This is very interesting I think and really brings into question when is E-Bay and Paypal going to be seen as a Monopoly in my opinion, as they herd their client's into a one payment option or you lose your fraud protection with them.
I’ve been watching with great curiousity the, ummm, tension between Google and ebay with great interest.Who hasn’t?
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This is rather funny in a way, you should read this paper Ghost In The Machine it is informative, though it can cause a chuckle or two.
The reason why it's funny in a way is because one of the sites that google Blogger recommends to use for a Hitscounter is Statcounter you can find the recommendation here
Google recommends these Counters
The funny thing is once you install this little piece of code you will find that programs like Spybot and Addaware will give you a warning after a scan that what some people consider is spyware has been found on your computer.You can try it all by yourself paste the Statcounter code in your webpage then visit your site, make sure your computer is clean beforehand and just go to your Blog or Homepage right after you run the scan so that you know you are free of any Spyware, Malware and if you want drop back here and let me know what you found I know what I did.
Maybe Google needs to look in their own backyard first before they take on the rest.
let me know what you think Leave a comment.
This could get interesting hopfully it will make things better for the end users of these sevices. I'm also wondering though, at what point would these services be cosidered a Monoply? All Comments welcome.
Bill Gates has done a lot of thinking about the online payments market.
At Microsoft’s “Think Week,” a development plan was set for an online payment system “that will be cheaper than credit card transactions, making it possible for companies to charge small fees for Web-based content and services they now offer for free,” according to Dow Jones reports.
Speaking at the Davos World Economic Forum, Gates said:
If you want to charge somebody $0.10 or $1 a month, that will just be a click…you won't have to manage some funny thing or pay some big credit charge, where half of it goes to the clearing.
By undercutting credit card fees, the Microsoft offering would enable an online newspaper to profitably charge small fees for individual articles, Gates put forth as an example.
A new universal Microsoft online micro payments system could attract the legions of independent Web publishers, blogs and small ecommerce plays, with the potential to be a significant rival to eBay’s PayPal.
Google Checkout is not a competitor to PayPal; Google invests in the Google-centric formula as part of a strategy to continually increase monetization of AdWords. Google positions Google Checkout as undercutting credit card transaction fees but in reality it pays for them on behalf of merchants. It also subsidizes the consumer transaction.
As Google is losing money on its Checkout offering, it is not sustainable as a stand alone micro payments service, or for mass distribution on the Google publisher network. Google Checkout currently has no raison d'etre without its AdWords tie-in.
Google's AdSense business could potentially be disrupted by a well thought out Microsoft micro payments offering. In lieu of monetization by content "enhanced" by Google's "Sponsored Links," Websites could monetize their own content directly.
Direct monetization would enable Web publishers to keep users at their sites, without revenue sharing with Google and without need for the ubiqutous "Ads by Goooooogle."
Microsoft vs. Google in Website monetization options could test Google's assertion that Google ads enhance third-party Website content, rather than detract from it
I thought readers might be interested in this if you sell coins or for that matter anything on E-Bay you might find this interesting.
Sellers in the Middle of eBay - Google Conflict
By Ina SteinerAuctionBytes.com January 22, 2007
eBay has long denied it competes with Google. It was only 1 year ago that CEO Meg Whitman was quoted in theFinancial Times newspaper saying she believed Google,Yahoo, eBay and Amazon would focus on their core activities rather than compete with each other head-on. In support of her prediction, Whitman said eBay specialized in ecommerce, payment and voice communication, while "Google stands for search." Since that interview, Google launched its Checkout payment processing system and recently said it has ambitious plans for its Google Base offering(http://googlebase.blogspot.com/2007/01/big-plans-for-2007.html).
eBay meanwhile banned its sellers from using GoogleCheckout, and earlier this month, eBay said it would only protect buyers in PayPal-funded transactions. On Wednesday, eBay said it would begin requiring newsellers to accept PayPal or a merchant credit card in order to list items on the US and Canadian sites. The same day, Google started using its prime search page to advertise a special promotion offering buyers $10 to spend when they used Google Checkout.
On Thursday, gossip-blog Valleywag said the Google promotion signaled the end of a "cease-fire" between the companies. Valleywag said a former executive at eBay told it the two companies had "agreed tacitly in 2003 to stay out of each other's turf," and that as recently as last August, the two companies were still trying to avoid conflict (http://valleywag.com/tech/behind-the-news/google-breaks-ceasefire-with-ebay-229800.php).Red Herring magazine concurred on Friday, calling theGoogle - eBay war "official" (http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=20838&hed=Google%2c+eBay+Go+to+War).eBay said its decision to institute its Safe Paymentspolicy in October 2005, now called the AcceptedPayment policy, was based on safety concerns and inputfrom the Community. But eBay PowerSellers are getting itchy for eBay tolet them process payments through Google Checkout.
While eBay's payment service PayPal can cost 2.9% plus per-transaction fees, Google made Checkout free through the end of 2007. Those dollars add up, and theInternet Merchants Association (IMA) - a group of 200top eBay sellers - started an online petition to demand that eBay leaders remove the ban on GoogleCheckout (http://www.petitiononline.com/ebayban/petition.html).eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy told Red Herring therewas little if any merchant demand for Google Checkout. eBay is increasingly finding itself bumping into Google folks at eBay seller events.
The next such meeting will take place at the IMA conference next month, where eBay will present a session called "Newin 2007," while Google will spend 3 hours explaining its AdWords, Google Checkout, Google Base and Froogle programs. Sellers can only hope they will be the beneficiaries of battles between the behemoths.
Link to Financial Times interview with Meg Whitman: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ae2efcb0-9847-11da-816b-0000779e2340.html
Link to story:http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m01/i22/s01
I hope you enjoyed the article
