I recently read an article at http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/06/26/index4a.html written by Michael Calore in which he takes a look at Google Checkout and determines that it will not be the Paypal killer that many have proclaimed it to be. I beg to differ. Of course when Calore wrote the article he did not have the benefit of the knowledge nor the foresight to see that Google would offer its payment processing services for free for the entire year 2007. But how couldn’t he have seen this? It’s been a tried and true principle of the internet – if you want to get big fast then offer your product or services for free. People will flock to you in record time. Furthermore, if you already have the enormous web presence that Google has, you are a shoo-in for get huge status on the internet when you couple that presence with a free service.

I find it very interesting that ebay (owned by paypal) will not let Google come over to play (ebay won’t allow Google Checkout as a payment processing service for its auctions). This move is equivalent to ebay putting another nail in its own coffin. What’s Google going to do next? The internet behemoth is going to start its own online auction service and process the payments for free. Can we all say – BYE BYE FEEBAY!

Are you a doubter? Are you saying to yourself that Feebay will be around forever? Well, consider this – many sellers have given up on feebay because it’s just not profitable to sell there unless you are able to gouge buyers on shipping and handling.

Here’s some more food for thought – how many scoffed at the idea of Google blowing the doors off of Yahoo? Probably everyone that is reading this did. Check out the February 2007 edition of Wired magazine and you will read in amazement about how Google blew past Yahoo in record time with its selling ads against search business (Adwords) despite Yahoo’s huge head start with Overture! I forgot to mention how Google surpassed Yahoo in just the search engine business alone!

Here’s my own personal anecdote. I’m now processing 41% of my orders through Google Checkout (where it used to be 100% paypal). I’ve seen my paypal fees decrease over 30% from November through January as a result of partially implementing Google Checkout on my ebook sales business. I predict that I’ll be at 50% reduction in the next two months. That equals more money in my pockets and I’ll take it. Given Paypal’s lousy support of sellers of digital downloads, I’ll be more than happy to see all my business go the Google Checkout way.

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