# Google Launches Google Checkout a PayPal Alternative



## Rodney

Looks like Google has officially launched their *Google Checkout service*. This appears to be a direct competitor to PayPal, with some interesting features (especially for merchants like us).



Google Checkout said:


> *
> Process sales for free. *
> For every $1 you spend on AdWords, you can process $10 in sales for free. For sales that exceed this amount or if you don't use AdWords, you can process them at a low 2% and $0.20 per transaction.


I just signed up for an account there to accept payments and it was pretty painless. Google does ask you for your Federal Tax ID or Social, but other than that, it's a pretty quick application.

You can add Google "Buy Now" buttons to your website:









They have also partnered with a few shopping carts to have automatic integration (none of the free ones unfortunately). 

They also have an API for those programmer geeks out there to integrate into just about any cart 

This could be a good way for people who want to accept credit cards, but don't have a merchant account (and want an alternative to PayPal) to get started selling. They even use "t-shirts" as their example buy now button 

One of the first things I purchased (on the consumer side of Google Checkout) was a t-shirt from t-shirts.com. The process was very similar to PayPal, except that there were more updates about the status of the order.

Definitely worth "checking out":
*https://checkout.google.com*


----------

