Marketing Defined

Google’s long-awaited payments service, dubbed Checkout, is set to be launched today. The offering is integrated with the company’s AdWords program, displaying an icon on participating advertisers’ ads and giving them a discount on payment processing.

Citibank has partnered with Google to co-market the product, offering users of its credit cards reward points if they sign up for accounts.

“This helps complete a cycle for our users so they can search, find and buy quickly,” Benjamin Ling, the lead product manager for Google Checkout, confirmed.

Speculation about the system has swirled for months, with much ink being spilled over its potential to threaten eBay’s PayPal. Though Checkout shares many characteristics with PayPal, in that it enables small merchants to accept payments on their sites, the Google service doesn’t enable person-to-person transactions and doesn’t let consumers have a cash balance in their accounts. It also doesn’t have shopping cart features yet. Continue Reading »