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Google Checkout will be retired, transition to Google Wallet

googlecommerce.blogspot.com

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Re: Google Checkout will be retired, transition to Google Wallet

#141

Post by mtgx »

astrodust wrote: post #116
jemeshsu wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently this strategy seems to work also for hardware. Look at Samsung.

Samsung is focusing on a much smaller number of devices than they used to. Yes, they have more than Apple, but they also spend way more on advertising to make up for it. Instead of hundreds of phones, they have maybe a dozen now that they actively promote. Right now I can't leave the house without being bombarded by Samsung advertising, they're in some kind of feverish campaign over their new Note phone-tablet-thing.

They are actually turning back to that. The are at least 5 new different variants coming up of their S4 "flagship": S4 regular, S4 Google Edition, S4 Mini, S4 Active, S4 Zoom, S4 Mega.

And that's just for one "phone brand". Imagine if they do this to every other phone brand of theirs, which are already being called all "Galaxy". Samsung strategy is becoming a mess again. It will work in the short term (a year or so), and then backfire badly.

Re: Google Checkout will be retired, transition to Google Wallet

#142

Post by zbowling »

Finster wrote: post #38
quackerhacker wrote: post #6

I think the problem was Google's Api was very ill written compared to Paypal's. This may be an old implementation, but I think the Api didn't allow subscription services easily, and also notified it's sellers of an order immediately (regardless if the transaction was successful or not). Beside, I think Google is investing the proper resources in building Waller to be a formidable product against Paypal, Amazon, and o…

Shoddy API's are not unique to Checkout. Most, if not all, of Google's API's are actually pretty terrible. When they DO update their API's it's pretty rare that they tell anyone, and they never update their documentation. So, a workflow that worked fine last week will suddenly fail disgracefully and you'll have no idea unless you find the right version of the docs.

maps has a great API.

Re: Google Checkout will be retired, transition to Google Wallet

#143

Post by nazgulnarsil »

mtgx wrote: post #141
astrodust wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung is focusing on a much smaller number of devices than they used to. Yes, they have more than Apple, but they also spend way more on advertising to make up for it. Instead of hundreds of phones, they have maybe a dozen now that they actively promote. Right now I can't leave the house without being bombarded by Samsung advertising, they're in some kind of feverish campaign over their new Note phone-tablet-thing.

They are actually turning back to that. The are at least 5 new different variants coming up of their S4 "flagship": S4 regular, S4 Google Edition, S4 Mini, S4 Active, S4 Zoom, S4 Mega. And that's just for one "phone brand". Imagine if they do this to every other phone brand of theirs, which are already being called all "Galaxy". Samsung strategy is becoming a mess again. It will work in the short term (a year or so),…

Depends. Branding works when you actually manage to maintain quality across a lineup.

Re: Google Checkout will be retired, transition to Google Wallet

#144

Post by dagw »

jmhain wrote: post #23
pvnick wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to be a mistake that a ton of startups make as well. It's a result of indecisive (read:poor) management and inevitably leads to doing nothing particularly well. One company that I've seen not fall into this trap is Dropbox. Dropbox offers one amazing service and pours all it's efforts into that, and from what I hear they have some insanely smart people working there doing that. As a result they can afford…

Other than the frustrating lack of a linux client, how is drive inferior to dropbox?

For me at least the Windows client was incredibly buggy and unstable. I probably installed and uninstalled it a dozen times over several month trying to fix various problems before giving up on it. Search around the internet indicated that I was far from alone in having problems. Dropbox on the other hand has never crashed on me (on any platform) as far as I can remember.

I also thought Dropbox's Android client was better.

Re: Google Checkout will be retired, transition to Google Wallet

#145

Post by petercooper »

taigeair wrote: post #50
petercooper wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going with FeedBurner. Although you could argue it's already 90% dead.

It definitely feels neglected. What do you think is a good alternative?

Doing it yourself. I'm not convinced if even Google is willing to pay $100m for a service then let it crumble that there's much in the business model for anyone else to maintain long term.

Re: Google Checkout will be retired, transition to Google Wallet

#146

Post by whatusername »

gcb0 wrote: post #99
gareim wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He means it in the sense that most people stick to PayPal and your story is nothing but a blip. Google never gave enough incentive for most people to leave PayPal for Checkout. I doubt the majority of my PayPal using friends have ever heard of Checkout, let alone used it.

i don't think checkout can even be used to exchange money. only pay for stuff... but good point.

As a merchant who doesn't live in the US -- I don't think I can sell anything but Android apps with Google Checkout.

Paypal still wants my business.

Re: Google Checkout will be retired, transition to Google Wallet

#147

Post by mehta »

rgbrenner wrote: post #104
greggman wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, did you read the post or just the headline. Aren't they just replacing Google Checkout with Google Wallet and isn't Google Wallet better than Google Checkout? It sounds like an upgrade to me. What am I missing? Is it just a messaging problem? If they had instead said "We're renaming Google Checkout to Google Wallet. We're introducing API v2. API v1 is deprecated and will be turned off in 6 months so upgrade your…

No, that is not accurate. Google Checkout processes payments for the merchant, and Google deposits the funds in the merchant's bank account. With the new system, Google has an API to give you the users information, but the merchant must have some way of processing the payment. So these two are not the same at all. I can tell you for my ecommerce site, I intend to drop Google Wallet altogether.. After the numerous Fro…

> Google's implementation of Checkout was flawed from the start (esp how they handled/treated merchants).. So I'm not surprised it didn't go anywhere.

As you say, Google's implementation was flawed from start. Doesn't it make sense then to fix it and make things right?

Re: Google Checkout will be retired, transition to Google Wallet

#148

Post by jonknee »

Uchikoma wrote: post #131
jonknee wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Braintree certainly does recurring billing and it's pretty common in these scenarios for the migration to happen between vendors. https://www.braintreepayments.com/tour/recurring-billing Braintree even helped start http://www.portabilitystandard.org/ to help standardize the migration process. That said, Google Checkout didn't do much in the way of recurring billing. The FAQ says it never made it out of beta. The vast…

"That said, Google Checkout didn't do much in the way of recurring billing." Your comment helps all those who depend on Google Checkout subscriptions.

No, Google's migration policy will. I was just noting that the vast majority did not depend on Checkout subscriptions (it never even got out of beta).

Re: Google Checkout will be retired, transition to Google Wallet

#149

Post by [deleted] »

dangrossman wrote: post #59
droopyEyelids wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like Google partnered(?) with Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks-- like you can get a discount for transitioning. Considering how many people mention just moving to Stripe on this thread, I wonder what sort of hoops those three had to jump through to get their names on the page. Also I wonder what part of the process led Google to choose those three over their competitors. It seems like Stripe would have been a…

Stripe is only available in North America, and probably lacks the headcount to handle thousands or more new merchants in a short time. Braintree's more than twice as old, more than twice as big, and operates in US/UK/AU/CA/EU. Recommending Stripe would mean sending many of Google Checkout's merchants somewhere that can't help them. Google Checkout, like many third-party processors, is heavily used by merchants outsid…

[deleted]

Re: Google Checkout will be retired, transition to Google Wallet

#150

Post by MatthewPhillips »

dragonwriter wrote: post #24
ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #11

Google is making the same mistakes Microsoft made. Trying to enter into every industry it can thinking it can use it's monopoly power to take over the world. Reality: Doing 20 things mediocrely is not as profitable of doing 2 things very very well. Result: 1) Constant experiments and dropped products (just like Microsoft). 2) Consumers no longer trust your services to stick around and no longer even invest in your pl…

> Reality: Doing 20 things mediocrely is not as profitable of doing 2 things very very well. Reality also is that there is often a declining marginal value in additional investments in the same area once you are already doing very well in that area, and that the marginal profit from doing something else mediocre may be greater than the marginal profit from doing the existing thing a tiny bit better. And lots of Googl…

I would posit that Google isn't doing well in search from a quality perspective, but obviously they are doing very well from a market share perspective. This just means they are ripe for disruption.
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