grobe - 6:43 pm on Feb 28, 2006 (gmt 0)

"it's just a "me too" thing" What are you talking about? Internet payment mechanisms are a very big problem which only works adequately for full-time businesses located in the the industrialized countries selling low-risk products, which are not extremely low-cost. That is there are several groups of people who are having serious problems:
1. The small, part-time seller.
2. The seller located in undeveloped, third-world countries.
3. The seller of high risk products (dating services,...).
4. The seller selling very low cost products (micro-payments, selling access to an article for $.25).

So why don't you give us some names of some companies which offer them? Merchant accounts are too expensive or not available to a great many in these 4 groups. Paypal has serious problems with Buyer Protection and Seller Protection (for example there is no seller protection if a customer wants to send someone a gift (confirmed addreses only)), is only available in a limited number of countries and can't be used for high-risk products. Third party processors are generally quite expensive and have a nasty habit of going out of business owing their merchants a huge amount of money (often for violating Visa/MC rules).

It's not at all clear to what extent Google will help these 4 groups. What will Google do about buyer and seller fraud for example? Could someone clarify?