Another Google Tool To Take On PayPal? 219
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."
This could only be a good thing (Score:5, Interesting)
if this happens... (Score:5, Interesting)
Failing that, what's a decent alternative to Paypal?
Re:This could only be a good thing (Score:5, Interesting)
As a corporation I trust google much more then I trust ebay/paypal or MS or even Visa for that matter.
Re:*sigh* more speculation (Score:5, Interesting)
In any event, this may or may not happen. It may not be anything more than Google noticing online rumors about it possibly starting a PayPal-like service and then deciding to buy the domain either to keep its options open or to prevent phishers or squatters from getting it. Or it could be as the parent described. It certainly would fit in with some aspects of Google Base, but people have made many persuasive arguments for what Google should do and then not see the company do it. After all of the furor over GDrive.com a few months ago, there's still not anything up on that page. Maybe, maybe not. I'll believe it when I see it. Google is second only to Apple when it comes to unsubstatiated/bogus romors.
There is no real competition to PayPal (Score:3, Interesting)
There are a lot of PayPal type players out there, with much more evolved services, but they all charge 5-12% on every deal, which is too brutal. If google could match paypal's percentages and offer a nicer service, PayPal would suffer greatly.
No Thanks. (Score:5, Interesting)
However, I do not trust them with my money. I had the same experience with Google Adsense that many people have had - account frozen and terminated with no explanation and no possibility for appeal right before my first check was due. I never saw a penny.
Realistically, I'm sure that Checkout will be handled by a different internal group within Google. I don't know if they'll have the same "we'll take your money with no explanation" attitude as the Adsense group. But you can count me right the heck out.
Also, for the record... while PayPal horror stories also abound, I've had no problem with them even after several thousand transactions. I'm quite happy with them. If Google Checkout is a PayPal competitor, I know which side I'm on. Until convinced otherwise.
Re:This could only be a good thing (Score:1, Interesting)
Google Accepts Porn Ads but Refuses Those for Guns [cnsnews.com]
And from Googles AdSense policy page:
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies [google.com]
Site may not include:
Sales or promotion of certain weapons, such as firearms, ammunition, balisongs, butterfly knives, and brass knuckles
Response to Microsoft's impending eBay buyout? (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see a new google channel that directly competes with eBay's online marketplace in the near future.
Re:This could only be a good thing (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No Thanks. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:No Thanks. (Score:5, Interesting)
account frozen and terminated with no explanation and no possibility for appeal
And that's worse than what PayPal does to many people... how? PayPal has done much worse, with actual money for sales and services. Real money that is in their account, not just the couple of bucks they supposedly "earned" through advertising.
Re:Keeping the dogs out of the internet ... (Score:3, Interesting)
This could turn out to be very interesting.
This could definately help out with click fraud if they charge by the purchase/customer instead of click,
or have some form of tiered system where purchases/customers are charged a certain amount, and clicks another.
If they get in between the credit card processors/banks and the online stores then we get another benefit.
Google could not actually pass the credit card information to the store, limiting the number of databases that
have your personal information.
We could also have user profiles making checkout much easier (compare to having a user account for every single online store you ever use.)
I imagine this would also help combat credit card fraud, when online stores have access to some kind of reliability score for a user.
The reverse would be true: Not giving credit information to the store (helps) prevents them from scamming you.
I wouldn't mind having being able to search/store online receipts in a repository either, although I can see how some might given the privacy concerns.
Re:if this happens... (Score:4, Interesting)
Lack of integration with ebay will kill it (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:No Thanks. (Score:5, Interesting)
PayPal does, at least, have some semblence of an appeals process. Although it's said to be quite lacking to say the least, at least it exists. They also tend to give some kind of reason as to what the problem was when payments are canceled and/or accounts are frozen.
Google seems shadier. Now, as you say, this is anecdotal. But Adsense account freezes almost always seem to take place right before the first check is due to be cut. In my case I had AdSense ads up for 2-3 months and generated quite a chunk of change for Google before they conveniently pulled the plug right before cutting me a check. I wound up with nothing. I'm not sure if they detected "suspicious" clicks on my Adsense ads or what, but they nullified all my earnings. Surely the vast majority of those earnings weren't suspicious.
Re:if this happens... (Score:5, Interesting)
If they acquired PayPal, they would convert it over ot MS servers, just like they did Hotmail.
One of the first adopters? (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:You midunderstand (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Stop speculating. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This could only be a good thing (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This could only be a good thing (Score:3, Interesting)
I look forward to Google giving Paypal some healthy competition, especially if Microsoft really does buy EBay, which owns Paypal. Google has a way of implementing very elegant solutions, such as for example their gmail product and their video search. Bring it on, Google!
Re:if this happens... (Score:3, Interesting)
Good luck, it took around two weeks and a few emails on a zero-balance year-long inactive account for me to cancel mine. They wouldn't close it on my request, of course, and copy-pasted a set of instructions (that didn't work) in reply to each email. They wouldn't close it themselves, though. They basically ignored that part of my request each time. Admittedly I had lost the password, so it is partly my fault. Glad I'm out though.
Re:No Thanks. (Score:3, Interesting)
If you were to make a system that detected false clicks in an advertising system, how would you implement it:
1. Run an analysis on EVERY click that comes in, with huge costs associated
2. Have some code that analysed clicks every week, even though money was only sent every month
3. Have som code that analyzed clicks just before you were about to send money
I'm not saying Google are saints(But I'm inclined to believe they are pretty good guys), but option 3 definately looks the most sensible to me
Re:This could only be a good thing (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't use it often, so when I need to use it to pay for something (a vendor too fucking cheap to get a merchant account, e.g. Abit's RMA department)), Paypal sits on my money for a week before they will actually let me pay the vendor, and when I get refunded, they sit on the damn money again before I can take my money, and they're collecting interest on it all the while. Paypal is the epitome of evil and I do business via paypal only when I have absolutely no alternative. My alternative where Abit is concerned is to never buy their products again, then I do not have to deal with their crappy RMA process. I buy Asus or Foxconn instead - those companies have their act together and do it right.
Re:This could only be a good thing (Score:2, Interesting)
Microsoft wants you to buy their software and they try to give you little choice in this. That can be annoying, but at least it's straightforward and obvious.
Google on the other hand doesn't want your money. But they want to know everything about you so they can market to you better and get advertisers' money.
So when you see speculation about a Google service that would be similar to PayPal, you better think twice about the idea here. Sure PayPal makes money, and maybe you think Google just wants a piece of that pie. That would be harmless enough, compettition is always good.
But not so fast! Think about the bigger picture. Right now you have transactions that start with Google, i.e. they start with a consumer clicking on an targeted ad. Now the same transaction can end with Google, by having that consumer pay for the advertised product using a Google payment system. Suddenly Google has knowledge of which ads not only lead to clicks, but lead to purchases. But it gets even better. Because they are able to identify you when you make the purchase, they can tie all the information they have on you to both the click-through and the purchase. Right now they can charge more for selling ad words that are more likely to generate searches, but imagine if they could charge more for advertising to people who are more likely to click-through and make purchases. They're not just selling the words anymore, they're selling you!
Of course the people at Google are very smart. So smart that they're actual plan for how to use this data could be far more sinister than what I've come up with in five minutes. The point is that this service would yield them even more valuable data about internet users and that their business model is all about using data about users to make money off advertising.
Re:This could only be a good thing (Score:3, Interesting)
They also have a fantastic track record of stabbing virtually all of the parners in the back, playing loose and fast with the law, acting in an anti-consumer manner, lying, cheating and stealing. Clearly morals, ethics, and general goodness is not a high priority at MS.
"Suddenly Google has knowledge of which ads not only lead to clicks, but lead to purchases. But it gets even better. Because they are able to identify you when you make the purchase, they can tie all the information they have on you to both the click-through and the purchase. Right now they can charge more for selling ad words that are more likely to generate searches, but imagine if they could charge more for advertising to people who are more likely to click-through and make purchases. They're not just selling the words anymore, they're selling you! "
MS is already selling you on their desktop. Ms knows your name, address and phone number if you registered using your real name. Ms can track you personally using passport and they can force you to use passport to update windows.
"Of course the people at Google are very smart. So smart that they're actual plan for how to use this data could be far more sinister than what I've come up with in five minutes."
The question is will they use it in a sinister manner. We know Ms has a long and storied history of sinister behavior, we know that google so far has not acted in such a sinister manner.