Forbes is reporting that Google is planning to launch Gbuy – an online payment system which would be a direct competitor to PayPal.
If recent Google launches are anything to go by, PayPal doesn’t need to worry too much just yet. Google has proven very effective at getting the hype out there for any new product it launches but very few of its recent launches have lived up to the hype (Google Pages anyone?).
Of course, the story which broke over the weekend about Ebay (the owners of PayPal) launching eBay AdContext, will allow Web sites to embed simple snippets of code that can then automatically act to showcase items for sale on eBay’s site in exchange for a cut of the resulting eBay sales means that increasingly Ebay and Google are becoming direct competitors.
Loren Baker, of Search Engine Journal, commented:
If an AdWords ad includes an icon depicting a GBuy merchant and this improves the ‘click-thru-rate’ then those advertisers should enjoy ranking above other competition in the Google search advertising
Interesting times ahead!
The best Google Launch this year in my opinion was Google Spreadsheets. It’s fantastic (as is calendar) but Spreadsheets was just great as there was little to no hype.
Agreed Robin,
I like Google Calendar and Writely. I haven’t used Spreadsheets enough yet to say if I like it yet but I can potentially see great applications for it.
Google’s been launching a PayPal killer since nineteen-oh-splash. When they do I’ll roll over in bed and yawn. And possibly fart.
Much as I hate to give MS credit, Office Live’s “page creator” things beats the pants off Google’s, and you get a free domain to boot.
I don’t get why people fawn over spreadsheets, but then I think they suck in any format. But still: why? It’s just a bloody spreadsheet like.
The ability to easily share and collaborate on spreadsheets using this is pretty cool. When they build in the revisioning that Writely has, it’ll be way better again.
The alternative with Excel is the always horrible Track Changes command – please spare me from that!
Google love grabbing headlines. They just aren’t capable of launching anything in a competent enough fashion for it to be a viable option for anyone.
Paypal has been around for quite some time and is integrated with so many online systems, shopping carts etc., that you will not be able to simply get rid of it overnight.
Does anyone else smell a whiff of monopoloy abuse here?
Google makes billions of the back of an open marketplace of advertisers keen to pay more than their competitors to get the top spot(s).
The success of most ads has been the use of quality text and relevance as well as deep(ish!) pockets. each to his own.
But surely Google is now manipulating this open competition system in order to increase sign-up of Gbuy, thereby adding an influential element to an otherwise open market?
Can anyone explain to me why this is barely different to Microsoft installing IE on all new Windows-equipped PC’s? Firefox is no worse a browser than IE but in many cases, users will never know because they have gone with what they have been told.
In the same way, just becasue a trader has a GBuy button on their ads, does not make them a better business.
It is not fair to credible businesses to lose out because they decide not to subscribe to GBuy. Yes it works for eBay and Paypal because it is a closed environment and provides a degree of security on which the community is founded just not as necessary in the open e-commerce world.
I believe the only way to keep Adwords neutral is to ensure that advertisers only place the GBuy button on their own home page, otherwise ads will be unfairly