In their ongoing quest for global domination the folks at Google have unleashed their new Google Checkout tool to compete directly with PayPal. The page I linked to above has a brief demonstration video and it appears, true to Google’s habits, that they’re keeping it as simple as possible. Right now it’s basically a means for users to have a single point of sign up for monetary transactions with online stores and said stores a means to offer an alternative means of payment than having to take in and handle credit card information themselves.
You can associate as many credit/debit cards as you want to your account and as many shipping addresses as you want then just click the Google Checkout button on any participating retailers website to make a purchase. They’re even flagging sites that accept Google Checkout in their search listings to make it easy for you to find a participating online store. They’ve got a list of stores using their new service some of which are even offering a one time discount to Google Checkout users of $10 on anything $20 or over.
Of course if you’re already paranoid over Google Mail then chances are this new service isn’t going to make you jump for joy, but I’m actually pleased to see someone offering competition to the PayPal folks. Don’t know yet if I’ll make use of it myself, but I plan to keep an eye on it to see how things develop.
While feeling a vague, niggling worry about the Greater Google Hegemony and Co-Prosperity Sphere that’s evolving, I like competition. And anything that competes with PayPal (and isn’t from Microsoft) is pretty cool by me.