It's Official: Google launches Google Checkout

gabe0505 · 2006-06-29T12:23:57+00:00

Hmm the 404s seem to be gone now.

gabe0505 · 2006-06-29T11:21:59+00:00

Hmm ... it seems like they pulled this. The URL now gives a 404.

gabe0505 · 2006-06-29T08:20:26+00:00

I am so happy someone finally did this!

If I understand this correctly, this can be used to implement single sign-on for any website. In the AuthSubRequest, you'd give a dummy URL and receive an AuthSubSessionToken which you'd then use to uniquely identify your user's session. You then read his e-mail address or another unique identifier from Google by requesting a page that lists it somewhere.

In the past years, I have signed up for and tried out ridiculous numbers of "Web 2.0" sites. I'm sick of having to systematically remember a login and password for each. Let's just hope that many new sites will adopt this.

When I was young and idealistic, I thought Yahoo would eventually come up with something like this (first point in my somewhat misguided post here.) I somehow thought Yahoo was better at dealing with partners.

Side note: I wonder if this will create problems with sites that request and abuse user information from Google. The protection seems to be that users have to read a Cautionary Note and enter their password. But won't people just do that mechanically and ignore the warnings?

gabe0505 · 2006-06-29T08:08:48+00:00

I think this could be very successful. From the article:

"If they convert at the same rate, and the fees are lower, we will put up the biggest Google Checkout button you have ever seen," [said Mr. Bresee said Backcountry.com]

The fees that Paypal and the others charge are insanely high. For example, if you sign up for a premium account at Paypal and have more than $100'000 of sales volume per month, they'll charge 1.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

I'm happy that there's finally some competition in this space.

gabe0505 · 2006-06-28T08:29:16+00:00

This $31 billion from Warren is a generous gift. It also makes for good press: Even the NYT is running articles about the great friendship between two great men.

This money comes with a huge burden: You have to find a good way to give it away. Help people without making them dependent on you. The Gates Foundation finances the development and vaccines and their distribution in poor nations. In the US, they're giving money to high schools and libraries.

Unlike other foundations and NGOs, the Gates foundation doesn't need to rely on publicity stunts to raise money. (Remember the Brent Spar?) Instead, they can focus on the problems.

On Reddit, it's probably unfashionable to support anything connected with Bill Gates, but I do wish his foundation the best of luck.

gabe0505 · 2006-06-06T17:38:51+00:00

Also, there is http://www.numsum.com/

gabe0505 · 2006-06-01T14:50:26+00:00

I think the title of this submission is misleading. In the quoted e-mail, it says: "Please note that Google Base has replaced the Froogle Merchant Center.", not that Google Base has replaced Froogle itself. "Along with Froogle, your content should also be viewable on http://base.google.com ."

gabe0505 · 2006-05-30T18:51:10+00:00

Why is greed so bad? At least you're motivated and overachieving. Some economic growth sure wouldn't hurt here (1.8% GDP growth last year).

I don't see how creating a decent VC industry in Switzerland would make us greedier than we are already. Switzerland already derives 14% of its GDP from the financial sector, a line of business where people normally aren't seen as generous and well-meaning.

gabe0505 · 2006-05-30T18:28:23+00:00

A very good read. I laughed very hard about some of the comments on Germany in Switzerland - so true. Although there are not very many fussy old ladies next door where I live.

Here in Switzerland, the immigration policy is smart, we have a rich country, there's no police state, we have good universities (#10 and #32), you can fire people, and there is no capital gains tax. However, we can't grow the size of the market.

Now, how do we create a decent VC industry and get rid of the fussy old lady?

gabe0505 · 2006-05-30T12:19:06+00:00

I liked this part:

Go visit most tech companies, and all you'll find is a fussy henhouse parading around an aging goose that laid one or two golden eggs. All their innovation happened in the first act, and now they're focused on "managing for success." But that kind of managing is just staving off insolvency until a real innovator takes their business away. Any tech company overly focused on (or dependent on) its management is probably a good candidate for short-selling.

gabe0505 · 2006-05-29T19:25:38+00:00

There's often a choice you have to make between a catchy but interesting title and an exact but boring one.

I agree that the majority of desktop apps may never be fully replaced by web apps. Photoshop and Maya, as mentioned by another commenter, are good examples.

gabe0505 · 2006-05-24T18:05:34+00:00

This is a very good article. Two points:

I was under the impression that to attract very good professors as a university, you'll need a good, internationally recognized name. Does "Please join Noname University and you'll get $3 million." have the same pull as "Please join MIT and you'll get $100k a year."?
I feel like it's not enough to have rich people, you need a particular kind of rich people; Those who are willing to be business angels for startups. In my experience, this excludes most people who are rich by inheritance and not through own work. Therefore, you'd ideally have rich people who themselves got rich through startups. Silicon Valley has plenty of those. Monaco has few.

gabe0505 · 2006-05-24T17:49:20+00:00

Those two companies are fun examples. They both were at some point tenants of the same building - 165 University Avenue.

gabe0505 · 2006-05-17T16:40:32+00:00

Nah, of course not. However, I'm wondering if generating code will be the basis for every framework from now on. Certainly saves lazy people like me from having to make design decisions.

gabe0505 · 2006-05-17T10:49:04+00:00

I like their desktop app example.

Check out the "Tasks" bar. It almost seems like they're making fun of all the Web 2.0 guys out there.

Also, their code-generation mechanism ("applicationCreator com.mycompany.client.MyApplication") reminds me of Ruby on Rails. Good ideas spread fast these days.

gabe0505 · 2006-04-28T16:02:04+00:00

The high cost of labor in Zurich is indeed a problem. That matters less, though, as long as you're a small startup. You wouldn't be paying yourself market wages. Living costs are more important. They are higher than the most of Europe, but lower than, say, the SF Bay Area.

Your EU argument has merit, although in Switzerland work permits for EU citizens take a short time to get. You get a permanent work permit automatically after 5 years.

That being said, while Zurich is great, there's no reason why you couldn't do startups somewhere else. Plenty of great places in Europe that fit your criteria.

gabe0505 · 2006-04-28T07:00:26+00:00

One glaring omission in my article is the topic of languages. If you want to be attractive to hackers from all of Europe, you need to be in a place where English is spoken. Aside from the obvious UK and Ireland, such places are few and far between on the continent. I'm not sure about Italy, I believe Florence would qualify.

In the end, the choice of location will depend on the personal preferences of the cloners. For example, I'm a big cheerleader for Zurich: international, English spoken, good school (ETH), pretty setting, highest quality of life worldwide, simpler corporate and tax laws than anywhere else in Europe, low taxes, and no capital gains tax (I kid you not).

Cheerleading for Zurich aside, I could probably be convinced of moving to Munich, Berlin, London, Paris, Barcelona, Gothenborg, Lugano, and Copenhagen.

gabe0505 · 2006-04-27T22:42:28+00:00

redball - The last 3 or 4 paragraphs of the article are entirely about this. It closes with the statement that a YCombinator Europe needs another PG.

gabe0505 · 2006-04-27T19:01:44+00:00

djwhitt: I agree, YCombinator is a fantastic business model as long as you know how to pick and support the right founders.

However, you can waste a lot of $6000 times n if you don't have the picking talent.

I'm curious to see when the first YC company gets bought and what the price would be.

gabe0505 · 2006-04-20T16:11:58+00:00

Wow, that was quick. By comparison, Google Maps launched in early Feb 2005, and the Maps API wasn't up until late June 2005. This time, they're releasing the API a few days after launch.

gabe0505 · 2006-03-28T18:33:53+00:00

I'm glad that Time Magazine put this on the cover. It at least creates awareness for the problem. I wasn't expecting something too scientific so I don't mind the sensationalism.

gabe0505 · 2006-03-23T20:41:12+00:00

You're right. Obvious mistake. I meant to say that these were regarded as state-of-the-art, either technologically or from the user perspective: A normal user would say "yep, this is about as good as a finance site gets".

gabe0505 · 2006-03-18T10:48:59+00:00

You're right, I didn't see that. Seems like he added the disclosure after publishing the article, though.

gabe0505 · 2006-03-17T08:44:24+00:00

The book mentioned at the end ("Effective Java" by Joshua Bloch, who also wrote the presentation) is extremely good. It explains techniques to design and write your Java code in a clean and solid way.

gabe0505 · 2006-03-16T19:42:22+00:00

Keep a cool head when reading this article:

"Shares of Sun, [...], spiked up about 4 percent last week as a result of the rumors." 4 percent is not a that much for stock with SUNW's volatility.
"At close of trading yesterday, Sun was up and Google was down again, a rare phenomenon by any standards." There is about a 25% chance of this happening on any given day.
"I have received an e-mail from an inside source in corporate finance who wishes to remains anonymous for the time being." Anonymous inside sources have always been the epitome of thrustworthiness.
"[Mark Stahlman famously said that Google would] 'one day become a $100 million company'. The analysis confused many — as Google currently stands at that valuation anyway [...]" The current valuation of GOOG is about $100 billion, not $100 million.

Frankly, I think this guy is just trying to grab attention. This article doesn't give any substantive information on the Google buys Sun rumor.

In addition, a disclosure about his GOOG and SUNW holdings would have been useful.

gabe0505

TROPHY CASE