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Some Don't Gbuy That It Ain't PayPal 
By: SearchNewz Staff 2006-06-16 The details on Google's so-called Gbuy, rumored to be released on June 28, are still sketchy at best. Many have assumed the payment service to be a rival to eBay's PayPal, an assumption Google CEO Eric Schmidt isn't exactly on kilter but some think he's blowin' smoke. Google is often squirrelly on details of forthcoming products and services. Interestingly, the company hasn't been as silent about this one, even if the idea of it still lives in the more abstract realms of the public conscience. At a meeting in New York, Schmidt said that "Gbuy," or whatever it is to be called at launch (interesting that Google's rumored products are often given codenames by the public, rather than project leaders), would not target the same market as PayPal. Not only would it not have the same target, but Schmidt said it would be different entirely. "It's not like PayPal at all," Schmidt said. " It makes no sense for us to go into businesses that are occupied by existing leaders. We want to solve new problems in the payments space." The service will be targeted toward advertisers, not consumers. And he's right, too. Google's never been known to swagger into already dominated markets, um, like search, or email, or instant messaging, or print advertising, or video, or radio advertising, or browsers, or mapping, or spreadsheets, or wireless Internet access, or television, or web analytics, or online sales, or desktop applications, or photo sharing, or mobile telephone services, or news, or web publishing. Right. But there are the cynics out there that think Gbuy, in whatever early incarnation it takes, is just a shoehorn into the online payment market. Targeting advertisers in the beta stage with free transactions won't hurt to generate buzz and acceptance, or critical mass, as they call it. And those same cynics might argue that it makes no sense not to get into the consumer-to-consumer online payment business, if you can...eventually. After all, what if there were only American Express in the offline world? You'd never get into the Olympics, apparently. Gbuy | Drag this  to your Bookmarks.
Add to DiggThis Yahoo My Web About the Author: One of the many staff writers covering the search engine industry for SearchNewz.com. |
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