Beginning today, online merchants will have yet another payment option to offer to purchase their products. The new Google Checkout was released today and it's making quite the news on the tech world. Google has hinted about the new online payment service for months as rumors have floated around the Internet.

Using Google's shopping search engine, Froogle, you can search for products and now pay for them directly with Google Checkout. Google Checkout is no different from other online payment sites, such as PayPal, in the way that it works. You simply fill out a form with all of your shipping details and your credit card number on your first visit using the checkout service. Once you've done all that, you'll never have to do it again because it securely stores all of your personal information and allows you to use it again for your future purchases. It really does make shopping online very quick and simple.

The Google Checkout logo next to a merchant listing on Google AdWords showing
that this merchant accepts Google Checkout as a payment option.

Once you've registered and you are shopping on a Google partner site, you'll see the new blue Google Checkout button that will let you know that you can pay using the Google Checkout service. One of the advantages to using this new Google service is that if you currently already have another Google account with other Google services, such as GMail or AdSense, you can consolidate them all into one account with one login name and password. Google has really made all of their services come together seamlessly and work together in harmony.

Google's buttons that it offers merchants to use to display on their sites to show that they accept Google Checkout payments.

Other advantages to using Google Checkout is that they provide fraud protection and will reimburse you for fraudulent purchases. In addition to that, you can also choose to keep your e-mail address hidden from online merchants, so that means they won't be able to sign you up for those dreaded e-mail newsletters that you don't want. You can also view a consolidated purchase history in Google Checkout that shows all of the purchases that you've ever made with them.

Google Checkout allows you to view all of your recent orders and lets you check the status on them.


Using Google Checkout is really very easy. As shown above, you can hide your email address from merchants
to prevent you from getting unsolicited emails from them in the future.

Google currently accepts all of the major credit card companies, including MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover. Google also has a special promotion for Citi customers.

Sellers and merchants are beginning to jump onto the Google Checkout bandwagon. Major online retailer Buy.com has already become a Google Checkout partner and with many more to follow. Online retailers that already use Google AdWords advertising program will really benefit from becoming a Google Checkout partner because for every $1 spent on advertising on AdWords, Google will process $10 in sales for free. Google is really trying to make its new checkout service really easy for merchants to integrate and join by making cut-and-paste sales buttons, as well as access to their API for integration with already existing shopping carts.

To find out more information or to open a free account, visit the Google Checkout homepage.

Comments (7)

Business Director written by mike ratican on July 5, 2006 This was a great idea if brought out by nearly any other company - but looks like another looser from Google. I've read numerous blogs and reviewers who have labelled Google Checkout as a "PayPal killer" - It's anything but a PayPal killer. Google's inability to process international payments, purchase limits placed on some customers, and a "payout" limit Google has imposed on most merchants, are truly ridiculous. If you are a merchant with this limit, it is likely $500.00. This means that if you sell over $500.00 using Google Checkout during the month, you will only receive $500.00 from Google during that month - the remaining balance would be carried to the next month, and applied to that monthly limit. Example: let's say you sell $750.00 through Google in July....you will receive $500.00 during July, with $250.00 held by Google, and not paid until August. When paid in August, that carry over $250 from July would also be applied toward your August "limit", leaving only $250.00 in payments available for August sales. In a "real life" example, lets say you sold $1500.00 in July - you would receive $500.00 in July, with the $1000.00 carried forward to August. However, your cap is still $500 - so you would receive another $500 in August, and another $500 in September. What would happen to your revenue from sales in August and September you ask?..well, that would all be "carried forward" until your "limit" allowed payment. It's alot like being paid an allowance by Mom and Dad - except they usually paid you! This is literally an interest free loan that Google has given itself from the revenues of it's "customers" - which are other businesses. AND - they won't pay interest on the money they are holding. Based on public records, Google made about $17M each DAY last year on advertising revenue...shouldn't they be the ones giving customers a loan?! I was also at Google's inability to answer some basic security questions in regards to it's service, beyond providing a copy of their published FAQs. Nope - our company won't use it, and we would highly recommend other merchants and shoppers read the FAQ VERY carefully, and ask all questions before providing your information. Operations Manager written by Fernando Garcia on July 26, 2006 Ok, so google checkout is not good for businesses. Merchant service is good? Paypal screws you in different ways and Authorize.net has fees coming out of it's AS@#$le. What solution is there for online merchants? From the buyer's perspective- horrid written by Jennifer on August 2, 2006 I used Google checkout because with their promotions, I could get a $10 coupon for my purchase. I sent in the order July 13. And waited. And waited. And contacted the store - no record of my order. Contacted Google checkout - no reply from them for a week. By this time, when I checked the store, they were out of stock for the items I had ordered, so I wasn't expecting much. But the least Google checkout could have done was tell me what was going on, or admit they had messed up earlier so I still could have placed my order through the store. But instead, today (3 weeks after the initial purchase), I get an email from the store saying that they just received my order. And then another email from Google checkout saying that my order has been cancelled because of "Customer Cancellation". on't bother with Google checkout. I only missed out on a really great deal but I would worry (and I do worry now) about how they deal with security issues considering their sloppiness in dealing with the straightforward orders. Student written by ddcyr40 on January 19, 2007 I signed up for the Google checkout mainly because of the $10 sign-up bonus. I was ordering a book, and with the bonus, it would have only cost around $3, so I figured why not. Well, I placed the order, which was through textbooksrus.com, went fine, I received the order today in the mail, and it Google was very quick to charge me the full price, and it has been over a week, with 5 emails sent to the, no responses, and no $10 sign-up bonus. I would not recommend AT ALL! Not worth the hassle. They've got some things to learn. Google Checkout Fraud and Rip-Off written by Johann C on January 26, 2007 Google Checkout Fraud and Rip-Off Never ever use Google Checkout. It is an absolute Rip-Off. The amount that Google Checkout charge to your Credit Card is $10 higher than the transaction amount. That means they rip you off for a higher amount and you pay much more than your expected transaction amount. They promise you a $10 promotional discount and never give it. I have tried to resolve this with their support for more than two weeks. No success - they are not interested in resolving the matter and to pay my $10 back. Buyer beware - Do not use Google Checkout - You are going to get ripped -off. They are going to charge your credit card for more than the transaction amount and would not resolve it. I experienced this a a fraudulent transaction. Reference: Google Order #905708746660495 J Claassens This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Google has gone to the evil side! written by Marcus on January 27, 2007 Wow, I can only concur with every single one of the other bad reviews of Google Checkout! What ever happened to Google's "Do no evil"? All want to add is save yourself a lot of headache by not even thinking about using Google Checkout! Seriously, this is like expecting good customer service at Waffle House... this is like trying to get something done at DMV... this is like trying to get your record cleared after having your identity stolen! By the way........ do not trust Google Help when you read that the discount they offer will show up in your Google Account History....... it is a big ruse! This is NOT an alternative to PayPal or Amazon.com! What losers -- google is most definitley a paypal killer written by allan on February 16, 2007 As a merchant, I will save over $20000 per year using google checkout . End of story ... Ill do anything to push customers to use it rather than paypal. Paypal sukc for both sellers and buyers ... as buyer..try get yor money back from a fraudulent seller !!, and a seller, they take more than the credit card companies and offer less protection. Google just used the principle of open source, "release product fast, release often, get the public to test" as long as they offer you greedy , nickle picking customers the opportunity to save even $1, and us greedy vendors the opportunity to save $1000's it will kill that bloated greedy paypal, and the credit card companies. And .... overall ..not a bad service .... it allows me to sell to Canada with protection that card companies never did give.... the only downside to vendors is that google protection is not valid on orders over $250 unless the actual customer signs receipt..and with UPS dropping prouct at the front doorstep that will never happen.

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