is that this service would yield them even more valuable data about internet users and that their business model is all about using data about users to make money off advertising.

Re:This could only be a good thing

[killjoe]

"Microsoft wants you to buy their software and they try to give you little choice in this. That can be annoying, but at least it's straightforward and obvious."

They also have a fantastic track record of stabbing virtually all of the parners in the back, playing loose and fast with the law, acting in an anti-consumer manner, lying, cheating and stealing. Clearly morals, ethics, and general goodness is not a high priority at MS.

"Suddenly Google has knowledge of which ads not only lead to clicks, but lead to purchases. But it gets even better. Because they are able to identify you when you make the purchase, they can tie all the information they have on you to both the click-through and the purchase. Right now they can charge more for selling ad words that are more likely to generate searches, but imagine if they could charge more for advertising to people who are more likely to click-through and make purchases. They're not just selling the words anymore, they're selling you! "

MS is already selling you on their desktop. Ms knows your name, address and phone number if you registered using your real name. Ms can track you personally using passport and they can force you to use passport to update windows.

"Of course the people at Google are very smart. So smart that they're actual plan for how to use this data could be far more sinister than what I've come up with in five minutes."

The question is will they use it in a sinister manner. We know Ms has a long and storied history of sinister behavior, we know that google so far has not acted in such a sinister manner.

if this happens...

[smartfart]

If Microsoft buys eBay and Paypal, I'm going to cancel my account immediately. If Google comes up with a competing service, that'd be great.

Failing that, what's a decent alternative to Paypal?

Re:if this happens...

[Cheapy]

What are your reasons for canceling your account if MS takes them over?

Re:if this happens...

[SeaFox]

Gee, would you want your bank account directly accessable by a company with the security and privacy record of Microsoft?

If they acquired PayPal, they would convert it over ot MS servers, just like they did Hotmail.

Re:if this happens...

[OverflowingBitBucket]

If Microsoft buys eBay and Paypal, I'm going to cancel my account immediately.

Good luck, it took around two weeks and a few emails on a zero-balance year-long inactive account for me to cancel mine. They wouldn't close it on my request, of course, and copy-pasted a set of instructions (that didn't work) in reply to each email. They wouldn't close it themselves, though. They basically ignored that part of my request each time. Admittedly I had lost the password, so it is partly my fault. Glad I'm out though.

Re:*sigh* more speculation

[Ctrl Alt De1337]

If you read the article more closely, you'll see that the author came to the conclusion that the company that owns googlecheckout.com is directly tied to the one that is known to work with Google. In that sense, googlecheckout.com is already owned by Google.

In any event, this may or may not happen. It may not be anything more than Google noticing online rumors about it possibly starting a PayPal-like service and then deciding to buy the domain either to keep its options open or to prevent phishers or squatters from getting it. Or it could be as the parent described. It certainly would fit in with some aspects of Google Base, but people have made many persuasive arguments for what Google should do and then not see the company do it. After all of the furor over GDrive.com a few months ago, there's still not anything up on that page. Maybe, maybe not. I'll believe it when I see it. Google is second only to Apple when it comes to unsubstatiated/bogus romors.

There is no real competition to PayPal

[Anonymous Coward]

Right now, there is no real competition to PayPal. By competition, I mean an alternative service that charges the same level of percentage per sale.

There are a lot of PayPal type players out there, with much more evolved services, but they all charge 5-12% on every deal, which is too brutal. If google could match paypal's percentages and offer a nicer service, PayPal would suffer greatly.

No Thanks.

[John_Booty]

I love Google for the most part, and use a great deal of their free products - search (duh), Google Desktop Search, Froogle, Google Maps, Google Notebook, etc.

However, I do not trust them with my money. I had the same experience with Google Adsense that many people have had - account frozen and terminated with no explanation and no possibility for appeal right before my first check was due. I never saw a penny.

Realistically, I'm sure that Checkout will be handled by a different internal group within Google. I don't know if they'll have the same "we'll take your money with no explanation" attitude as the Adsense group. But you can count me right the heck out.

Also, for the record... while PayPal horror stories also abound, I've had no problem with them even after several thousand transactions. I'm quite happy with them. If Google Checkout is a PayPal competitor, I know which side I'm on. Until convinced otherwise.

Re:No Thanks.

[Jeff DeMaagd]

The problems with adsense are just as anecdotal as those with PayPal. I haven't had any issues with either, but it just pays to pay attention. Google has gotten a little on the big side, so it pays to be as wary as with buying into a product of any company of that size, like Microsoft or AT&T.

Re:No Thanks.

[.com b4 .storm]

account frozen and terminated with no explanation and no possibility for appeal

And that's worse than what PayPal does to many people... how? PayPal has done much worse, with actual money for sales and services. Real money that is in their account, not just the couple of bucks they supposedly "earned" through advertising.

Re:No Thanks.

[John_Booty]

I agree that the problems are anecdotal. My experiences are just one more data point and should of course be taken with the appropriately grain of salt.

PayPal does, at least, have some semblence of an appeals process. Although it's said to be quite lacking to say the least, at least it exists. They also tend to give some kind of reason as to what the problem was when payments are canceled and/or accounts are frozen.

Google seems shadier. Now, as you say, this is anecdotal. But Adsense account freezes almost always seem to take place right before the first check is due to be cut. In my case I had AdSense ads up for 2-3 months and generated quite a chunk of change for Google before they conveniently pulled the plug right before cutting me a check. I wound up with nothing. I'm not sure if they detected "suspicious" clicks on my Adsense ads or what, but they nullified all my earnings. Surely the vast majority of those earnings weren't suspicious.

Re:No Thanks.

[Seahawk]

Just a though:

If you were to make a system that detected false clicks in an advertising system, how would you implement it:

1. Run an analysis on EVERY click that comes in, with huge costs associated
2. Have some code that analysed clicks every week, even though money was only sent every month
3. Have som code that analyzed clicks just before you were about to send money

I'm not saying Google are saints(But I'm inclined to believe they are pretty good guys), but option 3 definately looks the most sensible to me :)

Response to Microsoft's impending eBay buyout?

[Mr_eX9]

Perhaps this is Google's response to the recent news regarding Microsoft's interest in acquiring eBay, which owns PayPal.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see a new google channel that directly competes with eBay's online marketplace in the near future.

Re:Keeping the dogs out of the internet ...

[fizzfaldt]

If the clickers on the ads actually use their checkout service to buy then

This could turn out to be very interesting.
This could definately help out with click fraud if they charge by the purchase/customer instead of click,
or have some form of tiered system where purchases/customers are charged a certain amount, and clicks another.

If they get in between the credit card processors/banks and the online stores then we get another benefit.
Google could not actually pass the credit card information to the store, limiting the number of databases that
have your personal information.
We could also have user profiles making checkout much easier (compare to having a user account for every single online store you ever use.)
I imagine this would also help combat credit card fraud, when online stores have access to some kind of reliability score for a user.
The reverse would be true: Not giving credit information to the store (helps) prevents them from scamming you.

I wouldn't mind having being able to search/store online receipts in a repository either, although I can see how some might given the privacy concerns.

Lack of integration with ebay will kill it

[Radi-0-head]

I think Google would have an extraordinarily difficult time becoming the "de-facto" standard for online payments through ebay, considering PayPal is deeply entrenched within the ebay framework. I'd have to imagine the market for other person-to-person micropayments outside of online auctions isn't very large.

One of the first adopters?

[diablo-d3]

Of course, I bet http://www.makepatrickrich.com/ will be using it way before most websites will

Re:You midunderstand

[jdray]

Have you ever wondered if Google just registers domains, then waits for the Googlewatching community to post punditry on what it might be, then decide what to do with it? Stranger things have happened.

Re:Stop speculating.

[CosmeticLobotamy]

The Google guys must laugh their asses off about this stuff. Either that, or it's a kind of public brainstorming. "Okay, nobody came up with anything especially cool for gbrowser, let's register googlebeans and see if anybody comes up with a product we can sell."