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Google Businesses The Internet The Almighty Buck

Google Wallet May Compete With Paypal 335

Posted by Zonk from the showdown dept.
theskeptic writes "According to the WSJ, Google plans to offer an electronic-payment service that could help the Internet-search company diversify its revenue and may heighten competition with eBay's PayPal unit. Codenamed Google Wallet, a payment service could represent a significant expansion beyond online advertising, which generated 99% of its $3.2 billion in revenue last year. Google's move could potentially threaten eBay's successful PayPal service, which generated $233.1 million, or 23% of eBay's revenue in the first quarter."
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Google Wallet May Compete With Paypal More

Google Wallet May Compete With Paypal

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  • Too late (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jason1729 ( 561790 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:36PM (#12853400)
    www.gwallet.com is currently owned by a domain squatter.

  • good, paypal needs competition (Score:5, Informative)

    by marcybots ( 473417 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:37PM (#12853404)
    Having used paypal and ebay when selling, I know well that the fees and such add up quickly when using these services. I didnt even use all the special junk they try to push on you like bold headings, gallery etc and I still wound up paying 11 dollars to sell a 75 dollar item...thats robbery. Hopefully this google wallet will make paypal's credit card use fees come back down to earth.
    • Most of that was eBay listing fees. Paypal fees are usually only a few percent, and only on certain transactions (others are free).

    • I agree - I look forward to Google Wallet (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Famatra ( 669740 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:54PM (#12853498) Journal

      I agree with you, I look forward to a viable alternative to paypal. I am not please with Paypal after having had a false charge back happen against me, and being pinged for an aditional $10.00 as well as losing the original money. Paypal sucks [paypalsucks.com] has more horror stories too, and I offer some advice if you have to do business with paypal:

      • Make sure your checking account is deposit only. You can have this specified in writing, but another way is to have the account be joint co-signed so both parties have to sign to take something out if you have a significant other. This way paypal cannot take money out of your account (which in the terms of service last time I saw you give them permission to take money out of your account to settle balances with them).
      • Keep a minimum amount of money in your paypal account.

      Since google seems to be holding to its 'do not evil' policy they should make a for good competitor with customers fed up with paypal. I wouldn't mind seeing a google auction site to compete with ebay (Paypal's owner) as well :).

      • I have an account I keep *just* for online payment sustems to keep them from draining it. I can transfer between my accounts but if paypal tries to get money I don't want it to have then it will just bounce.

        My BMO rep gave me a funny look when I asked for a label of EFT.

        Only payment system I trust right now is Neteller

      • Re:I agree - I look forward to Google Wallet (Score:5, Informative)

        by Rorschach1 ( 174480 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @09:27PM (#12853886) Homepage
        Have you tried accepting credit cards directly? You'll still get a $10 fee for chargebacks. *IF* you're not dealing with a high-risk industry, PayPal's not all that bad. I've received hundreds of PayPal shopping cart purchases from customers in 24 countries, and have had only one minor problem.

        Yes, they charge more - over 3% on most of my transactions - but there's no monthly fee. I'm just now getting enough sales volume to make it worth switching to a regular merchant account with a 2.02% discount rate (plus $0.27/transaction). PayPal's an easy, low-overhead way to get started.

        That said, their customer service sucks big time. Got ripped off by a vendor and discovered that even if you receive an empty package that's good enough for them. They won't do anything to the vendor. And it's damn near impossible to get a human on the phone.

        If you're looking to get a merchant account, I'd suggest checking out MerchantPlus.com. I'm only using them for payment gateway service, but they've been very responsive. I had my account set up less than an hour after sending a message, and got an immediate response to support questions. I can't say the same for most of the other outfits I checked with.

        A lot of it comes down to the customers you're dealing with. Some people are never satisfied, and in certain industries you can expect people to try to rip you off. Caveat vendor.

    • Re:good, paypal needs competition (Score:5, Interesting)

      by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:57PM (#12853515) Homepage Journal
      Not to mention that they force things on you that you don't want and blame YOU when they fuck up. They offered a "Pay with your bank account" service(mostly so they could get away from the high credit card fees but still charge the recipient), I didn't want to use it though, so I chose to pay with my credit card. However, they chose to use a bank account in which I had the minimum balance in(I kept it around in case I needed a loan from the bank as they have cheap rates for members). So then I got a message from paypal saying that there were insufficient funds and used my Discover card to cover it. Furthermore, they were going to retry in 2 days(I don't know why, I paid the god damn money). I was away from my email for a few days and didn't notice it, by the time I did I had over $80 in fees from the bank. Fortunately my bank forgave the fees but I closed down my paypal account right away.

      The worst part about it was that when I called up customer service to complain, they blamed me. I tried to tell them that in fact I am not a moron and made sure to pay with my card(since I never wanted the bank account service in the first place) but they continued to blame me. Not to mention the manager was a real ass......I hope they die a quick death

      • Re:good, paypal needs competition (Score:5, Interesting)

        by nametaken ( 610866 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @08:39PM (#12853687)

        PayPal does indeed blow. This is coming from someone who has used it as a small merchant and as a buyer.

        As a merchant, I was more than a little peeved when I used the method of buying from myself and immediately refunding payments, as their manual suggested, and they processed the payments anyways (days later) against a checking account. Ok, so the manual didn't mention that they will still process cancelled transactions... fine. I called them to get it straightened out (really to let them know they should say that in the manual) and I was actually yelled at, and then hung up on. I couldn't believe this. I said screw em, and had my bank reverse the charges as fraudulent withdrawls and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau who has regular meetings with the fucks at PayPal.

        As a buyer I have had all kinds of problems as well. I personally can't wait for Google to become the standard... even if I DO normally worry about Google branching out. We're in desperate need of an alternative.
      • It's probably a little late to post this. But I just wanted to add that the exact same thing happened to me. Perversely, I knew that I had chosen to use my credit card, since after selecting it they tried to push some additional "credit card insurance" or some nonsense like that on me.

        I called their customer service within 1 minute after the transaction, since the confirmation email mentioned my bank account. Now this was a long distance call, my friends, no 1-800 number here. After waiting in line for ove

    • Re:good, paypal needs competition (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Mold ( 136317 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @08:11PM (#12853565)
      Yeah, the fees shocked me the first couple of times. They sound okay in thoery, but when they actually hit, you realize how bad they are.

      I hope this works out, but I'm wondering how long it will take to become widespread. I'm not really sure how much I would use it. I mean, I use it for a couple of small sites, and donations, but other than that it's pretty much just for eBay. Oh well, I'm sure someone will find a good use for it.

      I'm amazed Google is going with something that can't be in Beta.
    • I agree about the competition, but I would have hoped for a competitor that wasn't based in the same country. This means that both options are still subject to the whims of one country and its political and economic prticulars.
    • PayPal's fees are less than you'd pay if you signed up for your own merchant account to accept credit cards.

      I don't think that an individual is going to find any way to accept credit cards that costs less than PayPal -- unless Visa/MasterCard/AmEx/etc. radically change the way they do business (or the payment service is willing to take a loss on the fees).

    • Re:good, paypal needs competition (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Michael Spencer Jr. ( 39538 ) * <spamNO@SPAMmspencer.net> on Saturday June 18, 2005 @10:35PM (#12854155) Homepage
      11 dollars seems pretty steep, but then again I've never used eBay or PayPal. Can you break that down for us? How much was payment-processing-related, and how much was listing-and-selling related?

      I could understand maybe $1.50 or $2.00 for transferring $75.00. Pure interchange and assessments on a card-not-present Visa or Mastercard sale will cost most of that amount, and the processing company needs a little overhead to cover the small fraction of transactions the processor ends up paying for.

      In general, payment processing has to have a cost, because there has to be oversight and oversight costs money. The only free way to transfer money is the buyer placing cash in the hand of the seller. Everything else has people in the loop somewhere. Some kinds of payment processing even have accountability -- fraud management, chargeback rights, stop-payment rights, etc. Those investigations cost money also, and that adds to the price of a transaction.

  • What lays ahead (Score:3, Interesting)

    by simulacrum25 ( 664049 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:38PM (#12853408)
    This could lay the foundation for Google to introduce paid services. It would certainly ease them into it if people already use Google Cash.

    It's also nice to see some competition to Paypal. Ebay has done a pretty good job with it IMO, but too much of a monopoly for me to be comfortable with.

  • Wallet? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pig Hogger ( 10379 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (reggoh.gip)> on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:38PM (#12853409) Journal
    How about Goopay? Goopal? Paygoo? Palgoo? Paygle? Paygle?
  • So people can donate to the projects they rejected for the summer of code.

  • Competition is a good thing.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by erick99 ( 743982 ) <homerun@gmail.com> on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:39PM (#12853417)
    I had an eBayer complain about a transaction and PayPal did not just set aside the amount of the sale which was small - they locked out my entire account which had a ripple affect with other auctions I was running. By the time I was exonerated I had taken a beating. I am not opposed to competition if it might reduce some of this heavy handed behavior.

  • Coming soon: GBay? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:42PM (#12853432)
    With Google coming up with their own PayPal, they're halfway to coming up with a full eBay-killer auction site. Imagine being able to create an auction that'd show up whenever somebody searches Google for the product's name....
    • From the same story [fark.com] on fark.com:
      Bahamut: GBay sounds like bj, which is slang for oral sex.
    • With Google coming up with their own PayPal, they're halfway to coming up with a full eBay-killer auction site.

      I'm not so sure about that. eBay became huge many years before PayPal came along (and it was years after that before eBay bought PayPal). eBay was the killer app even when everybody paid by sending cheques in the mail.

      eBay took off because it was a new way to sell things. Whatever Google might come up with that might challenge eBay's supremacy, it's not going to be another auction site. To becom

    • Re:Coming soon: GBay? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by The Clockwork Troll ( 655321 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @10:02PM (#12854035) Journal
      By that logic, Yahoo! Auctions would have killed eBay years ago.

  • Cool! (Score:5, Funny)

    by maelstrom ( 638 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:43PM (#12853440) Homepage Journal
    Now Google can store my e-mail, remember my searches, know who all my friends are, know where I'm driving, and know all my finances :-D

    Good job!

    • Re:Cool! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by tomjen ( 839882 )
      Remember, that the NSA recently retired carnivore - suppose that there replacement was google. Now that is a scary idea.
    • Usually this mass takeover of the world by one company type of thing scares me. But how can you not like Google? Would you rather it be MS? *shivers*
      • Why does that corporation make you shudder any more than this one? Has Microsoft abused single user information, or just competitors?

    • Re:Cool! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by MutantHamster ( 816782 )
      Oh my God, I never noticed that before! Before I thought they were doing all this because it was allowing them to make billions of dollars a year, but now that you point it out it seems much more plausible that they're personally spying on you. You might want to look into this [wikipedia.org] too.

  • This seems reasonable... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Eberlin ( 570874 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:44PM (#12853441) Homepage
    Provided Google can somehow use their branding to reflect reliability, security, and stability -- I'd trust them with money. Feed the fear about paypal's insecurities and you've got yourself a deal.

    Perhaps a business link through Froogle could prove beneficial, too. You know, "preferred customer" type scenario.

    In the end, though, I really do think we should start worrying about the amount of information Google collects. Searches, identity, e-mails, and with this thing, buying trends and other financial information. Yeah, we love 'em...but their capacity for evil is growing and becoming a bit more scary.

  • Google v. eBay (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TeacherOfHeroes ( 892498 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:44PM (#12853444)
    How long until google branches out to the point where they're in direct competition with eBay. From google wallet to google auction.

    You get to use google's extra-spiffy search features to find exactly what you're looking for. Plus, google would probably be able to create something 10x less cumbersome and akward than ebay's interface.
    • We can only hope. eBay has become a menace.

      I sell high range PCs, and (several months ago) decided to go back to my "eBay roots" and see how things went there. What I discovered is that eBay Stores have become a way to oversaturate every category known to man with items that don't even exist (Sure, I have 500 AthlonFX PCs for sale, as long as you buy them and are willing to wait for me to order parts and assemble them). To make matters worse, all of those items were featured and all the rest of eBays sta

  • Ties to Froogle? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dark Paladin ( 116525 ) * <jhummel.johnhummel@net> on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:45PM (#12853451) Homepage
    If Google's going this way, it might be just as easy to tie it into the Froogle service: let people find the item they want, then pay for it from the same interface.

    In time, they could introduce their own eBay like system. Odds are, eBay won't just let Google Wallet into their system and people would have to do payments manually (they way they used to with Paypal). But if Google builds off of Froogle and inserts themselves as a middleman, it would be an effective way of getting extra revenue and balancing out their ad system.

    Just a random thought - naturally, I could be wrong.

    • Re:Ties to Froogle? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by slavemowgli ( 585321 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:53PM (#12853489) Homepage

      Odds are, eBay won't just let Google Wallet into their system and people would have to do payments manually [...]

      In that case, I wouldn't be surprised if Google actually sued eBay for using a near-monopoly in one sector (online auctions) to help maintain one in another sector (online credit card payments). And personally, I think it wouldn't be without merit, either.

      But then, of course, IANAL.

      • You can't sue a company for just being very successful. What sense would that make? There are plenty of other auction sites around the net. Just because they have a small fraction of the market isn't because of any nefarious behavior on ebay's part.

        • Re:Ties to Froogle? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by slavemowgli ( 585321 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @08:22PM (#12853606) Homepage
          Abusing monopolies *is* not allowed, though. It's not that you can't be successful; it's just that if you are to a point where you are pretty much the only player left in the field, you're not allowed to use your market share to shut out others.

          It's like Microsoft bundling IE with windows, for example - using an OS monopoly to create a browser monopoly. For a similar, less historic example, check what's behind the EU's requirement that M$ make a windows version without media player available. Contrary to what it might seem like, it's not just some bureaucrats running amok; rather, the fundamental idea is that by creating a more level playing field where no single player can bully everyone else, the customers will ultimately benefit. Which, incidentally, is the whole idea behind capitalism.

  • Credit Card Processing Racket (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dduardo ( 592868 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:46PM (#12853454)
    I find that the rates are incredibly high for what these companies do. Credit Card validation over the internet should be a relatively easy process, but there are so many middle men in the business that it's crazy. Visa, Mastercard, etc issue the cards, why can't I deal with them directly?

    • Visa, Mastercard, etc issue the cards, why can't I deal with them directly?

      Well, Visa and Mastercard don't issue the cards. You can deal with a merchant bank account, which is pretty direct, but if you're just running some rinky dink website either your application is going to be denied or you're going to pay pretty much the same fees you pay with paypal plus some start up costs and monthly fees.

    • Actually, if you are a real business, the fees are tiny.

      Payal and company only rip you off because such a huge number of transactions are fraud, since that's what they are really useful for, not asking any questions and all.
    • Strangely enough, Visa and Mastercard don't actually issue the cards -- banks do. Visa and MC are actually middlemen in the grand scheme of things ... they just pass messages between between banks and stores.

      They have a heck of a deal going. All they ask is a tiny amount of each transaction processed (I can't remember the number off the top of my head ... but it's a fraction of a percent). Of course, the companies that provide merchant services (bank accounts, point of sale hardware, etc.) tack on thei

  • The Trust Factor (Score:4, Interesting)

    by lheal ( 86013 ) <lheal1999NO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:47PM (#12853458) Journal
    Just about everybody trusts Google.

    I trust PayPal/Ebay, but less than I trust Google.

    As long as Google Wallet can keep away from either a financial scandal or a security breech, they should eat Ebay's lunch -- except on Ebay.
    • Acually, I trust them both 100%.
      • I trust Google to track my every move, and to archive every search/click/purchase/EVERYTHING that I ever do on line; and keep this information and slice&dice it to build up a profile that knows me better than myself.
      • I trust PayPal to mess up regularly; and to mix up my transactions with that of people overseas; and to occasionally lose money and occasionally find random amounts of extra money.

      Viewed in this light, PayPal == anonymous cash; while Google == Big Bro

  • I really hope they go through with that (Score:5, Insightful)

    by slavemowgli ( 585321 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:47PM (#12853463) Homepage
    I *really* hope they go through with that. So far, PayPal has what is pretty much a monopoly on online payments; there's alternatives like Moneybookers, but few people even know about them, and PayPal has consistently and systematically abused its monopoly by imposing more and more unreasonable restrictions.

    Two that annoy me the most, personally are the fact that you can't use it for "adult" transactions, and that it's quite limited with regard to how you can get your own money that sits in your own account in many countries outside of the USA. In fact, there is a list of countries where the only available option is transferring the money to a US-based bank account - which really is ridiculous when you think about it. It may not matter much to the average US citizen, of course, but think about it - what would you say if you found out that the online payment service you used to have people pay for the stuff you sold on eBay only allows you to transfer the money to a bank account in - say - Uruguay?

    PayPal's policies are consistent with those of eBay, though (its mother company nowadays); like eBay, PayPal is entirely inconsiderate of its users, a stark contrast to Google's "do no evil" philosophy.

    Let's hope that Google will revolutionize online payments the same way they revolutionized searching, and let's also hope that PayPal will soon be just as forgotten as Hotbot, Northernlight, Mamma and all the search engines we used before Google was there.
    • The problem is much bigger than Paypal, though. Visa and Mastercard are the real duopoly, and the shit rolls down from there. And once you've agreed to accept Visa/Mastercard, they force you to charge the same fees whether the person pays by credit card or not. Unfortunately, I don't think even Google has enough power to successfully fight Visa/Mastercard, so I doubt Google payments will be revolutionary.

    • In fact, there is a list of countries where the only available option is transferring the money to a US-based bank account - which really is ridiculous when you think about it

      The list is/was very large - and even if you were not on it if you had a credit card with a numbering scheme not used in the USA (ie. both my mastercard and visa) you couldn't use paypal. These and other policies are the reason we still pay surprisingly large fees to Wells Fargo to get small amounts of cash to another country instea

  • Finally! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by OverflowingBitBucket ( 464177 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:50PM (#12853481) Homepage Journal
    Finally!

    It's about damn time a company with a reputation like Google's got into this area. I hate PayPal with a passion; they wouldn't accept one of my credit cards for an online payment (there were no other choices for the site I was paying), so I contacted their support. Guess how that went? Long story short, two automated emails and one "we won't help you" email over a few weeks. They don't want to help you, they just want your money. Also check out the horror stories of frozen accounts floating around the web.

    Another guide to these type of sites is how many hoops you have to jump through to actually contact them. Try it, drop by and click through. See how long it takes to contact someone.

    Anyway, sub-rant over. Imagine how a company like google could shake up this area. It's about time a reputable company came in and did a good job. Maybe even micropayments or something similar in the future? I imagine online comic creators would love that one. :)
    • Another guide to these type of sites is how many hoops you have to jump through to actually contact them. Try it, drop by and click through. See how long it takes to contact someone.

      Call me cynical, but I'll laugh when we soon witness the kinder gentler PayPal. Sure it only took 5 years, a zillion complaints and...oh yeah...some competition to convince them the time is now! They've listened to their customers, and they're tired of being treated like garbage. PayPal listens!

  • Small or Micropayments would be nice (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WoTG ( 610710 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:51PM (#12853483) Homepage Journal
    If you send a couple bucks via PayPal, even if the sender has a positive account balance (i.e. no CC transaction costs exist), the fees are quite hefty, percentage wise. (The minimum transaction fee is USD 0.3).

    It would be really nice to get a break on small transactions, especially ones that don't incur CC costs.

    • Re:Small or Micropayments would be nice (Score:4, Interesting)

      by anthony_dipierro ( 543308 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @10:28PM (#12854131) Journal

      It would be really nice to get a break on small transactions, especially ones that don't incur CC costs.

      The thing is, if you accept credit cards, then you've got to sign a contract with Visa and/or Mastercard. And that contract is going to say that you have to charge the same fee regardless of whether or not the person uses their credit card.

      So you really have to choose one or the other. Micropayments, and no credit cards, or credit cards, but no micropayments.

      Maybe Google will take the road less travelled and go with micropayments, but that'd be a big risk on their part.

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  • And Google become regulated... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:55PM (#12853500)
    Getting into payment systems will expose Google to new levels of regulation that may affect user's privacy. Regulations related money laundering and anti-terrorist laws may force Google to collect and turn-over data on users of its payment service. I wonder if those rules might also force Google to turn-over other data on "customers of interest".

    Having all your information (your banking, your email, your internet search activities) in one basket makes it a tempting target for government.
    • Oh hush, this is Slashdot, Google is god here.

      Pointing out facts about the banking system, and the very close eye governments keep on such things will get you nowhere ;)
    • Getting into payment systems will expose Google to new levels of regulation that may affect user's privacy. Regulations related money laundering and anti-terrorist laws may force Google to collect and turn-over data on users of its payment service. I wonder if those rules might also force Google to turn-over other data on "customers of interest".
      All this data will be, of course, searchable though Google excellent user-interface...

  • Good. Paypal needs this. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ralph Spoilsport ( 673134 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @07:55PM (#12853502) Journal
    Paypal sucks - they'll freeze out accounts, or: what's worse: they'll empty your bank account and completely fuck your life up.

    For some horror stories on who PayPal really doesn't give a shit about you, go here:

    http://www.paypalsucks.com/ [paypalsucks.com]

    read it and weep.

    Paypal needs the competition - especially from a company like Google that professes a higher sense of ethics.

    RS

  • What! (Score:5, Funny)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @08:01PM (#12853533)
    Google wants my wallet! The next thing they want will be my first born. Sheesh... I thought Microsft was bad; they only wanted my soul.

  • Adsense (Score:4, Insightful)

    by shird ( 566377 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @08:01PM (#12853535) Homepage Journal
    Id say one of the significant reasons for Google doing this is for payments to and from adsense publishers and adwords advertisers.

    Currently they just send cheques in the post every month to publishers, which is crazy for overseas publishers and must increase their costs a fair bit. They don't use services such as Paypal due to the fees.

    It would also help in obtaining money from advertisers for adwords.

    Google deals with a lot of (sometimes small individual units of) money from publishers and advertisers, and their current system would be far better off if it were handled online through themselves.

  • kill'em all (Score:2, Interesting)

    by papar ( 893096 )
    Google is really trying to take over the world and the way they're conquering different internet services is just frightening. I wouldn't be surprised if they would announce a new googlebay (or whatever) online marketplace in the next few years. They are tightening their grip and it's strong! Could they really kill'em all and succeed in taking over the internet?

  • natural progression (Score:5, Insightful)

    by enrico_suave ( 179651 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @08:22PM (#12853604) Homepage
    Google basically made it's own micropayment transaction system internally to handle the accounting of google adwords and adsense revenue changing hands in millions of transactions every day.

    They just needed to take the next logical step with it.

    e.
  • I am particularly annoyed at PayPal spamming me to get my account "verified". What they really want is for me to give them direct access to my checking account, so anyone who gets into the PayPal systems can remove money from my checking account. I continually refuse to allow PayPal such access. As a result, PayPal made me close my account because I was over the limit for "non-verified" accounts.

    Throughout all of this, I was unable to get a reply from a human being in their Customer Service department.

  • A sneak preview... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Duncan3 ( 10537 )
    Picture it... A "confirm" button... surrounded by 427 text ads for related products.

    I already have to goto at least page 3 to find anything, because the first few pages of google results are fake sites, keyword bait, and crap not even containing the words I used.

    Lets not forget what Google is, an ADVERTISING company, that want to know everything about everythign you have done and ever will do, so they can sell YOU to companies.

    No, Google past the "big brother" line long ago, now they want to be a bank to

    • Re:A sneak preview... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by wootest ( 694923 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @09:35PM (#12853909)
      Who decides if Google is an advertising company or a search company? *What* decides it? Revenue or what most people use their services for? Don't Google still do good in helping people find what they're looking for above being ad-toting corporate concentrated evil?

      'Selling me to companies' is ridiculous - Google has been one of the biggest players in the market of bringing ad spots to ordinary people. Anyone can buy AdWords for a paltry sum, and all they use is keywords - from your search or from the web page you're visiting. I don't see where this tips over from handy way to finance the other aspects of one's company to evil big brother attitude.

      Is it the cookies? Block the cookies. Is it the ads? Block the ads. The 427 text ads crack is blown up for a quick laugh - I've never seen any Gmail page show me more than four *text-based* ads and Google have been consistently good at not getting ads get in the way of or distract from the actual content - with the only possible exceptions being the blue boxed "sponsored links" at the top of some search results. I find the ads on Slashdot, for example, to be more annoying and more in-my-face.

      Speaking of Gmail, I'm okay with their computers scanning my correspondence for keywords. That's what they do - scan emails for keywords. Nothing else. The Google servers aren't secretly reading my emails, and if I would ever click those ads then it would at least be ads related to what I'm reading about or writing about at the time and thusly be much less annoying. I appreciate that.

      (To knee-jerkers: Go ahead and call me a Google apologist or a Google fanboy or what have you if you want to. But refute my facts, refute my point of view, challenge my opinions and *back it all up* before you even think about sticking a label on me. Wouldn't you be mad if I blew you off as a "conspiracy theorist" or "corporate-hating hippie" and left it at that?)
  • What do you think about them supporting micropayments? Is there anything that they could tie in with micropayments?

  • How does this fit in with their mission statement? (Score:3, Funny)

    by AthenianGadfly ( 798721 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @09:29PM (#12853891)

    From http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/ [google.com]:

    "Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

    I'm not necessarily opposed to Google creating this service, but how do they make it fit with their mission statement, assuming the information their talking about making universally accessible isn't your credit card info.

  • This is great news. I've heard enough bad things about paypal that I've avoided ever using it, but that still has all of the associated inconveniences. It will be nice to see an offering from Google that, at the very least, will let Paypal know they're not the only game in town.

  • I don't know too much about Google outside of search, maps and Gmail but from what I see Google has never done anything that requires mass customer support (dealing with average joe's like us, not the marketing companies that put up ads on google).

    While I'd love to see Google compete with PayPal and Ebay, I think that at least in the beginning the really crazy Google fanboys (the millions of them) will be dissapointed because Google probably is not used to dealing with millions of customers (some stupid,

  • Wanna kill Ebay? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by seanvaandering ( 604658 ) <(sean.vaandering) (at) (gmail.com)> on Saturday June 18, 2005 @11:23PM (#12854337)
    If Google wanted to kill ebay and paypal in one quick swoop, just offer lower pricing on auctions, and be realisitic. Extra features are nice, but eBay just kills the entire idea of the upsell, every stupid thing you do costs an added fee, until your 99 cent item costs $12.00 to list! Would I put a ton of stuff on auction if it was cost friendly? You bet -- and might end up paying more **IN THE LONG RUN** then paying ludicrous amounts now and waiting 6 months between transactions.

    Secondly, dont kill sellers and buyers with fees on both ends of the transaction, maybe link both services together, with free transaction and merchant processing for auctions when you utilize GWallet on your auction - BOOM - right there, youve got them hooked, and you dont need to worry about alot of fraud auctions.

    Google in their infinite wisdom I'm sure has already come up with a great idea, and I cannot wait to see it. I am so sick of EBay, and when I log in there - I just feel dirty all over again from the way they rape you with charges that you end up owing money once its all done. Sheech.

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