"In its quest to 'organize the world's information,' Google now wants to keep track of your credit card number and where you live. The company is introducing Google Checkout today, a service that will allow users to make purchases from online stores using payment and shipping information they keep on file with Google," says The New York Times.
Google Checkout was formerly code-named Gbuy. The story says:
Google is charging merchants 20 cents plus 2 percent of the purchase price to process card transactions, less than most businesses pay for credit card processing. Banking industry executives say that credit card processors typically pay MasterCard and Visa a fee of 30 cents and 1.95 percent for every purchase, so Google will be subsidizing many transactions.
What is more, for every $1 a company spends on search advertising, Google will waive the fees on $10 worth of purchases. Factoring in the 2 percent fee, that represents a rebate of at least 20 percent of advertising spending.
Later, the story says:
While Google's tactics may be seen as aggressive competition, the company is unlikely to run afoul of antitrust laws because it does not have a monopoly in the market.
Comment: The interesting question isn't whether Google is abusing its power -- in most cases, the US anti-trust laws are at best equivalent to tossing a coin -- but whether it is putting itself in a position to acquire one. See Google releases answer to Microsoft's Passport, below.
Ultimately, of course, it may not matter. You could just forget about the net and give Google all your information directly (Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Video, Pages, Base, Blogger, Picasa, Gdrive, Books, online applications etc). Since Google is on track to get all the advertising, it makes perfect sense for Google to handle all the financial transanctions as well. Maybe you won't even have to worry about things like "net neutrality" if Google provides the Wi-Fi and uses the dark fibre it's buying to handle the delivery as well. Conspiracy theories often make good science fiction novellas, and this one could be very interesting.....
