Google Checkout -- the Unofficial Blog

Pay per View / Subscriptions Straight from Your Desktop

In my Google Payments Report I talked about how consumers will soon be able to buy subscriptions or pay-per-view content straight from the search page.

Today Click&Buy (an epayments company) and Serence (a desktop widgets company) announced the integration of their two products. You can now use Serence's KlipFolio client not only for reading RSS feeds, getting weather updates, and monitoring stock information, but also to buy specialized reports, music, or any type of paid content.

This brings convenience for the conusmer: immediate buying, and a new distribution channel for content owners: selling their premium content on the web as well as on the desktop.

The Google Desktop product initially started as a plugin that lets you search our computer from the Google Search page but evolved into an all inclusive client that lets you read your news, check the weather, and stay connected to your favorite blogs (picture). Another company in that space is Konfabulator (it was bought by Yahoo and now runs under the name Yahoo Widgets).

It wouldn't be far-fetched if Google extended Google Desktop Search 2.0 to include paid content.

Click & Buy + Serence KlipFolio:

Wireless Moves the Cash Register Where You Are

When Michelle Dube, a golf instructor in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., finishes a lesson, she whips out her BlackBerry wireless device - to schedule the next appointment, sure, but also to swipe the student's credit card for payment right there on the driving range.

Link: Wireless Moves the Cash Register Where You Are - New York Times.

AliBaba to EachNet: Let's Have Free Auctions

ChinaTechNews has reported that Alibaba has invited eBay's China operation, eBay EachNet, to make its services free to users. OPW had reported earlier that AliBaba will be continuing its free auction offering for three more years with the goal of creating a 1 million entrepreneur strong community around their service.

People Are Buying More Gift Cards

A survey predicts that consumers this year will spend about $250 on gift card this holiday season compared to $233 last year. Although these numbers relate to offline sales, I can easily see how this behavior can shift to the online world too.

Link: Nashville Business Journal

Minipreneurs Are the Long Tail of Online Payments

According to a survey by Mastercard and Warillow International , there are more than 5 million web-driven entrepreneurs who rely on the internet for part of their business.

Trendwatching, a company that monitors new trends, has dubbed this phenomenon the minipreneur trend. I think there's great business to be made with this market segment. Minipreneurs and online payment providers are natural complementors.

Read the article on TrendWatching.com

No Late Charge Credit Cards

Yet another psychological innovation from the credit card industry. I hope people read the fine print on that one.

Credit card companies are pushing new cards with a twist: no $39 fees for late payments.

Designed to blunt criticism of ever-higher fees, the new cards -- with names like "Simplicity" and "Clear" -- still can ding late payers. After extolling its new features, Citibank's Simplicity card offer warns that late payments could trigger an increase in the interest rate charged on balances as well as a negative credit report. Such reports often cause other lenders to boost interest rates on a consumer's other outstanding debts.

Link: Washington Post.

Buy a Burger with Your Mobile

McDonald's is testing out a system that lets customers buy food with a contactless card. Other companies participating in the pilot program include cinemas, highway toll booths, and 7 Eleven. Another.

Another similarly convenient approach to buying is through the mobile phone. One example of that includes a phone launched by BenQ and Philips in Taipei that lets citizens buy train tickets.

Link: Silicon.com.

Throwaway Credit Cards for the E-Commerce Averse

Credit card companies are offering disposable credit card numbers. The consumer signs up at the credit card's website and downloads a program. When the user is ready to buy something from an online store the software gives him a randomly generated 16 digit number that can be used.

Link: Wahington Post

High Gas Prices Is Good for E-Commerce

According to the NY Times' Bob Tedeschi the high price of gasoline is driving people to boot their PC's isntead of starting their engines to the mall - interesting observation about how two seemingly diverse issues are related. According to a recent survey by Shopzilla, 40% of internet shoppers said that they had increased their web purchases to save on gas.

Link: New York Times.

Click & Buy to Offer Phone Billing in US

Link: InternetRetailer.com - Daily News for Monday, September 26, 2005.

Click&Buy, an Internet-based micro-payments network that allows consumers to pay small prices for web-based digital content, will offer U.S. users a phone billing option through SBC Communications Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. beginning in November.