Another Google Tool To Take On PayPal?

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

*sigh* more speculation

[strider44]

The problem with the article is that it's basing an awful lot on just a domain name. I could think of many other things it *could* be, like a shopping store, an auction site a la ebay, and more. It could also be a simple ecommerce software site, which I think is the most likely. My biggest counter to the argument for a paypal site is if this Google Checkout is a commercial venture like PayPal, why haven't they snabbed GoogleCheckout.com?

Keeping the dogs out of the internet ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Google's money spinning machine has just one huge flaw. You geeks know that. By design nobody can tell which of those clicks on ads are from real people and which ones are from dogs (and monkeys and bots).

They are not fighting PayPal. They want to charge customers not for delivering clicks but for delivering customers. If the clickers on the ads actually use their checkout service to buy then who cares if the clicker is a dog or a bot. It is a dog who has cash to spend.

Does anyone else have a sense that...

[irimi_00]

The next 5 years are going to be really interesting?

A big list of upcoming services

[NanoServ]

Google registered a domain, so therefore they must be planning a service around it? Wow. Let's take a look at some other domains [searchenginewatch.com] Google has registered...

Gbrowser.com - I wonder how that's doing.
Googleblows.com - Hm.. so much to speculate on.
Googledoodle.com - A drawing platform, maybe?
Googleporn.com - It's about time!

Here's my favorite: Googlemotherf**ker.com.

Google regularly buys domain names just so others won't. The fact that they bought googlecheckout.net might just mean they don't want someone else masquerading as a Google checkout service.

Re:This could only be a good thing

[chrisxkelley]

Have you actually had any bad experiences with paypal? I have read through these Paypal Sucks websites and find some of the stories to be quite far-fetched. I have been using Paypal for years, and never had any problems. A representative from paypal actually called my house phone about ten minutes after I had sold a laptop to a buyer with a fraudulent credit card, informing me of the situation and telling m enot to ship the item. I was very impressed. They know their stuff, and they honestly dont suck. Now if M$ buys them up i'm not going to be so sure, because they are the last people I would want to have access to my bank account / credit card info.

Re:if this happens...

[Anonymous Coward]

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

If Microsoft buys Ebay and Paypal, I'm going to stop using Paypal if Google offers an alternative.
No need to cancel ... let them try earning my business back.

I don't think they can -- sellers who continue to only offer Paypal will eventually see their losses.
Good sellers won't leave money on the table and having a choice, they wouldn't have to anyway.

I know what it is

[kahrytan]

Garett Rogers has it all wrong.

Google maybe setting up a new and improved Froogle with Store Fronts similar to Yahoo Shopping.

"Google Checkout" could be used for stores in froogle to accept payments.

Re:This could only be a good thing

[Ruff_ilb]

Meh, porn is pretty much essential to the internet, or is at least a large part of it, wheras guns aren't.

It's in the policy page, he said that he has read and accepted the policies... at that point, it's his problem.

I don't see how this is a bad thing, necessarily.

Stop speculating.

[Godman]

What's with all the speculation about what google is going to do next? So they own a few domains... they've had gbrowser.com for like a year now... it means squat.

If you were a company with lots of money in the bank, wouldn't you register domain names for 10 bucks a pop that have your name in them, to prevent squatters and to keep your options open? I'm sure google has hundreds of domains, and not all of them will turn out to be new google ideas at all...

My guess..

[johnnyk427]

My guess is that its a service to allow, among other things, detecting which click throughs on Ad-Sense actually result in sales (by performing those sales directly) and basing the advertising charge on that as commision, which would at the very least solve the problem of fradulent click-throughs.

isn't there something like this besides PayPal

[krunk4ever]

If I had to say, it sounds a lot more like Yahoo! Stores than PayPal:
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/merchant/ [yahoo.com]

probably maybe less fees.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:This could only be a good thing

[techno-vampire]

It's easy not to suck if you only look at the best case scenarios.

Very true. It's also hard not to suck if you only look at the worst cases, as that site listed above clearly does.

Re:This could only be a good thing

[Dare nMc]

Under federal law, you may lawfully transport your guns if you have the lawful right to possess them where you reside, and also in the place where you are transporting the guns to.

to comply with that using a shipping company they will only ship from a licensed gun dealer to another licensed gun dealer. But you as a owner can drive across state borders legaly (except maybe california, other states don't require out of state hunters to have local permits to carry a unloaded firearm that is in some way secured with a lock, ie in the truck.)

Re:No Thanks.

[wfberg]

No complaints process might work out better for you than a crappy one. If they don't have a complaints process, you can take them to small claims court immediately, since you've exhausted all your options of dispute resolution within the service's framework.