Google Checkout: buyer frustration leads to abandoned cart

[mandy]

From John Battelle's Search Blog:

Herewith the story of my attempts to buy a Dora the Explorer Mr. Face Plush Backpack from ToysRUs using Google Checkout. In short, Google now has my credit card number. (It's one I use for testing, however). It feels kind of odd, to be honest.

It seems Google is obviating the merchant entirely vis the ongoing data relationship with the buyer. The registration screen states: ""Google" will appear by the charge on your credit card statement. Your card number will not be shared with the seller."

Why on earth would anyone want this to be the case? To lose your relationship with the buyer? What information *is* passed back to ToysRUs? What rights do I have to that information, and to know how it's used between Google and the merchant? ...

full article: http://battellemedia.com/archives/003129.php

Auctionbytes analysis of the article:

Search engine guru John Battelle blogged about Google Checkout on his blog on Monday. John wrote the book "The Search," which raised some excellent points about privacy and such issues as whether search engines are obligated or likely to protect user data when government agencies come knocking.

He raises some of those privacy concerns in Monday's blog post. While I think they are valid, one has to ask whether credit card companies, banks and PayPal are any different from Google in terms of protecting transaction data. What is different that is clear from reading his book is how much of a user's data Google has. Credit card companies do not have a customer's email correspondence, nor do they know what customers are searching for online...

full article: http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blo...90124.html

[thentavius]

Good thing I disabled Google Checkout from my MC store.