Google has announced today that it has launched Google Checkout for the UK market. Google Checkout offers a payment solution for both buyers and sellers on the internet, and is essentially a direct competitor to Ebay's Paypal. As a developer I have always found Paypal difficult to integrate with. The sandbox that they provide to developers is awkward to use and fiddly, and I certainly welcome another player in the market. Looking through the documentation for Google Checkout it seems that Google has gone a long way to making the process for sellers as easy as possible with API samples for just about every common platform out there, including .NET.
I will certainly be looking to integrate Google Checkout into projects in the future. Paypal has often been criticised by sellers who have had their accounts and funds locked, and that has often put me off Paypal. As a seller I don't want to be penalised by fraudulent buyers using Paypal. It is the payment providers responsibility to check the buyers credentials and authorise a payment or not. The seller has to take that advice on trust, so shouldn't be penalised later. Of course the seller may have to refund the card payment, but their account should not be locked as a result.
The market for third party payment provision will certainly start to be interesting as Google Checkout grows in popularity. As a customer I don't like giving my credit card details over to every company I buy from on the internet. I like the idea of a trusted third party which acts as a middle man, and for me at the moment, I trust Google a lot more than Paypal.
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