Google Checkout Closing Down on Nov. 20th • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Checkout Closing Down on Nov. 20th

#61

Post by devx » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 5:33 PM UTC

badclient wrote: post #14

I think failures of projects such as this can be attributed to wrongly applying lean principles instead of coming out with a more complete offering. Checkout never really matured as a product and therefore made for a poor PayPal or merchant account alternative.

Agreed. I think there was a period of like 5 years soon after they launched it big, where they did almost nothing to improve it or promote it. Same goes for Google Docs. I think only like a little more than 2 years ago they started caring about Google Docs again, probably because of Chrome OS and Chromebooks. Before that the development for it felt very dry for years, too.

Re: Google Checkout Closing Down on Nov. 20th

#62

Post by skore » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 5:34 PM UTC

This actually solves a problem for me. For a long time, "finish Google Checkout recurring billing integration" was on my todo list. Just didn't get to it due to limited time and confusing documentation. Now I can simply close that ticket.

Re: Google Checkout Closing Down on Nov. 20th

#63

Post by ck2 » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 5:37 PM UTC

Didn't google give out millions in coupons for using their checkout last holiday season? (maybe it was 2011)

Re: Google Checkout Closing Down on Nov. 20th

#64

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 5:38 PM UTC

przemelek wrote: post #41

JohnBooty wrote: post #27

I can't imagine ever building something that relies on a Google service at this point. There is a lot of collateral damage when they do things like this, damage that hurts them when even when it comes to developers like me who've never written a single line of code that integrates with Google Checkout.

Yeah, but how many business was using Google Checkout as only method of payment? This decision will hurt only those businesses. Rest of businesses using Google Checkout will remove one of payments method. Not a big deal, and we may guess that this method was probably not so popular already.

[deleted]

Re: Google Checkout Closing Down on Nov. 20th

#65

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 5:41 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #64

przemelek wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but how many business was using Google Checkout as only method of payment? This decision will hurt only those businesses. Rest of businesses using Google Checkout will remove one of payments method. Not a big deal, and we may guess that this method was probably not so popular already.

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: Google Checkout Closing Down on Nov. 20th

#66

Post by tlogan » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 5:44 PM UTC

marban wrote: post #58

tlogan wrote: post #55

I know that a significant set of people here are saying that this is "end of Google". Actually, this is "beginning of Google". Google must focus on things they are best at: advertisement. The problem with their approach of having many half finished products that they were actually helping competition: they were discovering and validating market which is then captured by smaller companies. And my prediction is that th…

App Engine — are you serious? New releases every few weeks, quite a few innovations technology-wise and essentially no freeriders. Also, I don't see a lot of competition in terms of equivalent solutions; if at all.

I can be wrong about App Engine. Here is my reasoning...

I think App Engine does not fit nicely into Google's grand vision: which is mobile, social, and search for advertising purposes. So they need to be become profitable soon or they will be shut down.

However they lack enterprise customers and without enterprise and corporate customers it very hard to make things profitable.

Re: Google Checkout Closing Down on Nov. 20th

#67

Post by Pxtl » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 5:56 PM UTC

skore wrote: post #62

This actually solves a problem for me. For a long time, "finish Google Checkout recurring billing integration" was on my todo list. Just didn't get to it due to limited time and confusing documentation. Now I can simply close that ticket.

To be fair, even PayPal screws up recurring billing.

Re: Google Checkout Closing Down on Nov. 20th

#68

Post by tonfa » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 5:59 PM UTC

anon1385 wrote: post #26

Kequc wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People so vocal about these types of frustrations are the same people who keep refusing to just unify Google's services. You have multiple Google accounts so link them then that's the end of it. There are much more important things to worry about like Youtube's copyright policies. By being driven away, what you mean is they are doing things to move forward and you want it to stay the way it was. Since that isn't goin…

I think this comment is a great example of the disconnect. You (and I presume a majority of the people working for Google) are not actually able to even comprehend why people might want multiple accounts, or to have separate accounts for their email and their video watching and their blog. He even gives examples in his post, like administering an account for a charity organisation, but somehow things like that are un…

Personally I just use different chrome profile for my different accounts. Never had issues with profile merges.

Re: Google Checkout Closing Down on Nov. 20th

#69

Post by tonfa » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 6:03 PM UTC

tlogan wrote: post #66

marban wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

App Engine — are you serious? New releases every few weeks, quite a few innovations technology-wise and essentially no freeriders. Also, I don't see a lot of competition in terms of equivalent solutions; if at all.

I can be wrong about App Engine. Here is my reasoning... I think App Engine does not fit nicely into Google's grand vision: which is mobile, social, and search for advertising purposes. So they need to be become profitable soon or they will be shut down. However they lack enterprise customers and without enterprise and corporate customers it very hard to make things profitable.

Are there any public information about whether appengine is profitable?

Since the pricing change I'd expect most of their customers to be corporate.

Re: Google Checkout Closing Down on Nov. 20th

#70

Post by skore » Sun, Oct 20, 2013, 6:11 PM UTC

Pxtl wrote: post #67

skore wrote: post #62

This actually solves a problem for me. For a long time, "finish Google Checkout recurring billing integration" was on my todo list. Just didn't get to it due to limited time and confusing documentation. Now I can simply close that ticket.

To be fair, even PayPal screws up recurring billing.

After having integrated nearly a hundred payment services: To be fair, recurring billing is hard.