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.

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:*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: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.

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.