OK, so on top of the lovely rumour about a music store, it looks like there is some well-founded speculation that Google is about to pull out a PayPal clone.
At what point do the geeks of the world cry Enough!? When does the all conquering Google change from a benevolent super-search into an evil global conglomerate? I personally have no problem with it, and would hope that Google’s profile would stop them from getting into any nastiness with regards cancelling user accounts and waiving your consumer rights in order to use their service. Yet I can imagine numerous geeks squirming in horror as they see their beloved Google descend into the grubby world of money-handling.
There’s also the pertinent question as to whether Google can make this fly sans EBay-integration. The undisputed champion of online auctions of course owns PayPal, and facilitates usage of said payment provider via direct integration from auction pages. I guess all Google has to do is provide an “Enter EBay Auction ID:” field, but it’s still not as simple as the EBay/PayPal integration, especially for Mom and Pop EBay businesses. The obvious solution is to provide EBay with a cut from any EBay-initiated transactions (similar to telco carrier termination fees), which EBay would be all over like a rash if they had any sense. Money for nothing anyone?
