Azi am descoperit cum sa cumpar aplicatii platite din Android Market.

Desi Android Market nu permite cumpararea aplicatiilor decat din cateva tari (in restul tarilor, printre care si Romania, in Market, nu apar aplicatiile platite), am gasit o solutie.

Exista o aplicatie – Market Enabler, ce permite “falsificarea” locatiei telefonului.

Aplicatia este doar pentru telefoanele rooted!

Astfel, Android Market nu isi mai da seama ca sunt din Romania, ci folosesc telefonul in US prin T-Mobile sau oricare alta locatie imi convine.

Market Enabler ma lasa sa imi salvez (sa fac un backup al locatiei curente), sa imi aleg o noua locatie sau sa restaurez locatia originala.

Inainte de a instala si configura aplicatia, trebuie sa aveti setat contul de Google Checkout (prin care se fac toate platile) folosind adresa de email pe care o folositi si pe telefon.

Odata setata metoda de plata (Visa/Visa Electron/ MasterCard/ Maestro) puteti instala aplicatia, falsifica locatia si deja puteti vedea in Market toate aplicatiile (free / paid)

Mommies, have you ever been shopping with your little one(s) and needed to go into the fitting room? Uuggghhhhh!!! First there’s the challenge of finding a fitting room large enough to fit you, your child(ren), and possibly a stroller. Then you have to try on clothes with your entourage in tow, who’d probably rather be at home watching Nick Jr. And if your kids are anything like mine, they think the fitting room is a miniature playground waiting to be explored. This can be a lot!

Well Banana Republic is making an effort to simplify this process a bit. It’s called “Fitting-Room Checkout”. Your sales associate will ring and bag everything you want while you change back into your clothes. When you come out of the fitting room, your merchandise will be waiting for you and you’re out the door! (Typically this kind of service comes with high-end retailers but Banana Republic is breaking the mold.) Anything that helps mommies shopping with their children get in and out quickly seems like a great idea! Hopefully more retailers with follow BR’s lead.

Be fabYOUlous!!!!

Mop and bucket to ailse 3

Obviously, the lady doesn’t know that she’s standing in a crowded supermarket in just her underwear.  There is only one thing worse than a wedgie when your melons are being bagged – and that is having to queue up behind a senile, half-dressed, old woman at the checkout counter.

The projectors that got checked out yesterday were improperly completed:

1. the correct due date was not printed on the main checkout form
2. the TLC staff person did not initial the page

If someone checks out more than one piece of equipment, especially if it is major like an LCD projector, you must note that on the page that the person signs!!!!

Remember, this is a contract and it must be accurate WHEN THE STUDENT SIGNS IT.

If this continues, I may have to start giving out warnings. Sorry, but it’s really important we stay on top of this.

Thanks,
Tania

or checking out a specific commit.

First, one has to locate the hash of the commit. This can be done by:

1. Scanning the log by running “git log” (press q to quit). Look for lines labeled commit.
2. Scanning the log in giggle. Look for the SHA-line. Example:
   

In this case our hash is 7f8d2051582dd030e3c07ded70010af033461e31.

Then, come up with a name for a branch to refer the this specific revision. For this example we will use old-branch.

Last, set up the branch by running:

git checkout -b old-branch 7f8d2051582dd030e3c07ded70010af033461e31

Syntax: The general syntax is: “git checkout -b BRANCHNAME HASH“

“If you are demanding registration before checkout, you need to cease this practice immediately. It is costing you a fortune.”

-Tog: How to acheive painless registration

T-Mobile USA is increasing its investment in the Google Android platform even more, by improving the application experience, according to a keynote given by CTO Cole Brodman said this morning at Open Mobile Summit this morning in San Francisco.

The company said that in time for Thanksgiving, T-Mobile will introduce a T-Mobile Channel, which will provide recommended content for the Google Android devices. Already, T-Mobile is providing a so-called “AppPack,” which suggests 34 free and paid apps. The bigger announcement today is that T-Mobile will soon enable carrier billing, which will allow customers to buy apps using their monthly bill, rather than having to use Google Checkout. [...]

Here’s what T-Mobile has witnessed in terms of myTouch consumer behavior:

• About half myTouch users visit the Android Market at least once per day.
• 80% of myTouch users browse the web at least once per day, and 2/3 say several times per day.
• Nearly half of myTouch users say they have “completely customized” their myTouch.
• More than 40% of myTouch users access social networking sites multiple times per day.

via Updated: T-Mobile USA Will Add Its Own Channel And Carrier Billing to Android Market | mocoNews

This is my very first entry, and I want to give you all something straight away.  Below, you’ll find a link to a site called clixsense which has worked very well for me.  Now, with clixsense you can choose to sign up for free, or become a premium member for just ten dollars.  Premium membership gives you a lot more links to click.  I became a premium member, and immediately I received nearly five hundred clicks.  Anyway, here’s the link so that you can check it out and start making money!

http://www.clixsense.com/?2695032

I am actually over the jetlag now. I am now working overtime at the Christmas job, and honest to God I have not had the time to sit down and just type. I’m taking the fact that I have no spare time and struggle to not fall asleep on the bus as a good thing, and thus the blog has been at the bottom of a list, just under my reminder to make sandwiches.

Expect an update about my wacky holiday adventures and failing my entrance into the Civil Service AGAIN probably on Sunday or Monday.

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Home Controls has added two new ways to ensure safe — and convenient — online shopping. We’ve added Checkout With PayPal and Google Checkout. Now, when you are ready to purchase your home systems at www.homecontrols.com, you have the option of choosing to complete your order with Home Controls, a trusted name for the past 20 years, or use your PayPal or Google accounts.

The permanent position for the new key – on the red lanyard – is hanging on the drawer handle at the front desk. If I see it anywhere else, you will hear me nag about this. Please always replace it to its permanent position until the end of the night, when it goes in the drawer as usual.

When rechecking equipment, you MUST cross out the automatic due date on the recheck sheet and write in the correct one. You also MUST update the board. Last night, we had two pieces of equipment go out where the board was not updated and the due date was not changed, so we have to guess when the customer is going to bring the equipment back.

Also, if there is more than 1 sheet for a checkout (i.e. they renew it twice or have more than one piece of equipment) please staple all sheets together before filing.

Thanks for you cooperation!! Tania

In my last post I explored the E-commerce fundamentals of the online fashion store Motel Rocks. In this post I plan to delve deeper into the logistics of the website and explore it’s E-Business “Infrastructure’. 

According to Compete.com and Quarkbase.com, on average, Motel Rocks receives 397 unique visitors per month. In comparison to it’s competitors, Newlook.co.uk an online fashion store we drew comparison with last week, receives 14,539 unique visits per month and another competitor, Topshop.com, recieves a staggering 140,944 unique visits per month! The graph below visualises the difference between the number of unique visits NewLook and Motel Rocks receive over a twelve month period. In the month of June 09 there is a difference of 12,000 unique vists between the two webstores. Quarkbase describes Motel Rocks’ internet traffic as ‘Minimal’, but increasing, and Newlook as ‘Moderate’ and successfully holding it up.

The process of purchasing from Motel’s webstore is straight forward and user friendly. You simply browse through their online catalogue, select an item you want and click ”Add to Basket” below the selected item. This then brings you to your “shopping basket”, a page which displays all the items you wish to buy. At this point, if you feel you do not want to add any more items to your basket, at the bottom of the page there are 5 different delivery options available, varying from location “Uk, Europe or Rest of the World”, or for those in the UK, how soon you want to receive your package “Uk Standard Delivery or Uk Special Delivery”. The cost of each delivery option varies, the further your distance from the UK, the higher the delivery charge, and the sooner you wish to receive your package, the higher the charge.

After selecting your desired delivery method, you may then click “Go To Checkout“. This brings you to a page that display the total price of your purchase, including VAT and selected delivery charge. You are asked to provide personal details, including name and delivery address. Once providing these and agreeing with Motel Clothing’s terms and conditions, you may click “Checkout”. This leads you to a final confirmation page, which display the delivery address, total final price of the purchase. You are asked to select your preferred payment method, the only available option is credit card. After confirming everything is correct, you may then click “Checkout” for a final time to place your order. Motel does not handle your personal card details and so clicking “Checkout” this time leads you away from motelrocks.com, to a third party website secpay.com. Secpay are a credit card authorisation online company. Once you provide your personal card details you are asked to click “Authorise“. All being well with your credit card, you are forwarded back to motelrocks.com, with a confirmation of your order and a promise your items will be with you soon.

There are numerous new channels to market e-business, one example being mobile device access, internet access from your mobile phone. The increasing availability of 3G internet on mobile phones means that the internet is available at your finger tips, anytime, anywhere. It’s possible to check your emails on the go, look at websites and even in some cases, make actual online purchases from your mobile. Any company that does not take advantage of the fact that internet on phones is now becoming a staple feature on every modern mobile, are losing out. Motel could use this technology to their advantage. They could create a mailing list, to email potential customer with sales, offers or news about the company. They could send SMS’s to let people know about the latest additions to their catalogue. The aim of successful marketing is to become more and more accessible to customers, and through the medium of mobile internet, Motel’s site traffic could go from “Minimal” to “Moderate” in a very short space of time!

Q.4

The website that i have chosen is Hollister Co. as it is an American based company and owned by Abercrombie & Fitch, Abercrombie & Fitch would be its real main competitor, the only thing separating the two companies would be price, its other competitor would be American Eagle, another American company. I used a website called http://www.trafficestimate.com/to check to see how many visitors the site has had in the last month. Hollister Co. has had an estimated  1, 037, 400 visits in the previous month. Abercrombie & Fitch has had 130, 600 visits in the previous month although this is a website for users in the UK only the American site had generated an estimated 1,400,600 visits.

 Above is a graph that shows how much visit each of the sites has had over the past year. It is clear that Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister Co. have had around the same amount of visits, although American Eagle has clearly twice as many visits.

Q.5

The process in purchasing an item from Hollister Co. is as follows:

• The user needs a modem to gain Internet access.
• The user will need to download an Internet browser.
• Once connected to the internet, go to the address bar and type in www.hollisterco.com.
• When the page is loaded click on the hyperlink to view boys or girls.
• Browse through the site until you decide what you want.
• Click the item you like.
• The image will be enlarged and you will have the option to pick what size you want, select a size and click “Add to Bag”.
• In the top right hand corner it will say “My Bag”, click on that and it will display all the items you have put in your shopping cart.
• Proceed by then click “Checkout”
• You will go through a series off 3 steps, first filling in your billing information, secondly puting in your account details to pay for the items and thirdly checking that the details are correct and you then click “Buy”.
• Once this is done an automated message will be sent to the warehouse for dispatching.
• The items will then be delivered from an outside company such as Fed Ex or UPS to the local airport, where the items will be shipped via plane.
• When arrived a local courier service will collect them and they will be hand delivered to your door.

Q.6

With the huge Increase in the use of mobile devices such as mobile phones and laptops and other hand held devices that allow people to access the internet while they are on the move.

Mobile Commerce could be a way forward for the Hollister Co. People use mobile phones for every day use. If  Hollister Co. could invest on advertising and research into the new mobile commerce it could increase the number of people viewing and buying the product. It could introduce new users to the company. Setting up a Mobile Commerce means that customers can get reminders sent of up coming sales and promotions, can get adverts sent via text of new stock etc. Statistics show that there are three times as many mobile-phone subscribers as Internet users worldwide. This is a gap into the market to expand and promote Hollister Co. Early retail adopters are already finding ways to factor the mobile phone into multichannel service delivery. For the more basic mobile offering, retailers are using SMS to communicate promotions. 42% of retailers provide the ability to view product information on a mobile device through reformatted web pages or specific mobile pages, with a bit of develop research and enhancement into mobile internet usage i feel could be a another succesful income for the company.

With the Internet being opening for anyone, whenever and wherever, there is huge competition between companies. Although I do believe that there isn’t really a huge market for online rentals LoveFilm has done extremely well on the concept. But branching off to sales has entered them into a huge competitive area.

Compete.com is a site analysis tool, it allows users to view traffic to a provided site. There is also a pro edition which you can users can go more in-depth analysis. I used this utility to find out how many visits LoveFilm has on average a month.

I then compared it to the biggest rivals I believe LoveFilm are competiting against, Amazon and Play.com, this is to see what sort of traffic they are receiving and which site has the most customers. As you can see from the graph below, amazon have a huge amount of custom a hell of a lot more than Play.com and LoveFilm put together.

Like all stores online today, they require membership. A simple registration form that takes the costumers details for delivery purposes, identification and security issues. On entering LoveFilm, you can almost start this registration process immediately; it has banners showing their latest deals and cheapest rental plan.

When registration has been complete, LoveFilm allows users to browse the massive collection of titles they offer for rental. They have not just movies, but TV series, games and even adult entertainment. Users create what is known on their site as a wish list, it simply is a list of titles that the user wishes to rent. Users can rank and order the rentals in when they wish them to come. Users can also pre-order titles ensuring when the rental becomes available they are the first to receive their copy.

When a rental arrives to the customers house, it is well packaged and envelops are reusable for free postage on return of the rental, this is very appealing. The service has no late fees, so the DVD can be kept as long as they want, but can not cancel a subscription until the title is return, nor get the next requested title if the DVD limit is maxed.

With the change in new channels of business, I believe that LoveFilm can get a hold of the digital television market. Like television on demand, I strongly believe if the company can make an offer with a digital television provider SkyTV, VirginMedia or BTVision they can offer all the titles for rental digitally direct to the users television. With no deliveries and customers get their film within seconds. I strongly believe this could add huge new customers to LoveFilm, and increase more traffic online if they wish a hard copy of a movie.

Q.4. The competitors of Evans would be next as well as new look.  Some of the stores that are in partnership with Evans and share the same business model would be Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, outfit, Topman, Topshop, Burtons and Wallis’s but all are competing to get the most sales.

There is an estimated number of 14, 853 visits per day to the site www.evans.co.uk this has been the number of hits on the site.  Next would have an estimate of 154,025 visits per day, as for New Look they have an estimate of 67,929 visits per day.  There appears to be a difference between Next and New Look of 86,096 of a difference between those two sites with Evans added it changes and it comes down to 71,243 which show that it drops.  With these numbers they are just estimates using statbrain.com

visitors that viewed similar sites to evans

hey have had the below average industry mileage pattern of about 6,000 business miles per car and the overall co2 on company cars are better than industry standards of 164g/km.

Q.5. Evans uses a login system, you register online with your email address as well password with your details, with the online system you can also track you purchases as well as create a wish list and place them on your wish list and then you can purchase items online, you also have the option of going in store and paying by card as well as with cash, you also have the option of getting a Evans card where you can buy now and pay next month.  The technology used is similar to eBay and Amazon, it’s where you have entered you details to an account and they deliver as well as well as post the items to the house or even in store for Evans case as you can order via the store with the catalogue.

delivery

Q.6. Evans already advertises there business through sending their customers emails as well as catalogues through the door; they also have the system online.  They would also send promotions and sales on items, the site is quite large and has various sections for the customers to choose form, and this makes it hard for the customer unless they know exactly what it is that they want to order or if they are just browsing.  If you have a PDA then you can access the site itself but to my knowledge mobile phone access would not give the site justice bar hits on its page.  If the digital TV or the new TV’s out that allow access to internet via your TV it could boost the company.  Before the company would advertise using this means of marketing they would have to consider sales, whether they have been poor or good, if either they could use this means of advertising to assist them in boosting sales.  There would have to be a team to consider this option, they would have to assess their current situation on the marketing front as well as their competitors as well if they have the money to go in this direction, depending on funds within the company and their budgets.

(for images of delivery this can only be accessed by the login page, stats on internet usage are on http://www.attentionmeter.com/ this is where you type in sites you want to compare)

Q4

Great Univesal – been online since 30 March 1998. 1,545 Traffic Rank in Great Britiain. 95% of it’s users are from the UK. 0.8% are from Germany. 0.5% from Taiwan. And 2.8% from Other.

Statistics for Great Universal

In comparison with other sites, great universal has the least ranked traffic. Using attentionmeter.com, I compared great universal with next, argos and new look and got the following results:

Comparison to similar sites/companies

This chart shows that the most popular site out of the four is Argos, while the least popular is Great Universal.

Great Universal gets on average 9,951 hits per day, according to statbrain.com. StatBrain also provides information such as how many links are on the web linking to the site in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. It also lets the user know that the server for the company is located within Europe. Other sites provide information such as development tools used on the site (which is Apache webserver and jQuery), and where the site domain was purchased from (Network Solutions, Llc.) This information is provided from quarkbase.com

Q5.

When purchasing something from GreatUniversal.com the customer goes through various stages of checkout. Firstly, the customer has to decide what it is they want to purchase. This can be done by enterting a catalogue number, a keyword or by simply browsing through the site. Once the user has decided what it is they want, they can simply add it to their shopping basket after choosing how they wish to pay – however to use the weekly payment options the user has to be registerted to the site and have an account:

Add to Basket

Once the item has been added to the basket, a pop-up appears telling the user it has been added, and do they wish to continue shopping or go to their basket. For this example, the user will go straight to their basket so they can complete check-out.

Go to Check-out

This page confirms what the user has in their basket, and then gives them the link so they can complete the check-out. After they click to complete check-out, they are prompted to sign in either with their e-mail address or their account number. Once they have logged in, they are again brought to a page where they can confirm their order before they complete check-out:

Confirm and Pay

Once the user has checked everything, they can then click ‘pay by card’. As they have to be registered to use the site, their address is stored on the site and they only have to enter their card details if they have not already got a card saved on the site to use.

Once they complete their order, a confirmation window is then brought up letting the user know their order is being processed. They will also receive an e-mail from the site confirming this. If the payment goes through, the user can then track their order in the ‘my account’ tab of the website. However, if the payment does not successfully go through, the user is sent out a letter by the post telling them what went wrong with their order and asking them to contact the company to discuss it. Again, if it is successful, it is sent out by a delivery company, and has to be signed for if it is electrical. The company also offers a free returns feature by the same company.

Q6

Great Universal already advertises their business thoroughly through sending out promotional items in the mail to their current customers. Great Universal’s site is quite big in that it has a wide selection for its customers to choose from; therefore unless the customer knows what it is they are after, I do not think mobile access to the site would do the site itself justice. Therefore, it would have more potential if accessed from digital television. Before the company itself were to advertise going in this direction however they would have to consider their number of current sales – if they were doing poorly perhaps they could invest more money into advertising their site and ways in which it can be accessed – however if it has steady progress and its sales are growing rather than falling, they could still invest in this new channel to further increase sales. Choices which might need to be made when considering this option include their monthly sales, their current situation within the market and their competitors as well if they have the money to go in this direction

Most people working at the checkout stands in stores are young people with few “people skills” and bored out of their minds.  The lady above, who works the special checkout stand (over 60, pregnant women and disabled people) is exceptionally good at her job.  She works quickly, but still finds time to chat making the usually annoying checkout process pleasant. 

Originally from Natal, she lived São Paulo City for many years before moving to Goiânia and its more secure and less hectic lifestyle.

self-service checkouts fascinate me. i wrote already one article about the self-service checkout in hongkong and its usability issues for a non chinese speaking person. now i discovered another application in a swedish supermarket ICA MAXI. the setup is very different, though, still the customer can checkout by himself.

when entering the supermarket the customer has to choose between a self-service and a traditional checkout. if he wants to use the self-service system he receives a scanner pistol with an attached screen. the scanner is mobile but can be attached to the basket by carrier.
the customer now enters the supermarket and chooses the items to buy. before putting the items into his basket he has to scan it with the scanner. the process of scanning the articles is done item by item while selecting them – not all at once when checking out. the advantage is obvious: the waiting time at the checkout is reduced plus the customer can put all his articles already into the shopping bags. he does not have to lift everything twice (1. into the basket, 2. onto the band-conveyor). he just takes the scanner to a special checkout, pays the amount that is displayed on the scanner and leaves the store.

of course i was curious how ICA ensures that all articles are properly scanned and asked the lady at the cash register. she explained that all self-service customers have to be registered for the ICA club card. the first time the customer wants to use the self-service checkout he has to scan all articles one more time at the cash register. by doing it that way ICA ensures a proper handling of the scanner and shows that they control a proper handling.

very interesting is that most of the miscalculations occur as disadvantage for the customer and not for ICA. most customers are very reliable and scan every article, the lady at the cash register explained to me. but while shopping they often take articles out of the basket and put them back into the shelves (because they like other articles better or decide to not buy them). very often they forget to delete the article from the scanner because of different reasons.

1. habit and assumption: the customer is used that an article that is not in the basket does not have to be paid for. we learned this for several years and it will take us some time until we realize that we have to change this habit.
2. usability: it is easy to delete an article from the scanner. to add an article the user only has to press one button. to delete an article he has to use several navigation buttons and scroll through the shopping list on the small screen in order to find and delete an article. i am not sure if this usability mistake is really a mistake or wanted. from an ICA perspective it would make sense to design the delete process as complex as possible. they actually forgot to describe this process step in the manual of the self-service system.

despite the article removal the ICA solution is the most user friendly solution i have seen so far. it works very well, is reliable, handy and comfortable.

Check out causing the item update event receivers call twice in SharePoint

Google’s latest salvo has lived upto its reputation for disruptive innovations. Purchases through online websites was a service high ground for Paypal. However, Google has innovated on its product bundle very effectively integrating Adwords with its new payment system: Google Checkout.

Google has launched Google Checkout, a payment system for online retailers that’s tightly integrated with Google AdWords. Checkout isn’t the rumored PayPal killer, but it does offer some compelling features for both merchants and online shoppers alike.

Rumors have been flying for more than a year about a payment system under development by Google. Reports emerged that Google was developing a micropayments system, an online wallet, even a PayPal killer (see this blog post for a chronology of Google payments speculation over the past year).

In fact, Google Checkout is simply an extension of technology the company has developed internally for its AdWords, Base, Picasa and other services.

“There are more and more reasons for users to do transactions for Google products. We wanted to generalize that experience,” said Salar Kamangar, vice president, product management at Google.

The idea

Google Checkout is a payment system that can be used either alone or as an alternative to existing checkout systems already in place on a retailer’s web site. Users with Google accounts can simply sign into their account on the retailer’s web site and then click once to complete the checkout process using the credit card number stored with the Google account, rather than having to fill out detailed forms with shipping and payment information.

“It’s not about a universal wallet; it’s about making the checkout process streamlined with the fewest number of steps,” said Kamangar.

In addition to being able to buy with only one or two clicks from any merchant using the program, Google Checkout offers other benefits to users. Since payments will be processed by Google, consumers don’t need to share credit card details with merchants using the system.

The program also has email forwarding controls. If you don’t want email from a merchant, you can turn off in your own Google account. Google will also maintain a transaction history of all purchases you’ve made through Google Checkout.

Google is also offering merchant review ratings from Checkout users, and guarantees that users will have no liability for unauthorized use of their account.

The value to consumers:

1. Hassle free shopping

2. Safety of their money: No liability for unauthorized use of accounts. (Something that Credit Card companies have not been able to guarantee consumers)

3. Franchise and Merchant review ratings and controls

Google Checkout should appeal to merchants, as well. Google is making the code to use Checkout available to merchants at no charge, either through simple cut-and-paste code or through a more sophisticated API. Google is also working with shopping cart providers to integrate Checkout into their systems.

Google will charge merchants 20 cents and 2% of a total transaction cost to use the service—very favorable rates compared with PayPal’s 30 cents and 2.9% fees (PayPal’s fees scale lower with higher-cost transactions). However, merchants who also are Google AdWords advertisers get even more favorable terms.

Google will credit $10 to a merchant for each $1 spent on Google AdWords. For some merchants, this will lower transaction costs for using Google Checkout to virtually nothing. And even though Google CEO Eric Schmidt swore that Google didn’t have eBay’s PayPal system in its sights when developing Checkout, it’s bound to have a significant impact on PayPal’s business.

Value for merchants

1. Better rates than what is available elsewhere.

2. Easier to access and operate

3. Value through the Adwords-Checkout bundle in cost

4. Value through the Adwords-Checkout bundle in terms of SEO Results

Checkout isn’t a person-to-person, stored-value system like PayPal. But with its pricing and ease of use, it’s a compelling alternative for businesses of any size that are currently using PayPal as a payment processing system—particularly with its aggressive pricing and incentives for AdWords advertisers to use the system.

Google has tightly integrated Checkout with AdWords. Any advertiser offering a Google Checkout option will now see their ads displaying with a Google Checkout “badge” icon next to the ad in search results. This visual cue lets searchers know they have the option of using Google Checkout if they click through and buy from that advertiser.

If the program takes off, it’s likely to give an advantage to advertisers who participate in the Google Checkout program, as Google ranks ads in part based on the number of clicks they receive. If searchers display a preference for Google Checkout enabled sites, advertisers displaying the badge will see their ads rise in prominence in search results.

This will surely raise concerns about what Google is doing with the data it’s collecting, as it now has visibility into searcher buying behavior from the first initial queries through the entire clickthrough and conversion process.

Already, many search marketers avoid Google’s free analytics service because they are unwilling to let Google capture data that can show conversion rates, ROI and other cost and profitability metrics. But advertisers risk losing position in search results to other advertisers who are using Checkout.

This will create a conundrum for some search marketers: Which is more important—a high ranking ad or not allowing Google such a complete view of your search-related business transactions?

It also raises the questions of whether Google will use this data to potentially influence minimum bids for AdWords customers, or data-mine it for other uses.

Kamangar says that the data collected is used solely to process payments at this point, though he also declined to rule out other potential uses of the information in the future. He stressed that Google would keep its data collection and use policies transparent to both users and customers, however.

Benefits for Google

1. The association with the payments eco-system

2. A complete tab on the process from Initial querries, click through and conversion

3. With negative connotations, the info collected can be mined by Google to feed into the Adwords making it more efficient in terms of audience relevance per messsage.  

For now, using Google Checkout will be a no-brainer for smaller merchants with limited budgets, as the program provides a valuable service for very low cost and offers additional benefits for advertisers. More established merchants may well want to wait to see how successful the program becomes before jumping in, keeping a close eye on the positioning of competitors’ ads who are using Checkout to see if their ads are getting a boost from consumers clicking through more frequently.

Here is an interesting video intro on Checkout:

Ref: http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/06/29/google-checkout-future-of-micro-payments/