No sooner had I blogged on the merits of using Paypal to secure payments from clients that Google has taken the wraps off of its long anticipated payment processing system. Google Checkout has arrived and it promises to be one more program for merchants to consider when setting up payment options for visitors to their websites.

With Google Checkout, customers to your site can make payment for goods and services much as they can do with Paypal. Google is sweetening this deal by charging merchants a lower fee than Paypal and by offering rebates on Google AdWords advertising to merchants using their new program according to an article in the San Francisco Examiner.

Google is also using this service to “collect” and store people’s credit card information in the hopes of making checkout time faster online. In some ways this gives me the creeps as it becomes just one more way for someone out there to have your vital information on hand. Of course, if you use Amazon and similar services they already do the same thing.

Will I switch from using Paypal to using Google Checkout? For the short term that answer is no. However, I will monitor the program’s progress as I consider adding some additional features to at least one of my websites…a storefront perhaps.

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