A web agency weblog

Google Checkout, considered by many the alternative to Paypal, was launched today June 29, 2006. Although the system doesn’t allow user to user transactions like Paypal, yet, I think is an alternative worth trying.

Sites such as Buy.com, Timberland.com, Jockey.com, Starbucks.com and Levis.com are already offering their clients the altenative to use the new system to make their purchases.

Citibank has co-partnered with Google and it’s offering rewards to their credit card clients signing up to the system.

Google Checkout allows you keep your credit card information with them and just use a password to pay in sites using the system. You can link to Gmail account with your Checkout account.

If you run a website you can create Google Checkout buttons and start receiving payments from visitors that don’t want to reveal their credit card data.

Google Checkout charges merchants US$ 0.20 and 2% per transaction (compared to Paypal’s US$ 0.30 and 1.9%) and has some added benefits for those using their Adwords pay per click program:

• You can have free transactions for sales up to ten times your monthly Adwords bill. If you are already an Adwords client and spend, for example, US$ 500 a month in ads, you can process US$ 5000 with Google Checkout and pay no comissions. A nice way of linking both services.
• Adwords ads of sites using Google Checkout will show an icon that could increase exposure and improve CTR.

I signed up for an account just a few hours ago and I’m waiting for a microdeposit from Google, similar to Paypal or Google Adsense when using ACH, to start my testing.

I’m currently using a United States based account and can’t confirm if Checkout is available to other countries, I’d like to know if some of you can tell us about it.

I’ll have more comments in a few days.

I was recently telling a friend that I liked what Bill Gates was doing, leaving Microsoft to put all his efforts in philanthropy. Forget about the we all hate Microsoft thinking; Gates is, for me, one of the good guys now.

And I’ve just read at Fortune that Warren Buffett, the famous investor and world’s second richest man, will give a big chunk of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is working hard to to fight diseases as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis.

You see? Money if nothing. Mr. Buffett and Mr. Gates are proving us that there are better way to spend it than just sport cars and weapons.

Good news today: FeedBurner Email is already available. A free service that allows your readers to subscribe using just email.

Quite useful for those users not familiar with a feed reader.

If there is anything that I always wanted to do, was having my wife working with me. Yesenia and I have a great relationship and there is nothing we enjoy more that being together at home with our daugther.

After many years working in another firm, she decided to quit and join Ventanazul. Well, to be honest I played a big part in that decision: I was always telling her to do it.

Yesenia will be taking care of customer relationships and billing. She will also be participating in some new pet projects which will be made public soon.

If you wish, you can greet her writing to yesenia at ventanazul.com.

Welcome aboard Yesi, thanks a lot for trusting me, I love you.