June 30, 2006
View Comments | Post CommentCheck out Google Checkout
Google has opened up a new service called Google Checkout, which will supposedly be competing with Paypal. Besides providing certain typical Google functionality that Paypal lacks, such as the ability permanently to aggregate an infinite amount of personal data about you (lacking, of course, the ability to disaggregtate that info), Google Checkout doesn't really do much Paypal doesn't do. But it does do a lot less. In fact, it's really more similar to Amazon's marketplace checkout system than it is to Paypal. From GCheckout's Terms Of Service:
"The Service may not be used to process a Payment Transaction, or otherwise transfer money between a Buyer and Seller, that is unrelated to a purchase of a Product."
That means no sending or receiving money--only "bona fide" sales. In addition, there is a list of products and services one is prohibited from buying using GCheckout. The link to this list from the Terms Of Service is currently giving a 404--I think that means I'm not bound by whatever those terms were. In any case, I did manage to find what I presume is the same list here, thanks to a link from Joe Gratz. It's quite a lengthy list. Here are some of the more notable items one cannot purchase with Google Checkout:
- Adult goods and services
- Body parts
- Child pornography
- "Black boxes"
- Mod chips
- "Copyrighted media" and "Copyrighted software" (presumably, they mean from someone other than a licensed distributor)
- Drugs and drug paraphernalia, including tobacco
- Endangered species
- Miracle cures
- Occult goods
- Offensive goods (are they serious?)
- Pyrotechnic devices
- Weapons
My burgeoning business in body parts and bulk marketing has been banned! I love Google, but it doesn't seem like this service adds much to this market. Couple that with the privacy concerns over Google accumulating yet another set of data on us, and this news doesn't really look very attractive. The next service to open will be GoogleSubpoenas, the government's one-stop shop for every bit of information that exists about you.
The only way I can see this being a good thing is if this means Google will eventually implement a workable micropayment system. That way, someone whose content was popular--Dan Savage of Savage Love, for instance--could cut out the gobs of middlemen, and simply charge his readers for his column. Just $0.02 per week! Who wouldn't pay that? The market would work out the actual value of his column. There are tons of other possible uses for micropayments. What else can you come up with? Until then, I'm loving Paypal.
Posted at June 30, 2006 4:52 AM | Comments (0)
