Google to Test PayPal Rival

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Google is set to introduce a test version of its GBuy online-payment service as early as this week, presaging a shake-up in the online-payments market now dominated by eBay's PayPal, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: 'Here is how the service will work: Consumers who search for items like "shoes" or "strollers" on Google's search site will see text ads with a symbol or icon designating advertisers that accept GBuy payments. Shoppers normally would have clicked on an ad and been linked to that merchant's Web site. Now, while they will still be linked to the merchant's site, they will go through a different checkout process integrated with Google if they choose GBuy for their transaction. Details of the service could still change before Google's official GBuy announcement.'"

Comments

I like google as much as the next /.er,

[tpjunkie]

but seriously, don't you think they've begun to seriously overextend themselves, as well as take on a sort of microsoft-borg-ish nature, assimilating anything and everything it encounters?

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[Stalli0n]

Clearly, Microsoft is the Borg and Google is the Flood - learn your nerdferences!

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[voice_of_all_reason]

...and destroy all other information

(http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40076)

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[xtracto]

I like google as much as the next /.er,

Do not talk for me, as I do not like Google too much, for one they treat their customer pretty bad. To the extent that they prohibit criticism of their AdSense "service" terms and conditions on participating sites..

And then some, their search engine is sucking a bit too much lately (personally I think search.yahoo.com returns more relevant results). And as you state, they are focusing in nothing and trying to compete with every technology available. As has been stated before they are a public company and as this they enter into the set named "Corporations" which only target and focus is to get more money for the shareholders. When their usual "ways" (i.e. the initial things they did to get money as Adsense in searches) stops to work they cant help but look for other ways of revenew, or die.

So, behold the new Google Inc. 10 years from now (if not less) Google will be what IBM was 20 years ago, and what Microsoft has been these 10 years.

(go ahead mod my day)

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[neonprimetime]

Just as long as Google doesn't replace Slashdot with GDot ... I'm thinking they're ok.

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[kai5263499]

Can you ever truly destroy information?

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[drinkypoo]

So, behold the new Google Inc. 10 years from now (if not less) Google will be what IBM was 20 years ago, and what Microsoft has been these 10 years.

I'm not sure you can even make a meaningful direct comparison between two different companies in what amounts to two different eras, but I want to know if you think that means that Google will go evil, but then see the light and turn themselves around? That's IBM. Microsoft still hasn't gotten there, of course.

Not that IBM is an angel but for a corporation that size to realize the truth, embrace open source (to whatever extent, obviously it's not complete) and change direction from "all the code you write on your computers belongs to us" to "we now sell computers where all the code including the OS belongs to you" is truly awe-inspiring.

If Microsoft tried to make a turn like that, their lil' blogger bus would roll right over.

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[lowrydr310]

Sadly you're right. It seems that for almost everything I search for, all but one or two links on the first page of results are linkspam pages/sites.

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[Aqua_boy17]

I think I heard that they also piloted 'GSpot' but quickly gave up on the idea. Seems that most men had a very difficult time finding it

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[MarkGriz]

Clearly, Microsoft is the Borg and Google is the Flood - learn your nerdferences!

So that would make Yahoo the Tribbles?

(They're everywhere and cute, but really annoying)

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[Anonymous Coward]

then see the light and turn themselves around? That's IBM.

They aren't all the way there yet, they still do some sleazy stuff. For example, they have spammed Wikipedia with their AlphaWorks/DeveloperWorks articles (as in: added links themselves to lots of different articles as part of an instituted policy and been placed on the blacklist as a result).

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[0xABADC0DA]

I won't be worried until the four nerfherders of the apocalypse show up.

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[Andrew Kismet]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_of_the_Internet #Rule_.232_.28Gilmore.27s_Law.29
"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[donutello]

but I want to know if you think that means that Google will go evil, but then see the light and turn themselves around? That's IBM.

IBM is only not-evil to the extent that their business doesn't conflict with your zealotry.

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[kai5263499]

This just states that information (or the access to it) can be hindered; it says nothing about information being completely lost. My question is; is it possible for a piece of information to be completely destroyed?

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[drinkypoo]

Well, I realize that I made IBM sound too nice, they're still a publically traded and held corporation. In the end, they're in pursuit of the almighty dollar. Still, they seem like one of those companies that "gets it". They made this amazing turnaround, besides the one I talked about previously, in the area of how they treat employees. AFAIK contractors are still dissed hard, but it seems like a pretty liberal place to work - which is all the more amazing considering their history of blue suits.

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[IamTheRealMike]

I keep seeing people say that, but no matter what I search for, I can't make spam sites appear on the first pages of results.

I just tried again with the following search terms, "tuna", "the community solution", "honda", "viagra" and despite having a fair few spammy or vague keywords there I couldn't see any non relevant results. What are you searching for?

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[redkazuo]

It just striked me the parents' conversation reveals the kind of dubious content most of us are searching for. Read porn.

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[damgx]

That is what the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button is for.

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[Deliveranc3]

The spam sites wouldn't be a problem if you could detect them simply by looking at the results.

What you get are sites that return their own search results + ads.

These sites are hella weak!

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[zaphod_es]

> My question is; is it possible for a piece of information to be completely destroyed?

Well, sometimes Wikipedia seems to have a very good try.

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[sydb]

What are you searching for? Whenever I am looking for technical information on a particular model of something, I invariably get kelkoo, ciao, comparestoreprices or some such parasitic bilge cluttering up my results.

Re:I like google as much as the next /.er,

[The Cydonian]

Bad perceptions, it seems, change slower than good perceptions. I admit I found linkfarms irritating for sometime, I don't think there have been a prominent problem. That is to say, while they exist, they don't come in the way of Google becoming dehabilitating, if you will; it is still extremely useable.

This argument of "sticking with pure search and nothing else", though, has some other significant problems that whiners out here don't seem to realize. You see, in the past 2-2.5 years, the web has made some significant progress in organizing itself into something less un-structured than what it was in, say, 2002.

What do I mean by that? As an example, consider this: you have this huuuge adoration for anything to do with, let's say, the movie, Plan 9 from Outer Space. Alarmed by the general lack of information about the movie, you decide to do something about it. If this was 2002, you have one clear choice:- you signup at GeoCities (or get your own hosting), and fill it with trivia, photographs, details on every shot, etc. If you happen to pickup other fans as well on the way, you'd probably put up a GuestBook, or a YahooGroups mailing list. The only way someone could stumble upon your site is if they were linked to from a high-traffic site (like Slashdot), or through a search engine.

Now fast forward to 2006. You're faced with the same dilemma again; you're the world's greatest fan for Plan Neuf d'espace extra-atmosphérique, that po-mo French tribute to the original, which broke new ground in French New Wave cinema, and later inspired an aging French team to win against Spain in an obscure football match. While you can still go through that GeoCities route even now, this time around though, you have much better choices; you can also put it up Wikipedia, if you wish (and actively interact with other fans through edit-wars). You could also put up a site, discussion fora etc. Or you could put up a blog somewhere, write articles and post it up to Technocrati and so on. Whatever way you choose, the bottomline remains this:- Google, or any search engine, need not necessarily be the primary way your users could come. The web has become organized now; with a better public transportation choices, you could plausibly avoid taking that taxi you're used to taking.

Now, I'm not saying Google isn't poking in every possible pie. Some of its projects are, even to my Google-fanboi-mind, rather ridiculous; even if it has all that AJAX-mojo, why in the world should Google come up with a shoddy spreadsheet program, for example, and actually take a beating on its brand? That said, and it's important to understand this, this, and most of Google's projects (specifically things like Google Coop), are actually efforts at tackling the increasing Semanticization, if you will, of the Web. The search engine will exist for a lot more time, but as a concept, it can and will be made extinct at some point in time. It might stumble along, it might pick up a few duds on the way, but essentially, Google is bracing itself for that future.

I wonder if they will be less shady than PayPal.

[FatSean]

After hearing stories about people having their funds frozen with no legal means to get it back, I decided I didn't want anything to do with PayPal. I didn't miss eBay one bit, but I used to buy parts on web boards, and everyone there used PayPal.

I hope GBuy will be less evil, and that it will catch on so I can buy used PC and car parts from forum members again.

Again??

[tygerstripes]

I for one welcome my...

Jeez, is there anything these guys won't get there fingers in? Don't get me wrong, I like what they've done so far, but is it possible for a company to expand beyond a certain critical mass and still stick to the operating principle "Don't Be Evil"?

I just hope the Geegees aren't going to turn nasty and suddenly warrant a big anti-monopoly order or somesuch. I just couldn't take the smug look on Bill's face...

Re:Again??

[Atzanteol]

I don't think you really know what 'evil' and 'monopoly' mean. Near as I can tell you seem to think they both mean 'large coporation'...

Re:Again??

[linvir]

The problem is that as Google grows and grows off the back of low-key ads and simplicity, the rest of the industry isn't taking the hint. So Google is pretty much alone in filling this gap in each area of the web.

Don't worry though. If they really start to take over, the bean counters will catch on, and companies might actually start to compete with Google on their terms. I think this might have already happened at Yahoo, but even then most of of that page is taken up by an irrelevant photo.

Re:Again??

[vertinox]

Don't get me wrong, I like what they've done so far, but is it possible for a company to expand beyond a certain critical mass and still stick to the operating principle "Don't Be Evil"?

Well, depends... Do you believe the average human is good or evil? And does a good person have what it takes to recognize evil when he sees it? And if people at Google are above average and already good, can they continue to hire and be able to only hire "good" people.

I just hope the Geegees aren't going to turn nasty and suddenly warrant a big anti-monopoly order or somesuch. I just couldn't take the smug look on Bill's face...

I doubt it would be smug because if anyone gets taken to court over monopoly issues it means Microsoft is fair game or that Microsoft is no longer a monopoly (aka moot point).

Re:Again??

[asuffield]

Don't get me wrong, I like what they've done so far, but is it possible for a company to expand beyond a certain critical mass and still stick to the operating principle "Don't Be Evil"?

There's two things you need to realise. The first is that "Don't be evil" was coined as a short way to sum up stuff like "don't fuck the interns" and "don't file fraudulent accounts", it doesn't mean "work in the best interest of the customer". You can find a commentary on how it came to exist here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Be_Evil.

The second is that it stopped being anything more than a marketing label at the point when they made the IPO.

It has never meant "don't do something that is bad for the customer because it makes more money". Google sometimes will and sometimes won't do this; they tend to take a longer-term view and not explicitly screw the customer in a way that will piss them off, but they are not above causing you inconvinience if it would be costly for them to do otherwise (hence the continuing click fraud issues).

In short, nothing in their code of conduct says that they cannot obtain a monopoly position and use it to squeeze the market for money. They just can't do it by shooting puppies. "Don't be evil" doesn't mean "be good".

Re:Again??

[lgw]

You don't, in fact, know what "monopolistic" means. Just because a company has or seeks a monopoly does not make them monopolistic, it just makes them a business. Wanting to have more customers is pretty fundamental to being a business.

Monopolistic practices require that you leverage your pricing power in one market, where you have a monopoly, to compete unfairly in another market. It's perfectly legal to have a monopoly in a market, as long as you don't use that to abuse a different market.

Many companies aren't monopolistic, because they believe they have the best product and don't need to cheat.

Re:I wonder if they will be less shady than PayPal

[WilliamSChips]

GBuy *will* be less evil. It's hard to be more evil than PayPal, and we're talking about a company who believes in not evil.

Good

[p0tat03]

I run a web store on the side, and if GBuy can come up with the same type of merchant rates that PayPal can, I'm completely sold. I've never been screwed by PayPal (yet), but I've heard the horror stories.

Re:Good

[voice_of_all_reason]

Hit the nail right on the head. Everyone uses paypal because there's no alternative and the potential for profit is worth the risk. If Google can equal them merely in fees, the acceptance will follow. And even with all the Google "sometimes do evil" stories, they're still infinitely more trustworthy than paypal.

this really suits their other plans ;)

[Skal Tura]

As some of you know, this is perfect for what they are just testing: commissions advertising (aka affiliate stuff).

This would nicely prevent frauds, as the payments will go thru google, a advertiser cannor report 0 sales even if sales was made. This would remove one cheating possibility, where as AdSense currently is plagued with click fraud, there won't be such a problem with this type of advertising.

More of a communal shopping cart

[Cleon]

As it stands now, the service seems more of a communal shopping cart than an actual payment system. That might be all well and good for certain sites, but the beauty of PayPal is its flexibility; for all intents and purposes, PayPal is a quick n' easy substitute for an online point-of-sale system. You can pretty much customize it for your individual needs. You don't need to use PayPal's shopping cart, you can use a different one (or even develop your own).

I can see this fitting in well with their AdWords/AdSense system, but beyond that I don't see this as significant competition for PayPal.

Re:I wonder if they will be less shady than PayPal

[Cleon]

I actually haven't had any problems with PayPal. The one time they froze my account it was because I'd made an unusually large purchase with my PayPal debit card, and they froze it just in case my card had been stolen. One five-minute phone call later, and everything was back to normal. I give them a little slack on the security front; they're doing their damndest to be reliable and secure, and a lot of the horror stories I've heard have been overexaggerated.

Re:I wonder if they will be less shady than PayPal

[Duncan3]

Considering the insane rates they charge for ads, I'm sure their fees will be just as "evil" as PayPals. And that's all merchants _should_ really care about.

Oh, and the fact that if you DON'T pay Google, you'll get zero visitors. Becasue of course, ads and fake sites are the first 3 pages.

All hail our search Mafia overlords.

As an Australian...

[zegebbers]

We already have G'day, now we'll have Gbuy.

Thanks, I'll be here all week, try the veal!

Google Micropayments

[sweetnjguy29]

If Gbuy would support micropayments, that would be groundbreaking! I have plenty of stuff to sell in the $1 range, but no economical way to do it!

The other big question would be whether Ebay will allow people to pay with Gbuy!

Re:Google Micropayments

[14erCleaner]

The other big question would be whether Ebay will allow people to pay with Gbuy!

No, but Gbay will.

competition is good!

[TheGratefulNet]

I have been WAITING eagerly for a real competitor to paypal. the amount of guff you have to put up with from the paypal corp is just too much! and the ONLY reason they get away with it is because there is no competition.

my last horror story re: paypal was when I bought an online ebay item and there was no option to have shipping done (from this vendor) with insurance. the item was mailed 'media mail' which is UNCONFIRMED. the PO considers it confirmed delivery but the postman HIMSELF signs the delivery receipt! what good is that?? so my mailmain supposedly delivered it and signed for it himself. of course I never got the pkg.

I emailed the seller and no reply. he had 'confirmation' from the PO and so ignored me. I filed a case with the PO but they didn't really care (obviously). I tried calling paypal (emailing them, first) and they kept saying 'it was delivered so your claim is rejected'.

problem was: there was NO HUMAN looking at this so-called delivery receipt. the date was wrong (it was the wrong DECADE, too - what a blunder in their database!) and there was no signature online to prove it really did get delivered. it was a losing battle to explain this to them. they didn't care. they are on the side of the 'power sellers' and they know where their money is earned ;(

if they think they can accept delivery confirmations that say "1900" as the year and then close my case, well, I hope they get some cosmic justice for all the scams and abuse from their customers. I hope google eats them alive.

the more powerful google gets, the more I do worry; but paypal needs to have some humble pie fed to them. its about time.

Re:competition is good!

[Tx]

Seriously, why don't mailmen simply take any package that's not insured, then, and blatantly defend the act? "You didn't insure it so I have no responsibility".

Because that would be theft, and they'd go to jail. However if they take it and deny all knowledge, good luck getting anyone to look into it. That's the case here in the UK, at least. There was a mailman near where I live, he wasn't even stealing mail, just dumping it instead of delivering it. He got away with that for several months, until someone actually stumbled across where he'd dumped some of the mail. Up to that point, complaints about missing items seemingly fell on deaf ears.

Re:competition is good!

[mypalmike]

How is failed delivery PayPal's responsibility? The buyer and seller appear to have held up their end of the agreement, which is where PayPal's responsibility ends. What on Earth do you expect them to do, call the Post Office for you and hound them until they find your book? Give you your money back on an item that was shipped uninsured? It sucks to lose stuff in the mail, but you take that risk whenever you ship without insurance.

free as in beer

[Douglas Simmons]

Google could snatch the market from paypal if they offered this service in the same manner they offer all their other services and goodies: for free. They'd benefit from this in the same way, good branding and promotion of their search engine which would ultimately trickle down into advertising profits. Also, Wall Street regards eBay and friends as a threat to Google, so hurting companies like paypal could increase shareholder wealth, possibly enough to offset the cost of handing this service out for free.

Re:free as in beer

[Overzeetop]

But somebody has to pay the Visa/MC/Amex/Discover cartels their percentage. How else do you think they give you x% back? Right out of the merchants' pockets.

No, there will still be fees. Now, if google can figure out how to reduce/eliminate the fixed fee portion and/or enable micropayments, paypal is going to have to make some moves to keep thier userbase. Of course, if google could wheedle their way out of the "perks" in your CC, (you know - 3% back at company stores, 1% everywhere else except gpay, no benes for gpay payments), in exchange for a .5% rate reduction that would give them a competitive advantage. Depends on how big a stick (or, perhaps, carrot) they can summon up when dealing with the CC companies.

Re:I wonder if they will be less shady than PayPal

[i.r.id10t]

Don't try to accept or send payment for *anything* firearm related with paypal. Quick way to get your account frozen with no recourse...

I just wonder...

[Vo0k]

Will they enter Poland? Or other countries where Paypal does half-assed attempts to do enter, but doesn't really dare?

I mean, currently there's no way I could sell stuff from Poland to other countries. The item mailing fee is okay. But any payments from outside, no matter how small, are associated with money transfer fee like $40-60. Or $200 if you pay when you get the item. Nobody's gonna buy $10 item and pat $60 for sending the $10 to me. They could send it in envelope... almost assuring some bastard in the polish mail service stealing it. Or they could send me some gift I don't need instead.

Paypal is present in Poland, of course. But it works one-way. I can pay through Paypal, but I can't receive money. I really hope Google kicks in and I finally can sell stuff outside Poland.

Re:I just wonder...

[BriamKG]

Will they enter Poland?

Well, that is usually the first step

Backend Security Software...

[__aaclcg7560]

The only nice thing to say about Google is that the backend security software should be "beta". Unlike a lot of real financial service providers who backend sercurity is "non-sxistent" (i.e., unencrypted backup hard drives lost in transit).

Just great... Now Google will track purchases.

[fahrbot-bot]

Google already tracks our searching and email, now they'll track our spending habits and how much we pay for various items. Paranoid? Maybe, but how long will it be until we find that Google is maintaining a database of this sort of thing?

On the earth, all your lives belong to Google...

So how will it rival Paypal?

[tlhIngan]

Considering that eBay more or less has Paypal integrated into it? And where I suspect a large majority of Paypal transactions take place is to satisfy eBay transactions? While I've done a few non-eBay-related Paypal transactions, they are very few. I've used more online stores that took my credit card directly than Paypal (and a few of those stores offered Paypal - I paid Visa).

GBuy sounds like it'll be a rival for Amazon zShops and other style system, except less centralized.

In related news...

[damburger]

Google are to release 'GOxygen' to rival breathing.

I remember when Google just did a great search engine.

Re:God for bid it be regulated

[L0neW0lf]

Why is it so impossible to have paypal or other online bill pay regulated. I mean is it that hard to make paypal a real bank so they are held accountable.

PayPal doesn't WANT to be a bank, and unless they apply to become one, they won't be held to the same standards as one. They WANT to be an "online payment processing service", which exempts them from FDIC (in the current unlikely chance they fold, you lose any money stored there rather than getting up to $100k back like a bank) and from lots of rules and oversight that they don't want to do, because this way they can go on shafting those who use the service. As long as they're the only game in town, you get to play by their rules.

There's a reason I no longer take PayPal on Ebay: see http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2006/3/6/8326/ 75161

ah bollocks

[Colin Smith]

look, competition is good. Who else is going to go up against ebay and paypal, and it isn't as if you can't use a different search engine/webmail/whatever. You never know, someone may come up with a search engine which classifies and ranks results for the individual by some other bayesian/statistical/AI algorithm which turns out to be way better than Google.

Re:God for bid it be regulated

[TykeClone]

The FDIC insurance is not the reason that they don't want to be a bank. They don't want to abide by any of the Federal and State banking regulations (Reg E in particular) that real banks are bound to.

More international efforts?

[ivoras]

PayPal is an excellent thing, but it's very sadly limited in the number of countries they support. Looking at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display -approved-signup-countries-outside theres only 27 countries fully supported. The rest are supported in some crippled way or not at all (like, sadly, my country).

Google could make a real boom if it supported more countries and made itself a more diverse market. I know it's a problem with banking and tax laws but there's money to be made with it :)

Database? Oh no, not at all.

[Colin Smith]

It just updates the strength of a few neural network connections. Just you wait. It knows what you're up to.

Re:I wonder if they will be less shady than PayPal

[Onan]

As far as I know, the ad prices are determined entirely by what advertisers bid for them, rather than being rates that Google sets.

Even if you do accept the ad prices as being "evil", it's still not something over which Google has any control, so it seems problematic to use that as an predictor of future evilness.

Re:I wonder if they will be less shady than PayPal

[Dannon]

The "evil-ness" of PayPal is mostly in terms of eBay and PayPal turning a blind eye to the fraud others have committed using their web site. On the one hand, they say that they're just "establishing a marketplace", and what goes on in that marketplace is up to the merchants and customers.

On the other hand, let's say I set up a flea market on my land. I need to lay down at least some basic rules, both to protect the customers and the merchants, and above all my own reputation. Even if the owner isn't doing any fraud himself, who wants to visit a flea market that's ridden with pickpockets?

The major factor that switched me over to online bill-pay from checks-and-stamps was learning that my bill-pay service would agree to go to bat for me in case of any issues. Just having someone agree in a contract to stand in my corner is a powerful incentive to trust.

Right now, you've got to jump through way too many hoops with eBay to convince them that a fraud has actually happened before they'll even consider opening up an investigation. If GBuy takes a more customer-oriented approach, I see two results:
1) Success for GBuy, as the demand for a safe online marketplace shifts their way
2) Fiscal pressure for eBay to actually deal with the issue, or lose their customer base. In its own way, I'd say this is probably better pressure than any lawsuit threats, or outcries from consumer protection experts.

If they're more concerned with covering their own butts than covering their customers, it'll be just the same old same old. If, on the other hand, they put time and energy into protecting their customers, they'll find themselves pretty well protected.

The article DOES tell about pricing.

[mlantz7]

The article does discuss pricing and Google's strategy here. Pretty smart if you ask me...

    "Google plans to charge merchants a 2.2% commission on a sale, plus 30 cents per transaction using its payment service...That is higher than Pay-Pal's lowest published rate of a 1.9% commission plus 30 cents per transaction.

    "Google's rate doesn't include the discount pricing that the company will give to merchants participating in its AdWords advertising program...Merchants who spend money on Google's ad program could get the cost of payment processing through Google dropped to nothing...

    "To attract consumers, Google plans to offer an unspecified rebate to people who complete online purchases using GBuy."

It's not just firearms...

[512k]

you can't use paypal to buy porn either. (it's part of their user agreement, there's an article online somewhere that claims, that this was a compromise with the govt. If paypal couldn't be used for 'morally offensive purposes' then the govt. wouldn't come down on paypal acting similar to a bank, but not following all the laws banks have to follow )

and last year, during the Xbox360 shortage, and people were postings 360 scams on ebay, left and right. Paypal was freezing first, asking questions later, for people selling 360s. Unfortunatly, the general public probably approves of this, judging by the number of people who paid $600 for an Xbox that never arrived, and were demanding more oversight from ebay.

Not the first paypal rival

[cliffski]

I sell online, and use Plimus (www.plimus.com) to take payments for my games. I have heard too many horror stories about paypal myself, and had trouble getting through to them when I needed help once.
Ok so plimus is a complete software registration service, not just a payment provider, but there has been massive consolidation in this area, with RegNow buying up everyone except Plimus one by one. The last thing we need is for someone like Google to come swallow up the small companies in that area.
I give it maybe a year before you cannot use adwords or adsense if your website sells through a different payment provider. Regnow already do this, they wont give you the good commission rate unless you use them exclusively. I kinda thought that was anti-competitive and maybe not even legal, but apparently not ;(
Anyway, I digress.
I like a free and open market with good competition. Google are welcome as a competitor, not a monopoly.

Re:I wonder if they will be less shady than PayPal

[niXcamiC]

Anyone who thinks PayPal is evil has never tryed to use one of the alternatives. (Western Union, Some sort of bank transfer)