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Another Google Tool To Take On PayPal? 219

Posted by Zonk from the cha-ching dept.
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."
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Another Google Tool To Take On PayPal? More

Another Google Tool To Take On PayPal?

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  • You midunderstand (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28, 2006 @10:50PM (#15422859)
    Google Checkout is Google's new dating service. They let you check-out other singles in your area.

  • This could only be a good thing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by strider44 ( 650833 ) on Sunday May 28, 2006 @10:52PM (#15422864)
    Perhaps they can make a paypal that actually doesn't suck [paypalsucks.com]. After all Google isn't supposed to be evil.

    • Re:This could only be a good thing (Score:5, Interesting)

      by killjoe ( 766577 ) on Sunday May 28, 2006 @11:03PM (#15422899)
      I don't see how it could suck more or be more evil then paypal. If MS ends up buying paypal/ebay as it's rumored then all the more so reason to use Google.

      As a corporation I trust google much more then I trust ebay/paypal or MS or even Visa for that matter.
    • 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
      • True enough about Microsoft. But are there more stories like that about Paypal? I know Ebay was, for a while, really HARD to reach when you had problems.....

      • Re:This could only be a good thing (Score:4, Informative)

        by Rix ( 54095 ) on Sunday May 28, 2006 @11:37PM (#15423008)
        Paypal treats anyone outside the US like dirt, so it'd be great to have an alternative.

        Think about what they'd have done if you *had* shipped that laptop. Would they have taken responsibility for their mistake? I doubt it. It's easy not to suck if you only look at the best case scenarios.
      • Paypal is OK for small transactions, but they constantly annoy me with demands to get "verified" by giving them my bank account number, something I don't wish to do. But I have to click past this demand screen every time I log in. Also, they limit my transaction size for arbitrary reasons. I have a credit card with a ridiculously high credit limit, and I have superb credit, yet they won't let me pay more than two or three hundred dollars because I'm not verified. What's the issue here. I use my credit
        • It's to protect against fraud. They make a 2 cent deposit into your bank account and it shows up with a unique ID on your statement. You put in that number to verify you are who you say you are.
        • One solution to this is to use a savings account at an online bank. ING Direct will allow you to arbitrarily create multiple savings accounts under the same customer ID, with distinct account numbers. So, I have a dedicated PayPal account that has 3 cents in it at the moment. All money received via PayPal is immediately transferred to another account, so if they randomly decide to take money from me they can only get the 3 cents I leave in there.
      • I have.

        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
    • There are plenty of ways to suck that aren't evil.
    • I openly say it: I hate Google and its fanatics (not fans!) but if they offer a REAL financial service as opposed to Paypal and take the security alerts which we report at them by our own good will, I open an account.

      Moneybrookers etc exist but they somehow can't be popular in USA so it means you don't see "moneybookers" icon on all .com sites.

      I mean a real, documented banking service with real support people, not outsourced. (I better not get into details or political correct guys will call me, a turkish g

  • if this happens... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by smartfart ( 215944 ) * <joey AT joeykelly DOT net> on Sunday May 28, 2006 @10:53PM (#15422866) Homepage Journal
    If Microsoft buys eBay and Paypal, I'm going to cancel my account immediately. If Google comes up with a competing service, that'd be great.

    Failing that, what's a decent alternative to Paypal?

  • This Just In (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28, 2006 @10:53PM (#15422869)
    The janitor at Google bought a new mop. Someone post it to the slashdot frontpage.

  • Google Checkout? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Freaky Spook ( 811861 ) on Sunday May 28, 2006 @10:53PM (#15422871)
    Im sure it can't compete with the One-Click checkout :)

  • great! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    this would be great, I know from personal experience that running merchant systems is a major pain the neck. This particularly the case when you are a programmer trying to break into to the world of running your own business. Merchant and credit card systems that exist are really dev friendly and extremely expensive for the most part. The system I current use is propay.com just because it is so simplistic for my small site.

  • *sigh* more speculation (Score:5, Insightful)

    by strider44 ( 650833 ) on Sunday May 28, 2006 @10:59PM (#15422888)
    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?

    • Re:*sigh* more speculation (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Ctrl+Alt+De1337 ( 837964 ) on Sunday May 28, 2006 @11:04PM (#15422901) Homepage
      If you read the article more closely, you'll see that the author came to the conclusion that the company that owns googlecheckout.com is directly tied to the one that is known to work with Google. In that sense, googlecheckout.com is already owned by Google.

      In any event, this may or may not happen. It may not be anything more than Google noticing online rumors about it possibly starting a PayPal-like service and then deciding to buy the domain either to keep its options open or to prevent phishers or squatters from getting it. Or it could be as the parent described. It certainly would fit in with some aspects of Google Base, but people have made many persuasive arguments for what Google should do and then not see the company do it. After all of the furor over GDrive.com a few months ago, there's still not anything up on that page. Maybe, maybe not. I'll believe it when I see it. Google is second only to Apple when it comes to unsubstatiated/bogus romors.
    • Because they'll use checkout.google.com, like sensible people?

  • Keeping the dogs out of the internet ... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28, 2006 @11:10PM (#15422920)
    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.
    • 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.

      ...or at least, has his owner's credit card....

    • If the clickers on the ads actually use their checkout service to buy then

      This could turn out to be very interesting.
      This could definately help out with click fraud if they charge by the purchase/customer instead of click,
      or have some form of tiered system where purchases/customers are charged a certain amount, and clicks another.

      If they get in between the credit card processors/banks and the online stores then we get another benefit.
      Google could not actually pass the credit card information to the

    • The one reason I think Google is where they are to day is because they are able to see one point in all the chaos that we call the internet. There is a real want behind evrey search. What we have to be willing to accept is that possibly what you call "dogs" is something we may in a way desire. It may keep us watching or keep our eyes open.

      As evreything evolves it comes down to intensions. Does the guy on the corner really want you to believe it is a real Rollex watch or will he tell you its a Rolodex

    • Who are you? (Score:2, Funny)

      by dwalsh ( 87765 )
      "... It is a dog who has cash to spend."

      Why are you posting anonymously, BadAnalogyGuy?
  • ...and tell this blogger that googlewildspeculation.com [domaintools.com] is still available.
    • I just sat here for 5 minutes thinking about that actually, after I read what you said. I sat here and thought that was a terrible idea for the first 2.4 minutes. Then I started to think about how awesome that would be, if it were real.

      I mean, just imagine it. Google has a site that's based entirely upon wild speculation. Anyone can post any sort of speculation, be it meaningful or not. And the speculation could be searched entirely. If by some chance the speculation came true, then Google news cou
  • You must remember, this is google we are talking about. World domination isn't world domination unless you own a pay-pal like service.

  • There is no real competition to PayPal (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28, 2006 @11:26PM (#15422961)
    Right now, there is no real competition to PayPal. By competition, I mean an alternative service that charges the same level of percentage per sale.

    There are a lot of PayPal type players out there, with much more evolved services, but they all charge 5-12% on every deal, which is too brutal. If google could match paypal's percentages and offer a nicer service, PayPal would suffer greatly.

  • A big list of upcoming services (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NanoServ ( 901441 ) on Sunday May 28, 2006 @11:26PM (#15422963) Homepage
    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.

  • No Thanks. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by John_Booty ( 149925 ) <johnbooty@NOSPaM.bootyproject.org> on Sunday May 28, 2006 @11:28PM (#15422972) Homepage
    I love Google for the most part, and use a great deal of their free products - search (duh), Google Desktop Search, Froogle, Google Maps, Google Notebook, etc.

    However, I do not trust them with my money. I had the same experience with Google Adsense that many people have had - account frozen and terminated with no explanation and no possibility for appeal right before my first check was due. I never saw a penny.

    Realistically, I'm sure that Checkout will be handled by a different internal group within Google. I don't know if they'll have the same "we'll take your money with no explanation" attitude as the Adsense group. But you can count me right the heck out.

    Also, for the record... while PayPal horror stories also abound, I've had no problem with them even after several thousand transactions. I'm quite happy with them. If Google Checkout is a PayPal competitor, I know which side I'm on. Until convinced otherwise.

    • Re:No Thanks. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Jeff DeMaagd ( 2015 ) on Sunday May 28, 2006 @11:56PM (#15423052) Homepage Journal
      The problems with adsense are just as anecdotal as those with PayPal. I haven't had any issues with either, but it just pays to pay attention. Google has gotten a little on the big side, so it pays to be as wary as with buying into a product of any company of that size, like Microsoft or AT&T.

      • Re:No Thanks. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by John_Booty ( 149925 ) <johnbooty@NOSPaM.bootyproject.org> on Monday May 29, 2006 @12:36AM (#15423152) Homepage
        I agree that the problems are anecdotal. My experiences are just one more data point and should of course be taken with the appropriately grain of salt.

        PayPal does, at least, have some semblence of an appeals process. Although it's said to be quite lacking to say the least, at least it exists. They also tend to give some kind of reason as to what the problem was when payments are canceled and/or accounts are frozen.

        Google seems shadier. Now, as you say, this is anecdotal. But Adsense account freezes almost always seem to take place right before the first check is due to be cut. In my case I had AdSense ads up for 2-3 months and generated quite a chunk of change for Google before they conveniently pulled the plug right before cutting me a check. I wound up with nothing. I'm not sure if they detected "suspicious" clicks on my Adsense ads or what, but they nullified all my earnings. Surely the vast majority of those earnings weren't suspicious.

        • Re:No Thanks. (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Seahawk ( 70898 )
          Just a though:

          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:No Thanks. (Score:3, Insightful)

          by wfberg ( 24378 )
          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.

    • Re:No Thanks. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by .com b4 .storm ( 581701 ) on Monday May 29, 2006 @12:04AM (#15423070)

      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.

  • I know what it is (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kahrytan ( 913147 ) on Sunday May 28, 2006 @11:34PM (#15422994)
    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.
  • Perhaps this is Google's response to the recent news regarding Microsoft's interest in acquiring eBay [slashdot.org], which owns PayPal.

    Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see a new google channel that directly competes with eBay's online marketplace in the near future.
  • Why don't we see that already?

  • Stop speculating. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Godman ( 767682 ) on Sunday May 28, 2006 @11:47PM (#15423032) Homepage Journal
    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.. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by johnnyk427 ( 940438 )
    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.

  • Lack of integration with ebay will kill it (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Radi-0-head ( 261712 ) on Monday May 29, 2006 @12:31AM (#15423139)
    I think Google would have an extraordinarily difficult time becoming the "de-facto" standard for online payments through ebay, considering PayPal is deeply entrenched within the ebay framework. I'd have to imagine the market for other person-to-person micropayments outside of online auctions isn't very large.
    • Many online stores accept paypal. If google does things correctly, they could offer much lower rates than even credit card companies for direct account deductions - i.e. it's not just paypal that they could target but Visa and Mastercard.
    • . I'd have to imagine the market for other person-to-person micropayments outside of online auctions isn't very large.

      Yup, no micropayments outside eBay, no other countries than USA, no other language than English.

    • I'd have to imagine the market for other person-to-person micropayments outside of online auctions isn't very large.

      And that's why Google will unveil gbay [gbay.com] next!
    • Lots of smaller sites that sell stuff use paypal (think indie bands, etc). Lots of not-selling-stuff-sites accept Paypal donations.

    • Replace both... (Score:3, Informative)

      by phorm ( 591458 )
      Unless they become the replacement for both ebay and paypal.

      Ebay's become a cesspool anyhow, with severely overrated shipping costs ($50 shipping with a $1 item still shows the item as $1 in the listings), people selling "how buy get a cheap X" crap, and much more. The days of low-bid bargains seem to have gone past, and the present reality is that you have to do a lot of searching just to find the real item.
  • Is it just me, or - with the exception of the fact that it mentioned neither belltower nor grassy knoll - did that whole article read like Yet Another Conspiracy Theory?
  • Using your internet connection to find a hot date through Google.com; $50/m Trying to impress her by dining at the fanciest restaurant in town; $350 Telling the waiter to "Stick it on your Google"... Priceless!
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • isn't there something like this besides PayPal (Score:3, Insightful)

    by krunk4ever ( 856261 ) on Monday May 29, 2006 @01:34AM (#15423259) Homepage
    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.
  • ... the speculation is wayyyyy off. This is Google's premiere new service to search for, comment on, and provide tutorials for creative suicide methods.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Suicide... (Score:3, Funny)

    by ItsIllak ( 95786 ) on Monday May 29, 2006 @03:35AM (#15423517) Homepage
    Clearly a new site to allow people to leave suicide notes to their friends and family...

    See the Fish! [youtube.com]

  • ...when they were doing things that other companies weren't doing, than when they were "taking on" other companies.

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