Google Checkout - Can I Pay For That Using Adsense?

Note: The following post is written by Aaron’s b5media colleague Scott Goldblatt. Scott is the editor of b5media’s renowned swimming blog Timed Finals and writer of his personal blog The Parental Olympian.

As a product manager in the payment industry, I have to say that I am always interested when companies (especially ones like Google) offer new services that are aimed at merchant services or checkout applications for any size businesses. Google’s latest offering, Checkout, is a product that drew my interest right away. Not because of what it does, but because of what it has the potential of doing. For once, Google has released a brand new product without the now ubiquitous warning label “beta” slapped on its back. I was sucked in and now I had to test it.

I made my way to the Checkout home page, and when I arrived I was able to quickly log into my Google account and painlessly add my payment information to it - I was not allowed any further without entering my information - a requirement of Checkout. Now, many Google detractors may be quick to say “woah, not so fast. Give my credit card information to Google?” I say “yes, why not?” Think about the multitude (and when I say multitude think millions) of credit card accounts and banking accounts Google already has of ours in their system via Adwords and Adsense. Obviously it is not an issue giving these Google products this type of information and I would contend that Google Checkout is more secure. There are many government regulations behind the banking industry (think PCI and CISP to name two), and Google has to be real careful in this regard. That is part of the reason that we are seeing Google Checkout sans the “beta.” Google needed to insure that they could meet and exceed the industry requirements before rolling this product out the door you and me.

Ok, I am signed up, but I instantly needed to see the checkout in action, so I used one of Google’s hooks (a $10 off $20 or more at Starbucks) and floated on over to the Starbucks store. Nothing was different with the store itself. I surfed, reviewed, chose, and added products to the Starbucks cart as in the past. The cart was even the same, but there was an added attraction:

As you can see to the left, Starbucks was pimping the Google Checkout as Google’s button is two to three times the size of Starbucks’ own buttons, but by testing Checkout’s service with Buy.com as well, I quickly learned that you will not always (as it stands currently) be able to use Google Checkout with all products. My question is what if you want to use Checkout and it only works with one of the products you wish to purchase? Will this detract from Checkout’s acceptance? Probably not, but it does throw in a wrinkle.

What is interesting is that Google Checkout is a different checkout path. It is not a payment method, but a whole different process handled by Google on their servers with some type integration that I do not really know a thing about (API programming is beyond my expertise). Usually, or as is the case with the popular “Bill Me Later” product, it is a separate payment method, but that is not the case with Checkout.

What was interesting is that although it was hosted totally on Google’s servers, Checkout was able to communicate in “real-time” with the Starbucks site to process the discount and see that it was valid. The checkout process was simple, quick, intuitive, and most importantly it saved my information about the order, not at Starbuck’s website, but in my Google account that I use daily.

Is this a good thing? To me, yes, but I am sure there are detractors, as there will always be - you know - the ones who think Google wants to rule the world… is that a bad thing though? Ease of use, minimal repetitive data entry, consolidated accounts… that is what I look for on the web as the future… not more products and more accounts to remember. I want less because sometimes less is, in fact, more.

According to Google they see Checkout as a big revenue producer - *cough* - I mean, becoming more beneficial to us, the users. Google states that:

Because we see big benefits for shoppers as the service grows, our immediate priority is to help more online stores join Jockey, Starbucks Store, Levi’s, Dockers, Buy.com, Timberland, Zales, and others to offer Checkout on their sites. To keep website integration simple, we’ve built a range of integration alternatives such as cut and paste buy buttons, pre-integrated ecommerce partner offerings, and an API that supports more advanced integration.

Beyond flexible integration options, Google Checkout also works with Google’s search advertising program, AdWords, so online stores can more easily attract new customers, increase sales and process them for free. We’re especially excited about combining Google Checkout with AdWords because it gives our advertisers a more complete solution for attracting customers through Google and processing the sales that result.

So, after my purchase my wheels started turning and the first thing I thought about were new ways to enhance the Checkout product. Think about this. I am an Adsense publisher (as you may be as well). I make a modest amount of income via Adsense, but with the $100 payout minimum, I get a payout about once a year. What if I could just debit my Adsense account balance to use for purchases via Checkout?

Talkback… What are your thoughts on Google Checkout? I want to know…

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