If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Google will introduce a "test" version (or is that beta?) of Gbuy as early as this week, according to those familiar with the situation. The service will undoubtedly compete directly with PayPal and is set to initially attract customers by offering an unspecified rebate to those who use GBuy to complete their online purchases. Also, Google plans to integrate GBuy with its current advertising network, as yet another incentive.

So basically if you search for "iPod" or "MP3 Player" using Google, you’ll see the regular text ads but with an added symbol/icon which means that that particular merchant accepts GBuy payments. In the past, you’d normally be linked to that web site when clicking on the  ad. Now, while you’ll still end up at the same site, you’ll end up at a different checkout process
integrated with Google if you choose GBuy for your transaction.

The same WSJ sources explained that Google’s merchant fee will include heavy discount pricing that will be given to merchants participating in Google’s AdWords advertising program. Apparently, merchants who spend money on Google’s ad system could get the cost of payment processing through Google dropped to nothing.

This, indeed, is bad news for PayPal, which has already had some issues with certain customers since the eBay acquisition.