Google Paypal competitor to help blogs
Google is preparing to launch a competitor to the eBay owned Paypal, long the favored payment method of many on in the blogosphere, and bloggers will benefit as a consequence.
Paypal has long been the payment method of choice for many smaller bloggers who sell advertising on their sites, or who utilise the Blog Ads advertising service. Paypal is also used highly on auction site eBay.
The introduction of a Google competitor would provide leverage that Paypal has never had and would potentially see the introduction of the worlds first true virtual payment system that could boast majority representation, unlike Paypal, whilst strong in some areas, is still not universally accepted.
The consequence for the blogosphere, if the new payment method is accepted, could potentially be ground breaking, as an electronic currency exchange underpinning the vast majority of transactions and transferable into multiple currencies would go a long way in providing a more level playing field in the blogosphere to bloggers outside of the United States, who in many countries do not have access to local currency conversion through existing payment methods such as Paypal, nor are they able to effectively spend their earnings made in Paypal with a large number of complimentary or retail services; the net effect potentially being a massive increase in intra-blogosphere trading and spending that has no geographic boundaries.
Here in England we now have a PayPal UK, which helps a bit. But, as you say, it has many drawbacks, and the number of online businesses that don’t accept it seems to be larger than those that do. I’ll certainly be interested in a new service from Google. Mind you, I’m still waiting for the Google browser to show its shy little head. Something called Google 4.0 did visit my blog a few months ago, since then, zilch. Let’s hope the financial service is a bit more sprightly.