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Google Launches PayPal Rival
Google Checkout Launched
Roy van Rijn informs us that Google's new online payment system is now online. "Under the name Checkout, the venture offers an incorporated manner to search, advertise and pay. If you buy something on Checkout, 2% and $0.20 go to Google. Paypal, the biggest competitor uses 1,9% and $0,30. Analysts compare Google/Paypal to for example Visa/Mastercard living peacefully together, while others predict the end of Paypal."
W3K adds "You can use your Google account to store an unlimited number of credit cards and addresses. The service allows you to track all your orders and shipping in one place," and adds a link to a quick video tour.
Yeah, I'm sure eBay will let that happen.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
NYT times also has a interesting article on this with quotes about Google's plans on what they want to do with this product.
Plan 9 from Bell Labs.
No matter how much I dislike PayPal, I'm forced to use it if I want to buy something from eBay. Until GoogleCheckout tries to break PayPal's monopoly at eBay (it surely can't be legal) I can't see the demise of PayPal happening. This isn't the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning.
1-9% or 1,9% or 1.9%? Is there a specific price where Paypal is cheaper?
Let's hope there won't be a need to create more sites like this, http://www.paypalsucks.com/. Because Paypal works pretty good and what seems to be what people complain the most about is the poor handling of fraud and disputes.
Zere vere zwei peanuts valking down der Straße, and von vas assaulted...peanut
Paypal and ebay do, just not very well. If this google thing works well without js, I'm closing my paypal account.
Monopoly? I can accept payments in about 3615 different ways on eBay. What are you talking about?
Global warming is a cube.
My biggest question is if I can use my checkout funds to pay for stuff. I live in Greece, so I can't withdraw PayPal funds (cheaply, anyway), but I can use it to pay for my hosting/online shopping. If I can't do this with Google Checkout, it's all but useless to me.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
I watched the video.. didn't RTFA though. Does anyone think this it is weird that google is advertising this as a replacement for credit cards?
Paypal markets itself as a "safe" alternative for things like ebay, and easier to use for things like donations and small online stores that might not be able to use credit card facilities. Yet google is advertising this as a replacement for credit cards on all of your purchases. Would you be prepared to pay 2% on every single purchase you made at an online store just so you don't have to "fill out forms"? This seems silly to me at best.
I can't imagine ever using paypal for any real purchase. This sort of thing should only be needed for small and unsafe purchases.
Also, considering how long it took paypal to have Australian checking account support, I'm not going to hold my breathe on Google!
So, can it be used as a method of payment for Ebay auctions and other person-to-person transactions?
And...
I don't think PayPal will be going away anytime soon. PayPal's business is driven by Ebay, and PayPal is part of Ebay.
-- Never hit a man with glasses. Hit him with a baseball bat.
The customer support SUCKS unless you are spending well over 60k a month or generating revenues in excsess of 10-15k a month.
I'm not sure how google can swing such a project when they refuse to answer questions, they freeze more accounts tha paypal ever has done and they don't provide a good user/consumer experience.
Google is all about satisfying few and reaping the rewards. Until they change their supremacy know it all attitude.. i won't "buy" it.
Now Google can keep all of my credit cards on file for me! Maybe the NSA should contract them for a new domestic spying program.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
> No matter how much I dislike PayPal, I'm forced to use it if I want to buy something from eBay
I think, with this and other online payment systems, you won't actually need to use eBay for much longer. The combination of eBays shocking lack of regard for blatant scams, their stock - ineffectual and often incorrect or irrelevant - replies to complaints, and the way they push their inherently unsafe PayPal* system has put me off using them.
*When is the money mine? As a seller I mean? For how long afterwards can someone just take the money out of my account? How have PayPal managed to piss off so many people so quickly?
I think the most important thing about this entire endeavor is that it is the first Google product that plans on actually introducing a revenue stream besides advertising to the company (especially since the Google Pay Video system has more or less fell through at this point in time.)
I'm not quite sure what that means for the long-term health of the company, but I suspect that the more streams of revenue a company has, the more likely they are to become conservative, entrenched, and reluctant to embrace change. Google has managed to avoid all that because they've had a strong beam focus on a single revenue stream (ad dollars) - as they start matriculating, I suspect that beam focus will dissipate.
But then again, they're Google - they just work smarter than basically every other company out there today. So I put nothing out of their reach.
4.7% interest on money contained in paypal accounts, no minimum. That's hard to beat for a pretty liquid fund of money.
While we all love Google and everything it produces over here on slashdot, I don't think that they are going to crash PayPal's party in the too near future.
This is what they said when Blockbuster started competing with NetFlix, but NetFlix is doing quite alright by themselves, and PayPal is, in my opinion, in better shape in their space than NetFlix was. PayPal and eBay are pretty good bed buddies, and PayPal is already accepted on thousands of other websites. People know the name, people have used it before, people know it works.
Regardless of how great the product Google produces turns out to be, people will still use PayPal as long as PayPal remains competitive, which I imagine it will. I mean, for all the people who rave and rant about how amazing Gmail is, the mailing list that my mom's quilt shop has accumulated is saturated with yahoo, hotmail, and aol addresses, with not a single gmail address to be found out of a few thousand names.
"Dear Valued Customer, In an effort to protect your security and combat identity fraud we need to periodically confirm your account activity and identity. Please click here, login using your google account information, and complete the highly detailed personalized questionaire.
Sincerely,
Not a Phishing Attempt
So anyone grab checkoutgoogle.com for this yet?
YouStockIt - Education through Unorthodox Methods
OK, I acknoledge that I'm paranoid, but the thing that makes me nervous about google services is that thay use single account for all purposes. This not only allows to keep track of my whole life, but also allows a person, who hijacks my email account, take control over my mail, internet messenger (IM was used for several famous frauds in Russia), and now money directly!
May Peace Prevail On Earth
> 2% and $0.20
So they didn't want to just take the 2% so it could be used by websites to charge tiny amounts of money per page/hour etc? $0.20 blows that intriguing possibility out of the water. They could accrue the amounts spent until it reached some value where the transaction was worth performing, if they're worried about thousands of $0.001 hits slowing down their system or costing too much to run.
You are not forced to use Paypal to pay for eBay auctions. Each seller, for each item they list, can choose what payment methods they accept. Some accept PayPal, some don't. Some accept only PayPal. Some will accept Money orders. Even for sellers that only accept PayPal, you can usually pay them through PayPal using your CC without creating a PayPal account - in effect just making PayPal their CC processor.
I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is an imaginary number. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and dial again.
I actually thought they were the same company, but apparently they just work very closely together, to the point that the US Justice Department sued them over common ownership affecting competition.
AccountKiller
I'll have to stick with Paypal until Google Checkout adds support for bank accounts. :(
"The service allows you to track all your orders and shipping in one place"
Should read as:
"The service allows Google to track all your orders and shipping in one place"
For now Google CheckOut its CreditCard only...
I don't see anything that says they will support users without a credit card (or any other sort of payment).
How do you see this?
IMO almost everybody who buy something on Internet has a Credit Card. right?
There is another "google-thing" that has came without a "public"-beta version? (AFAIK checkout doesn't has any public beta)
Rock and Roll
I hope their security is good. Unified payment systems present a target to hackers.
Before Google Checkout has much hope of usurping PayPal, they'll need to accept more payment options.
Paypal currently allows payment direct from a bank account (I don't expect Google to need this), Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Delta, Maestro, Visa Electron, Solo, Discover, and more if you count their other services. That's at least 10 ways to pay.
Google, on the other hand, accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover. With only 4 ways to pay, I suspect Google Checkout is not an option for many people.
Disclaimer: I live in the UK and this is based on my experience with the UK PayPal service. I also agree with the sentiments of paypalsucks.com, and would like to see Google smash PayPal to pieces if they can Do No Evil. YMMV.
Google Checkout has been released today. From their blog: We've heard time and again from users: "I find great stores through Google search, but every time I try to buy from an online store, I have to re-enter the same billing, shipping, and credit card information. There are too many steps. Why can't it be as fast as a Google search?" This motivated us to improve the online purchase process, and so today we're announcing Google Checkout, a checkout option that makes buying across the web fast and easy."
Google CheckOut includes single signon and badges on adwords of merchants that use Google CheckOut.
Features include using many addresses and many different cards for buyers and a "Payment Guarantee" against chargebacks for sellers.
AdWords users get $10 in sales processed for free for every $1 spent on AdWords.
For those of us text weary, there are videos for buyers and sellers
I am interested to see viable alternatives to PayPal, their transaction rates are very expensive given the type and value of the transactions. I understand that every business has to make money but I am sure they would have more customers if the transaction cost where lower or had a better rate.
This would be awful if it put PayPal out of business. I don't see how that could possibly happen, but all the same, it would not be good for Google.
Look what has happened to PayPal without any real competition in the game, poor service, lots of fear over how accounts are handled. I think the same thing would happen to Google without competition forcing them to be the best.
I know a lot of people are starting to fear Google. Google used to be the underdog, and people love underdogs, especially Americans and especially geeks. Google seems to be motivated by jumping over the bar, no matter who is setting it, no matter how high. If Google becomes a dominating force I think many of us fear that they are exactly in the right position to become another MS.
I want one too! Wroom, wroom!
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
I didn't look into it very hard, but it seems like Paypal has same major features that Google Checkout doesn't have; direct access to bank accounts and person to person transfers. I have used direct transfers several times for transfering money between family members. We are all pretty lazy and it has become easier to use Paypal than it is to write a check and put it in the mail. Also, Paypal seems to be more convenient to the casual seller on Ebay. Also, what about the folks on sites like Rent-a-coder that like to get paid through Paypal. I can see how they would compete on the business side, but for regular joe's, Paypal is still the answer.
If by "Google launches PayPal Rival" you mean, "Google launches a service for merchants to process credit cards". Then yes, this is a PayPal rival. This service does not allow you to transfer money from person-to-person, nor does it allow you to pay by check, bank draft, etc.
Let me be the first to say, I for one welcome our new Google Paypal Rival Overlords.
With that out of the way, I think a Linux-powered Google alternative to Paypal would be great. But I'd really like to see an alternative to Ebay.
I don't know how many time I have reset my Ebay and Paypal passwords because I couldn't log in, until I remembered those sites run on IIS, which likes to take weekends off. (Once I got returned to the login screen enough times without explanation, I finally got a clue.)
You have my secrets.
You have my money.
But where can I upload my soul? Yes, I have googled.
In practice, however, most ebay transactions are done with paypal.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Remember, when you sign up for Google Checkout you can fill in any country you like, but the Terms of Service says:
:( And most supporting companies don't even ship outside the US.
- 18 years old or older;
- capable of entering into a legally binding agreement; and
- a resident of the United States.
So only people from the United States are allowed to use it yet
My blog: http://www.redcode.nl
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/27/131325 4
Google Checkout Launched
Do we really need a double heading for this story? This kinda reminds me why geeks are usually not tasked with documentation; they don't know anything about page layout. See Wikipedia for more examples.
Personally, you won't find me going near most of the services offered by the likes of Paypal and now Google until organisations that are acting like banks or credit companies are regulated like them as well. My high street bank and credit card have pretty crappy customer service at times, but compared to some of the things Paypal's been accused off, the other guys are saints.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
is permitted to store my credit card information.
I do not even shop at sites where I cannot find the option of only entering a CC number for the current transaction or readily delete it as soon as I can.
You want to avoid being a victim of credit card fraud, then don't increase the odds.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
10. Disputes
GPC will provide various tools to assist Customers in communicating with each other to resolve a dispute that may arise between Buyers and Sellers with respect to their transaction. If Customers are unable to resolve a dispute, we can mediate disputes between buyers and sellers if either party requests assistance. If this occurs, we will review the dispute and propose a non-binding solution, if appropriate. For more detailed information, please see our Frequently Asked Questions.
GPC may offer a feedback or other ranking system on the Service to assist you in evaluating other Customers of the Service. You acknowledge that any such feedback or ranking system represents solely the opinion of other Customers of the Service, and is not an opinion, representation, or warranty by GPC with respect to other Customers of the Service.
You agree to release, GPC, Google, and other GPC affiliates, and their agents, contractors, officers and employees, from all claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) arising out of or in any way connected with a dispute. You agree that you will not involve GPC in any litigation or other dispute arising out of or related to any transaction, agreement, or arrangement with any Seller, other Buyer, advertiser or other third party in connection with the Service. If you attempt to do so, (i) you shall pay all costs and attorneys' fees of GPC, Google, and other GPC affiliates and shall provide indemnification as set forth below, and (ii) the jurisdiction for any such litigation or dispute shall be limited as set forth below. However, nothing in this Terms of Service shall constitute a waiver of any rights, claims or defenses that you may have with respect to a Payment Transaction under the Buyer's card issuer agreement, the card association rules or applicable state and federal laws, such as the federal Truth in Lending Act or the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.
If you are a California resident, you hereby expressly waive California Civil Code 1542, which states: "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which if not known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
"The service allows you^H^H^H them to track all your orders and shipping in one place"
Regards,
The nation's #1 tinfoil hat supplier!
That seems unlikely, at least here in the UK, where credit card companies become jointly liable with the seller for purchases within a fairly wide price range. As a result, you'll find PC magazines and the like usually recommend using a credit card to pay for major purchases, because if the seller goes bust before shipping, you can get your money back from the credit card company. The card companies are unsurprisingly reluctant to pay up too often, but they know that in genuine cases they can be forced to in court, so if a company you're dealing with does fold, using a credit card does provide useful protection. Unless Google's facilities fall under the same consumer credit laws, I doubt they'll take much custom away from credit card companies on this side of the pond.
Obligatory disclaimer: If you get your legal or financial advice on Slashdot, you're a very silly person. The above was pretty much general knowledge the last time I checked, but if it matters to you, go read the small print for yourself.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
I'm glad to see someone finally budding into PayPal's monopoly. It's unfortunate that it's Google, as they already know enough about me that I don't need to be handing them my buying habits as well, but they are currently the only ones I can see with enough market power to actually be a relevant player. I just hope that once they have disarmed PayPal a bit, the market will become more open and will welcome more alternatives. This is probably a bit utopian but one can always hope.
I've experienced first hand what happens when you have one monopolist controlling a large portion of the online market. Since my last name is apparently the same as some arab terrorist's name (apparently your name makes you a potential criminal nowadays), PayPal completely blocked my account, and it's become quite a nuisance. I'm glad I didn't have any credit on that account or PayPal would have my money in a stronghold (this should be illegal but that's a different story...). I don't have a credit card and don't plan on getting one, so I can only shop on websites that debit directly off my bank account, which usually means only shopping within Germany. Good to see some more international choices popping up.
parasight.de
look at all the stuff you can't buy or sell. Some of it is clearly justified, some of it not;
s .html
http://checkout.google.com/seller/content_policie
More restrictive than ebay in some areas.
yeah, seriously. Google Checkout will have a short life.
Anyone who thought that storing your credit card info in one place is a good idea, already would have tried PayPal. That is the market for this product. So, Checkout has to attract those folks using PayPal. If one multi-billion dollar company (eBay) is already managing someone's online payment process, WHY should that person fill up the same informtion in Google Checkout, specially when it is more costly than PayPal ?
R.I.P., Google Checkout. Try coming up with new ideas next time.
This sucks, I was hoping to replace the crappy pre-paid CC services I was using with Google, but oh well...
"Fuc*ing Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. We're going to fuc*ing bury that guy. I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fuc*ing kill Google!" - Steve Balmer talking to Pierre Omidyar on a riverboat.
First off, I like google and will over time use this new service. Why? because I do trust that that they will get it right and will handle security correctly. But when it comes to customer service, well, it sucks. Their attitude is basically, that they will provide a service and do it right. And they do it better than anybody. But when it fails, they make companies like MS, Qwest, and Comcast look ok (and that is damn hard to do).
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I'm all set to pay for things via checkout, but despite clicking on the help for like 10 minutes, I couldn't figure out how to become a checkout seller... Clearly I'm missing the most important link.
Imagine if you weren't allowed to use roads because a bus company complained about your driving 3 times. --skunkpussy
According to Google Checkout http://www.google.com/buy/m.html Magazines.com http://www.magazines.com/ is offering "$10 off your order of $20 or more from these stores, enter the coupon code listed below during Google Checkout. (Discount valid once per store)" So far, I have purchased (and checked out each seperately) 3 magazines, and entered the "google10" code each time, and got the $10 off each time. Time to renew all your magazines!
The 1,9% and $0,30 rate for Paypal is if you recieve more than $100,000 to your account and you have a merchant account!
Normally, it's 2.9% + $0.30 USD. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display -receiving-fees-outside
...newegg accepted this i may actually use it.
With a decent micropayment system Google could really change the web. It's a shame this is not it. It's likely Google could blend micropayments into sites pretty well with their AJAX skills - and their infrastructure should mean that the implementation cost was marginal (for them). And search could benefit. A micropayment is a pretty good vote for a site.
To compete with PayPal they need to:
Allow sending money between users
Allow transfer to and from bank account
Provide affordable fraud protection
I was interested in this as a seller, but I'm somewhat wary of the $10 chargeback cost they charge the seller if a buyer either ask refund or is just defrauding you.
Typically this means that if a seller is the victim of fraud, (s)he loses the item sold AND has to pay $10 because of it.
Using this for "micro"-payments of, say, $5, would be pretty dangerous considering the risk of fraud.
I've been selling through another service for years now and thus have some indication of the amount of fraud happening on the internet. I may still try google CheckOut, but probably only for $10+ payments so valid orders may cover the risk of fraudulent ones.
Besides, the service is only available in the U.S.A. anyway, so I'd have to wait for it. Odd, considering AdWords and AdSense are available pretty much worldwide.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
So I had a look at the list of vendors. Talk about underwhelming. What were they doing, trying to find every obscure/scam place and sign them up first? Why not get Amazon in on this?
Any company acting like a bank or credit union should be under the laws governing such. PayPal wants to pretend it's secure and honest without actually having to be so. Shut them down until they file the appropriate papers and post the appropriate securities to ensure their "transactions".
Americans spent $25 billion online in the first quarter of 2006 alone. Obviously a market that size can only support one big player.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
not just PayPal as a payments engine but increasingly obsoletes cc:Visa/Mastercard's space in "online transactions". Incorporated Google is separated from "realWorld transactions" of Visa/Mastercard by lack of legislative statute.
Two payments systems dominate in the US. The "check system" used in banking and "credit system" Visa/Mastercard/AmExpress. Google, Inc. will bring its market weight to the legislative process to create a third payments system without the burdens found in credit law and banking law.
The question is whether they will "internationalize" or "nationalize" their platform in law.
I dig Google, man do I ever but I think I have reached my limit as to how tightly I integrate myself with Google, inc. Google IS a publicly traded company and it's only a matter of time before "Do no evil"(tm) becomes "We do less evil than everyone else" (tm). Why? Because Google is publicly traded and their only real obligation is to their stockholders. No matter of hipster-doofus-coolness culture trumps that. Just look at Apple...
They have transitioned themselved from being cool to being fairly evil (sweatshops for iPod manufacture, closing off the Darwin source)
Besides do you think for one second that eBay will make integrating auctions easy with Google? Of course not....
Paypal does suck but all of these services do and odds are Google's will too.
It says it is not a banking institution. So, it has lower rates and has "Google" in its name.
No other difference from Paypal?
It seems they use their brand value and lower rates against Paypal. Hope we won't have another Google Groups in hand since this thing is purely related to real life money.
On Google Groups, you can pollute usenet with any kind of criminal scams, pyramid schemes and they send "Google does not censor groups" type of "we don't care" message in politically correct way. Deja could handle abuse while usenet was really huge compared to today but as a billion dollar company they can't.
I hope they start working with Spamcop.net , Antiphishing.org and fraudwatchinternational.com right now. I hope they recorded all their URLs/IPs as interested parties and we (reporting users) don't see "ISP does not want to receive reports regarding" type of stuff at spamcop.net as first days of Paypal.
From the description of the way a seller uses Checkout to obtain payment it is not at all clear how someone who simply sells on eBay and does not otherwise have a web presence can use the new service.
It looks to me like they're targeting PayPal's high-end business, not eBay powersellers....
The SCO lawsuit makes me wish my company were in Utah. We need a new building.
Thank god I can use something else than Paypal... I was a victim of Identity theft using them and you think they would have good customer service cosidering what I went through, yea right. They were rude and even accused me of fraud. I will using Google Checkout from now on. Thank you Google!
Anything with traction and new is better than the stale bending over one gets with Meg inserts her fist everytime one of my customer's or myself go to use PayPal. I'm glad to see a viable and momentus offering alternative.
They have quite a list of the obvious stuff that is restricted from being purhcased via Google Checkout; of course, nothing illegal or nasty.e s.html
https://checkout.google.com/seller/content_polici
Quite a list...I'd have not thought of a lot of these. Seems like they could categorize you into one of these restricted groups somehow, if they just don't like what you're selling, or you piss them off.
I'm going to stay away from any service that will keep track of all my online purchases. I know that my state income tax always wants me to file all my internet purchases so that I can pay them sales tax. I can just see this as the next big government pressure to use internet companies to snoop into our business.
Amazingly I average about 3 hours a day (not counting work) on the internet and I've never purchased anything through that medium. As long as I stay away from services like this, it will stay that way.
The registration form lets you choose a country, but the terms and conditions state that you must be a US citizen. I didn't click on the "I agree" button.
Flashback to the early days of Paypal: Someone pointed me to this new service, and when I get to the registration form, it had "Country: USA" hard coded in the HTML.
WWTTD?
Checkout will never go anywhere because they require a soc sec # to sell.
"It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
There are quite a few issues:
U.S. residents only:
The country field on the registration page only gives a U.S. option.
Refunding doesn't refund you the 20 cents transaction fee:
If you refund payment, they keep the 20 cents (you get back the 2%).
Support is purchase-centric:
As a seller, trying to use the "contact us" link, even from the seller sign-up pages transfers you to a purchase contact-us page. This is misleading.
Chargeback Protection:
Google say they will fight for you on chargeback fraud (stolen credit cards used to purchase your products, or just people being a-holes and saying they didn't buy your product, which can be a piece of software and may not actually contain any physical trace).
Comment:
I'm really surprised about the "U.S. Only" thing, we use Google's AdSense on our pages and google sends out a check every month no-problem (we're not U.S. based), I don't see why it's any problem appending the sale revenue to the ad revenue check. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.
Zoom Player Lead Dev.
Google Checkout lets buyers hide their email addresses from sellers -- but, it seems fair that sellers should get buyers' email addresses (PayPal doesn't similarly hide emails).
It also seems like hiding the email address from the seller may also encourage more fraud (especially for digially distributed works).
So, at first glance, Google Checkout seems worse than PayPal from the seller's perspective -- it'll be interesting to see if sellers choose to stick with PayPal for reasons such as these...
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
Wait a second, does that mean that the wild speculation that was on Slashdot a month or so ago was actually right?
3 1
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/29/00532
I'm just stunned, flabberghasted.
Oh wait, google already filters ebay listings to some extent, otherwise all the results would be full of *NEW* L@@K sealed shipped DVD shipped from Hong Kong.
....
But now, all the "review" "buy" "compare" searches can end up in one of these stores, good work Sergei.
Oh did I forget to mention, that you receive credit from your Adwords spendings to compensate seller costs?
And that paypal charges 3.5%, not the mentioned sub dollar amount? If you have a merchant account at PP you know it anyway, for the rest it is not that important.
I am looking at the API right now, all XML communication, seems easy to integrate, and is already included with some ecommerce packages
100 sales/wk is pretty big volume, and very few ebay sellers come anywhere close to that. However, if the new Google CheckOut is combined with with something like Froogle or Googlebase (or your own website), the savings over ebay/paypal are substantially higher. That's because most ebay sellers have nowhere near a 100% sell-through rate, and ebay gets its cut whether you sell or not. There are already two other listing services that I like, OnlineAuction.com (no listing or FV fees, and now more than 10% the size of ebay and still growing), and Blujay.com (free listings, and I have sold several items there). Now, with the addition of other services of Google (GoogleBase and Froogle... and perhaps more in the future), it looks like it may be viable to reduce my presence on ebay to just a few higher-demand items, and do most of my selling elsewhere. Multiply that by a few hundred thousand people with approximately my ebay volume, and you will see a huge dip in ebay over the next few months.
Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas
drudgereports
headline states
In its quest to 'organize the world's information,' GOOGLE now wants to keep track of your credit card number and where you live...
I Personally welcome our new overlords.
In other words,
if you can't trust Google who can you trust.
It is not the Media we trust.
But I can understand why the Media want the
new Internet printing press broken, so they
control all the information we get.
The Media spin on Net Integrity has the same
goal, to make us slaves of the Media Filters.
I wonder if gpay will cover sellers of virtual goods such as mmorpg's or virtual card games such as magic the gathering online.
I'm not talking about the Google Map API: that requires registration & a license key.
I want to programmatically launch a map query with a simple HTTP request.
Thanks.
Slashdot entertains. Windows pays the mortgage.
That is because every time eBay tries to change things, their sellers pitch a hissy fit. I can understand that when you are doing a lot of ebay business, you don't want to have to constantly relearn where they moved such and such option or setting, but eBay has tried to modernize... it just can't stand up to it's own sellers. What amazes me is that they have owned PayPal for this long and still haven't integrated any better than they have. Monopoly breeds complacency.
Self-referential Sigs are cool on /. these days...
54
There is no way I would ever leave any more than absolutely necessary in my PayPal account. 4.7% is nowhere near enough to offset the risk. With their history of arbitrary and random screwing of accountholders (with no recourse, since they are an unregulated 'bank'), I simply don't leave any more money in that account than I can afford to lose. I also back it with a separate bank account, which I also sweep on a regular basis, since they can just go into that bank account whenever they feel like it.
Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas
Google wants to track data flow; they want to see how you get to sites, what you look at and what you buy. This system allows them to watch how money flows in a controlled market place. I would assume eventually they will hold money and you can buy and sell with it. IE you could give your kids 100$ in their account, they could buy a DVD for 15$ and now have 85$ but sell two CDs at 10$ each and have 110$. This will eventually eliminate the $.20 fee (or make it Google profit). It will be come a commodities market of sorts, I will watch Tom Cruise jump up on a couch and decide TC movies will become hot sellers so I will quickly move my money to take ownership of his films and put them up for sale at a higher price. You people will buy them from me and I will have a profit which I will re-invest in Hillary for President bumper sticker because I think those will become popular. No transactions will appear on my credit card statement, I will have essential bought a commodity with Google money, which I can cash out like stocks.
Any one of you ever compared Visa/Mastercard ? I asked around me after reading this to some people around... a card is a card, as long it works...
A site like paypal is different it's more like a bank you choose from, people will choose on this differently, an other thing is abot security, do you feel safe with paypal ? I don't. So much that i certainly will close my paypal account (There's years i want to close it but they don't let me) and go to google.
Is google more secure ? I don't know, but the fact is i never seen google down.
I know right, like, when I go to my corner store it is likeso unfair that I have to use green-backs. Uh, stupid store like why can't I just use colorful money, you know right? I can use it in uh Canada. Like why can't they just they do what I want! Like, what-ev!
pashawl
This message has been brought to you by the stereo-typical valley airhead.
What's my point with all of this? Simple even if (and it's not) PayPal was the only way you could make a purchase at eBay, they have the right to make it so, it's their company, you could always get what you are looking for elsewhere.
Why would you leave any money in any account that PayPal knows about? Do they do something to prevent you from instantly tranferring the money from your sales to your real checking account?
I won't give PayPal my cheching details even as a buyer, so I'm curious.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
"Analysts compare Google/Paypal to for example Visa/Mastercard living peacefully together"
It's easy to live peacefully together when you're owned by the same parent company (BofA).
Paypal isnt so much the most popular service because it's "easy"
Many other services are just as easy to use as Paypal. No the biggest reasons are:
- Its "the brand" so far as online payments go. Most people use paypal, so other people get brought in my default.
- Its trusted. For online payments, this is a HUGE deal.
- Its cheap. Really, look at what people have to pay for online banking. If you want to setup an e-commerce website, alot of payment gateways charge a monthly fee, then take a huge percentage of your revinue. Plus, payout rates ( how fast you get your cash )are much higher with Paypal then most gateways.
- It acts as a credit card proxy, so if you have a MC or Visa, you can pay with Paypal without the fear of giving out your credit card number.
- Its in bed with eBay. Alot of peoples first need for a payment service is because they bought something on eBay. Once they have an eBay account, if they buy something else online, why sign up for a different service when the one you use already works?
So, there are many reasons beyond "it's easy" that Paypal is popular.
Didn't have my coffee yet :) I messed up *my* math.
Regards,
Steve
Rather than having to go to Paypal *and* Google, now they'll just have to go to Google. So they can sic all the lawyers, GAO, and Attorney General on one company. They'll get all your searches, payments, and services -- probably in a single spreadsheet. Cross-referenced, no doubt.
Sounds like a good gawd dam plan to me. I feel stoked, as an American. I am proud to be a part of this plan.
Let's do it!
I think I will hold out for the google chip...
We have the biggest army, therefore ours is the standard.
With an approach like that, you must work for Microsoft.
As proof that's bogus, I would refer to something like the retarded date format which common in the US (MM/DD/YY as opposed to YYYY-MM-DD (ISO standard) or even DD/MM/YY (which is the most commonly used form internationally)).
Just because the US uses one method, doesn't make it the standard.
Firepower ultimately decides most things.
I don't think you've really been paying attention to the last 50 years of American involvement in international affairs.
Google appears to be missing recurring payments/subscription services in their program. What about those of us who want to use google checkout for member based websites and/or pay-per-month services?
--Cannot sell: Offensive goods Literature, products or other materials that: * Defame or slander any person or groups of people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, or other factors * Encourage or incite violent acts * Promote intolerance or hatred Does this mean that many religious texts are prohibited from being sold?
PayPal charges 2.9%, not 1.9%. The only people who get the 1.9% rate are those who deal over 100,000 PER MONTH.
People use PayPal because Ebay demand that they do. Crucially paypal means that you don't have to give bank details to customers/suppliers.
There's e-gold, GoldMoney etc. They're basically banks, can do instant payments. The difference being you can actually get your hands on the gold.
Deleted
Might this be the first public Google service offered without a beta since the original search engine? Woohoo! Then again, I doubt they'd use the word "beta" around anything storing consumer credit card numbers.
Who pays depends on the slope of the demand curve, which is a fancy way of saying whether the merchants can raise prices without losing business.
Put a 50% tax on scrub brushes, and the price won't go up because no seller would risk having all his customers buy mops instead. Put a 50% tax on gasoline, and the sellers will cheerfully pass it along in full.
In general the burden of a tax gets split between seller and buyer in a ratio that depends on how much the market will bear.
Even leaving aside the moronic notion that you are "forced" to do anything on Ebay, do you understand the difference between "forced to use paypal" and "most people choose to use paypal"?
PayPal has a large number of "Donate" buttons on the web. Is a donation button going to be part of the checkout system? Or has anybody any word on it becoming part of AdWords?
Until this is known, I can't see it could kill PayPal at all.
Rather than pay google/paypal/visa 2-5% everytime you spend electronic money, the government should control its own currency system.
Imagine if paper currency was private.
Then, when I signed up, I was presented with a list of online retailers where I can get $10 off a $20 purchase thanks to their participation. Third from the bottom:
Magazines.com Coupon code: google10
A quick click to the site revealed that magazines.com is, indeed, a site that calls itself "your subscription headquarters". I'm trying to figure out how this fits with Google's definition of the forbidden item: "Subscriptions to online or offline content (including magazines and newspapers)"
Left hand, meet right hand?
Also, there's another head-scratcher:
That's an awfully broad definition. What if I buy a chicken? Does a communion wafer count as "sacrificial paraphernalia"?
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
I predict the end of Google. :P
Modesty is one of life's greatest attributes
Slick, slicker, slickest.
That is wicked good stuff. Whoever does their Marketing gets a gold star. Entertaining, informative, reassuring, clean, neat, clever, funny, and memorable. Very, very cool.
Yet another fascinating example of a piggyback strategy. As long as Google's star shines brightly, they are going to do very, very well.
Alex
I just tried registering as a seller on Google Checkout. I get the following error when entering my total sales and EIN:
6 27138
Oops!
An error occurred while processing your request.
Apparently, I'm not the only one having problems with this new service:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=189880&cid=15
Your design to a real part online: Big Blue Saw
Bankrate.com keeps track of the highest yeld savings accounts in the country, along with many other rates, like mortgage, credit card, car loan, etc.
90 days for a complaint someone files through their credit card company
------ Work is so much easier when you don't
Actually it's only 1.9% if you are a merchant who does more than $100,000 a *month*.. If you are between 0 and 3 Grand a month, you pay 2.9% + $0.30 USD... If you are between 3 and 10 G's you pay 2.5% + $0.30 USD. That makes google look a lot better.
... in Russia, we have no banks!
One thing I haven't been able to find after a cursory look at Checkout is an option for subscriptions and recurring payments, something that Paypal does offer. I can't think of an easy way to charge users monthly, for instance, as with a magazine subscription. Sure, they can prepay for a year, but does Checkout offer something to auto-renew such subscriptions? Paypal also offers a neat 'trial period' option where there are no payments within the first xx days and the user can cancel at any time during that period.
I'm in Toronto, Ontario .. so it looks like it's going to be a while before I can take advantage of this amazing offer.
I store all my credit cards in my wallet, thank you very much!
[[["You can use your Google account to store an unlimited number of credit cards and addresses. The service allows you to track all your orders and shipping in one place,"]]]
I like Google and it's services. But I don't think I'll trust anyone/anything online with this kind of information, without guarantees from the vendor that they'll "fix anything that goes wrong" -- meaning , my identity/financial information gets stolen -- google would have to be legally bound to compensate me for that before agreeing to store any of that with Google.
Having this kind of information online (especially in an intermediary service as is being proposed) will simply open everyone else up to abuse (this imho).
There was some speculation posted here on whether PayPal had a monopoly at eBay. Just to clarify, eBay recently created rules limiting forms of allowable payment for eBay transactions. Cutting through the complicated language, here are their rules:
Explicitly Allowed:
The PayPal, CertaPay, and ProPay online services.
Credit Cards and EBT through the seller's merchant account
Bank wire transfers
COD
Cash for in-person transactions only
Checks, money orders, cashier's checks, etc.
Explicitly Prohibited:
Mailing cash
Cash transfer services (Western Union, Moneygram)
StormPay
Any online service not specifically permitted above
Google checkout won't be allowed until if and when eBay chooses to allow it.
I've used paypal to send friends and other folks money related to offline purchases and other things... so far google checkout does not appear to have this feature, so i'd speculate that the visa/mastercard scenario is more likely than checkout killing paypal.
No, the key is to just not shop where they only take Paypal.
When eBay started, it was the "worldwide garage sale" that inspried a Weird Al song. Alot of the stuff for sale was relatively rare or unique, collectibles mostly. Many times you could get a deal on something obscure too, just like you would at a real yard sale. It was fun and a really great way to further some non-mainstream interests or make some extra cash.
But now? No way! It's full of people scalping products you could've found on a store shelf had not some asshole bought them all to mark up at their eBay store. This shift and "Buy it Now" pretty much killed eBay as an auction site. It's just not fun anymore and a heck of alot harder to sell anything at all because of the crowding.
Anyway, on the occasion I find something I want, I just don't bid if the seller can't be bothered to take money. Out of state checking I can almost see, but a USPO money order is good anywhere. They're just lazy, frauds, or both and I won't subsidize it. The key to success as an eBay buyer is to realize that just about everything comes by again eventually.
I don't know if I'll buy into Google's solution but I sure am glad they're sticking it to the fraudsters at Paypal.
One thing we (at work) use paypal for is to pay each other. When we go out for lunch/drinks, one guy in the group picks up the tab for the whole group and he sends paypal requests to the rest of us. We just pay him with a click. So simple, no need to scramble for cash or trying to break a $20 bill (b/c every one has 20s) to pay $11.34 :-)
Does Google Checkout has this? I can't spot this from the 'take a tour' plug
This is a real nice feature and would really like to see it in GOOG version
Merchants are not allowed to sell body parts. https://checkout.google.com/seller/content_policie s.html
It's curious to note that there is a overwhelming concept that PayPal has a 'stranglehold' on eBay.
Lest we forget our history.
At one time, eBay had their own inhouse payment system, which was NOT PayPal.
PayPal's supposed 'stranglehold' on eBay is, in fact, a creation of eBay itself.
PayPal was introduced as an online payment system for all sorts of e-commerce, which eventually included eBay. PayPal services created a way for people who wanted to process online transactions, including those that wanted to accept credit card payments, but could not/would not spend the money required to create their own seperate merchant accounts with a credit card processing service. It is important to note that, in the early days of e-commerce, credit card processing companies were highly resistant to allowing online merchants access to credit card processing and electronic funds transactions. You almost always had to have a 'brick and mortar' business location in order to get a merchant account. The few institutions that would allow online operations access to these sorts of services charged such ridiculous fees that the costs outweighed the potential benefits, thereby protecting their brick and mortar accounts from competion from online operations. PayPal provided a reasonably priced way for enterprising online merchants to accept credit card and bank fund transfers without having to establish an actual storefront location. Shareware & Freeware authors, Online storefronts, Various user supported websites, Subscription chatrooms, and all sorts of other enterprises discovered the benefits of PayPal in the earliest days of e-commerce long before PayPal was the 'bully' of eBay.
Despite all it's other supposed faults, of which there are admittedly more than a few, this should/could be considered PayPal's overall major contribution to the natue of e-commerce as we know it today. If PayPal had not opened up this sort of financial transaction capability to the small online business scene, the big credit card companies/banking institutions would never have jumped on the bandwagon to let these sorts of enterprises get in on legitimate online funds processing. As a natural result of the nature of PayPal's creation, it's regulatory practices are different. Created 'offshore' because of the 'onshore' financial community's shortsighted approach, i.e., 'stonewalling', these sorts of business opportunities, PayPal's policies and practices were created in a completely different, and risky, business environment. Now that EVERYONE wants a piece of the online transactions market, it's easy to point the finger at PayPal and criticize the system that actually was the frontrunner in helping create the market that they all covet in the first place. A market that the 'onshore' institutions could have helped create in the first place, but refused to do so when they had the chance. It was much easier to let PayPal take all the risks in developing the market, and then jump in and try to grab what they can after the market is firmly established. Can anyone say "Imitate instead of Create" as a Business Model?
Eventually, PayPal's share of transactions on eBay grew to such an overwhelming percentage that they literally humiliated eBay's own in-house payment system. eBay's solution to their dilemma was simple, they dropped their in-house payment system completely and BOUGHT Paypal outright, which now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay. If PayPal holds the key to the lion's share of transactions on eBay, it is important to note that this is the way eBay prefers things to be.
And although there is no doubt that eBay transactions have most certainly become the bulk of their business, PayPal does continue to provide services to other endeavors, including those same independent online retailers, personal bill payment, and, if you stop to think about it, even competes against such services as Western Union Moneygrams. Dad can send Junior money (again!) while he is away
Differences between how you act when some one is watching, and how you act when no one is watching, define who you are
Oh, wait....
I have all the faith in Google to come up with a kick-butt service, but it's not going to beat PayPal on eBay any time soon - why? Because PayPal gets to make the rules on eBay. Since PayPal is owned by eBay, it's in eBay's best interests to protect PayPal's near-lock on the online eBay payment processing market, so they've come up with what they call (I love it) the eBay "Safe Payments Policy". (See, they're protecting us and keeping us safe. It's for our own good, of course.) The details of the policy are here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/safe-payments- policy.html
... Finally, sellers may not request payment through online payment methods not specifically permitted in this policy."
- policy.html but it makes it pretty obvious from even just these few excerpts that eBay wrote it to keep Google from competing with PayPal. I suppose because it's their sandbox, they can decide who plays in it, but this seems almost monopolistic to me. At least in the US, eBay is the default, standard, well-known auction website - Overstock, Yahoo Auctions, etc. have all tried to compete with eBay and failed; eBay has the vast majority of the traffic, and now they're using that position to limit who can startup online auction payment processing services - because if you want to have a successful, profitable online auction payment processing service in the US, it's going to -have- to work with eBay to generate any sizable levels of revenue.
The policy lists, explicitly, what payment methods sellers are allowed to accept. The only non-PayPal online methods permitted (other than accepting credit cards directly) are "Sellers may offer to accept payment through Certapay and Propay."
The policy goes on to then list, explicitly, some specific methods sellers may NOT accept, and then ends with... "Not permitted on eBay.com:
So it eBay hasn't given a payment method their blessing, eBay sellers can't accept it or offer to accept it in their listings. Those that do, per the policy, may suffer:
" * Listing cancellation
* Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
* Listing cancellation
* Limits on account privileges
* Loss of PowerSeller status
* Account suspension "
eBay does that that "From time to time, as new payment services arise, eBay will evaluate them to determine whether they may present trust and safety concerns and are appropriate for the marketplace." - so they'll evaluate Google's system and any other new systems, but the criteria they state (I'm shocked they stated criteria...their decisions are usually arbitrary) present a huge hurdle, even for a company like Google - some of the criteria include if the method might cause "the potential for confusion among eBay users" - which, as a PowerSeller, I can say that PAYPAL causes "confusion among eBay users". The phrase "First Class Mail" or "This item is new" has even caused emails from "confused" eBay users.
The best part - eBay bans new services. So if new services are banned, and services have to have a track record to be permitted...then eBay-focused payment services that would compete with PayPal will never reach the point that eBay might have to approve them. The rule states "the payment service has a substantial historical track record of providing safe and reliable financial and/or banking related services".
You can read the rest of it at http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/safe-payments
Another case of "We make the rules, so deal with it if you want to buy or sell on our site" from eBay and PayPal. I miss the days when they were much more community-oriented and community-friendly.
Looking at the list of restriction on what the service can be used to pay for can you actually buy anything with it?
e s.html
I mean I can understand not allowing illegal items and such but "offensive materials" and "occult" items?! Infomercials?! "Regulated Goods", by their definition, would cover damn near every consumer product in existence (for example anything regulated by the FCC which would be pretty much all electronics).
https://checkout.google.com/seller/content_polici
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
I just signed up and bought two optical mouses from uBid using the "early adopter" $10 off coupon. Worked great. One-page form and then only one click after going to checkout. A lot simpler than the multiple PayPal pages you have to go through after an eBay purchase.
This must be a joke : Last update 1 October 2005
a. Use standard Google Checkout buttons only
You may only use Google-hosted button images. You may not alter the size, shape, color, or any other aspect of these images.
That's effectively means tracking ALL people going through merchant's
checkout page, including those NOT using Google's services. Nice and
f*cking subtle.
- Alcohol, when is the last time you ever bought booze online?
- Body parts, does this include stem cells?
- Child pornography, like I was going to buy that anyway.
- Copyrighted media, so forget about selling your own music through Gpay
- Endangered species, including lamas, gnus and mozillas, of course.
- Government IDs or documents, this category also includes "noble titles", you can use a plain credit card for that
- Miracle cures, I guess VIAGRA spammers will have to stick with PayPal
- Precious metals and hazardous material, Damn, I cannot sell my recycled plutonium through Gpay!
- Securities, I really wanted to dump my GOOG stocks with this
- Tobacco and cigarettes, that's bad for you, might as well avoid buying it
- Weapons, no comment
Ah, the good old days of anonymous cash!Imagine if one cent per each transaction went to charity?
Visa and Mastercard are the same thing. It's like buying a Dodge or Chrysler Neon. They're all Mercedes, the only difference is the logo.
"(I know you can sign up for MSN with another email address, but it's really hard to find that site)."
I found it pretty easily thanks to a site called Google.
(Alternatively, Kopete has an MSN signup process which does let you enable any MS passport id for MSN; I think Adium has similar support)
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
The standards you posted seem to all deal with data security. While that's a very important part of banking, it's not everything you should look for in a bank.
The problem with Paypal is that they skirt the law - they act like a bank when it suits them, but make sure that they aren't subject to normal banking regulations. For example, they can freeze your account indefinitely or withdraw your money at their whim. A real bank would have to abide by many laws and regulations when doing that, and would have to have a damn good reason - or they'd be criminally liable. Even then, if they were to do something drastic such as close your account, they would almost certainly have to cut you a check for the remaining balance. Paypal? Not in a million years! That money's THEIRS; it's by their goodwill alone that you can do anything with it.
Paypal has quite the reputation for terrible customer service, borderline fraudulent practices, and questionable handling of money. While real banks might not be the most wonderful institutions around, at least you get legal protection. The most you can hope for with PayPal is a civil suit, and you can be sure that they have teams of attack lawyers to make sure that getting your $500 back will cost you $10,000 - if you get it at all.
That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
Realisticly, I only buy a few things online. For most day to day shopping I prefer a store where I can examine goods personally before purchase. Now, Its all fine and good that many many small companys will swich to google, but without companies like Amazon or Thinkgeek signing on, I am unlikely to swich.
Hey Paypal,
I hope you die a horrible death, you and eBay. I'm laughing as we speak! Google is finally getting rid of this huge evil conglomerate called eBay and Paypal.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out! BAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAA
eTrade SUCKS
You don't really need to post your auction at ebay if google search can find what you're looking for. You just check a box (or click a tab, like froogle) to only return results of what's for sale (or only what's on an auction that expires this week), and it gives you everything on the internet that's not in a walled garden (watch for ebay hiding their listings from search engine robots.)
Then an auction site becomes nothing more than an email plugin (or web form / or ftp front end) editor that generates a webpages with tags (like , etc.) that a search engine robot looks for and links to a payment gateway API. The only value added is the seller/buyer rating -- which could be replaced with search as well. You could search for "John Doe ripped me off" or something that could be standardized around their payment gateway user id. People could write on their blog "seller JohnDoe1234 on google checkout ripped me off" and you'd see it You could have address verification, along with a "credit score" like "buyer's score" or "sellers rating" too -- like Amazon.