Google Checkout -- the Unofficial Blog

An Artist's Rendition of What GPay Might Look Like

You've seen screenshots of Google Payments and you might have an idea of how its look&feel might change in the future. But I bet you've never though that it would look anything like this.

Google Payments Trading on Yahoo! Fantasy Stock Market -- Shares Trading at $13.47

Yahoo! Buzz Game is a fantasy stock market that lets people predict the technologies, products, and concepts that people will be searching for in the future. The game consists of many markets like  "linux distributions" or "java development environments".

Some upcoming Google products are trading in the "Rumors Mill" market. Those products include Google Calendar (GOOGCAL) and Google Payments (GOOGMON).

You can see that Google Payments shares are trading at $13.47 at the moment. The shares fluctuated from about $6.5 to $14.0 in the last year of trading. The buzz index moves up and down according to searching activity for the word "google payments" and other related terms like 'google wallet' and 'google paypal'.

If you're interested in this, you might also be interested in Alexadex, a fantasy stock market where  people can buy and sell shares of websites.

Google's Future Plans: Indexing All Sheep in the Universe, Crop Circles, and Micropayments :)

Apparently, there's this huge whiteboard at the Googleplex that acts as a freely editable blueprint of the company's masterplan. Anyone can contribute to it sort of like an old school wiki. The plan has ideas that range from wacky crop circles to possible like a child care "kinderplex" to very probable: micropayments.

(Via InsideGoogle)

Payment Fraud Experts At Work ;)

Here's a funny cartoon that I ran through on the internet. A PayPal account manager tells his customers how the company's skilled professionals have determined that their account must be frozen.

(Cartoon courtesy of PayPalSucks.com)

Interview with Max Levchin, PayPal Cofounder

Robert X. Cringely inteviews Max Levchin, who with Peter Thiel cofounded PayPal and later sold it to eBay for more than $1 billion. Max talks openly about PayPal's hmble beginings, the hard work that goes into starting a company, and the all nighter engineering culture.

Link: Nerd TV

Post Disaster Buisiness Ideas

Link: Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Storm water for sale on eBay.

The chance to make a quick buck from Hurricane Katrina has not escaped some, with items on eBay including a "rain-soaked newspaper" delivered on the day the storm hit the American south, jars of rainwater and a message in a bottle that supposedly led to the rescue of several families.

Among other items on sale on eBay yesterday was a scribbling that a Texan "artist" claims he drew after waking from a dream 10 days before the storm, which uncannily resembles satellite pictures of Katrina. One man, claiming to be a survivor of the catastrophe, is offering the rights to his story, starting at $12,500 (�6,800).