Google Checkout is now live. The service is something of a PayPal competitor but depending on whose analysis you read it may or may not directly compete. From what I read it seems certain to compete with PayPal.

Google Checkout could be a great e-commerce solution for your clients. Small clients with few products can use “Buy Now” buttons to sell products online. Larger clients with hundreds or thousands of products and an existing shopping cart system can use Checkout’s more sophisticated functionality to offer an even better shopping experience.

As a consumer/shopper I see these key benefits to using Google Checkout. If Google Checkout gains traction among more sellers, it’ll put pressure on your clients who sell online to offer this payment method too.

1. Use one account (your Google Checkout account) to purchase at many websites
2. Avoid getting more spam from places where you shop online
3. Track all orders in one place (rather than visiting the various sites from which you purchased)

For sellers there are a few attractive features beyond the ability to quickly setup Google Checkout on a website. Google’s fees are pretty reasonable at 2.0% + 0.20 per transaction. Also, for every $1 a seller spends on AdWords, Google will credit the seller $10 in transaction fees. So…spend more money on advertising (Google’s main revenue stream) and they’ll make it up to you when you make a sell.

It’ll be interesting to see how quickly online merchants adopt Google Checkout as a payment solution.

View the Google Checkout product tour page here.

Google’s much anticipated calendar program is now available (although still in Beta). As you might expect, Google Calendar is free, fast, and well integrated into their Gmail software. The ability to create and share multiple calendars makes this a possible solution for scheduling project milestones with clients. Read the rest of this entry »

I think every website should have a Content Management System (CMS). Fortunately website owners are starting to think so too, but I still occasionally encounter a customer who doesn’t see the need or benefit of having a CMS.

Here are 10 reasons every website needs a Content Management System. Read the rest of this entry »