Google Checkout makes online shopping easier

Online shoppers, rejoyce! Google Checkout promises to make your e-commerce checkout experiences a lot more intuitive, faster, secure and convenient.

For those who wish to see how this new checkout service works, there’s a cool little video that shows how the process happens. There’s also a list of merchants currently using Google’s Checkout service.

Here’s an overview of Google Checkout, in four easy steps.

Search for participating stores, across the web.

Finding stores is quite easy. Just surf in Google’s sponsored links and identify the ads with a little shopping cart to surf to sites that have implemented the Google Checkout service.

Google Checkout

Checkout in a matter of mere seconds.

You don’t have to signup ahead of time, just do your e-shopping and click the Google Checkout button to complete a purchase. If you’re already a Gmail (or any other one of Google’s services) user, just sign in and if not, signing up is a breeze. After that, review your order and you’re done!

Google Checkout

Keep your credit card number and email address confidential.

Avoid pesky merchants and fraudulent intermediaries with Google Checkout. Shop with confidence knowing that your credit card number isn’t shared with sellers. Your email address can also be kept confidential, if that’s what you wish.

Google Checkout

Track all your orders and shipping in one place.

You don’t have to remember usernames and password combinations for every store you visit. Easily browse your purchase history, track orders and deliveries and quickly contact sellers… all from one web page.

Google Checkout

For those who want to know, this isn’t even close to the much anticipated Gbuy service which is intended to compete head-on with PayPal. This being said, PayPal may choose to adjust its own service a bit in view of this new competitor, even if it’s a rather indirect one.

Experts believe this checkout process is part of a larger e-commerce strategy at Google which includes Google Base and the upcoming -and still unofficial- Gbuy. For the time being, it’s an outstanding boost to the Google AdWords program because with this new checkout process, the service is once again differentiated from the competition’s offerings.

Overall, it’s another service that will help merchants sell online and for anyone who loves the web, this is awesome news.

Google blogs all the time

Google It’s clear whatever Google says, Wall Street, Microsoft and basically the whole wired world listens.

Fortunately for “the rest of us” online citizens, there are ways to know what Google said, directly from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Mountain View’s finest Google bloggers inform and entertain us through a dizzying array of blogs which are listed here for your browsing pleasure:

This list may not even be complete so please, if you know about more Google blogs, please submit them! Obviously, as Google Labs come out with more exciting services, we can expect accompanying blogs will be launched.

Still, you have to admit, Google loves blogging!

Google Spreadsheets beta versus MS-Excel

Google Spreadsheets Number crunchers worldwide now have a new and somewhat unexpected ally: Google!

That’s right, not yet satisfied with the massive domination of the online search world, the creative people at Google are taking another blow at Redmond’s giant by opening up their beta testing for Google Spreadsheets.

It may soften Excel sales for weekend users but the accounting junkies out there might find Google’s Labs’ proposed spreadsheet tools very nice but nowhere as complete as in a full blown software package, like Microsoft’s Office.

Google Spreadsheets Example Nevertheless, the offering is absolutely delighful for anyone working in a wired team, at school, at work or anywhere else. Not only can a user quickly create spreadsheets, without downloading anything, the newly created document can be shared with other people, using their e-mail address and then, if the user wants to archive his hard work, he can download a .xls or a .csv version of the spreadsheet. An HTML version is also available, which should prove very useful, too.

You’re invited to try out Google Spreadsheets right away but since this is a beta offering, you’re going to have to wait for Google to invite you and see for yourself if this thing rocks!

Third annual Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco

Web 2.0 Conference - San Francisco Talk to web developers from around the world and you’ll quickly understand why a four years old website the company management approved, in the "boom era", just doesn’t cut it anymore. In fact, if such a site is still online and hasn’t been upgraded, it’s probably sending the wrong message about your company to those who click to it.

The people who build the web know the opportunity for growth exists online more than anywhere else, especially when it’s coordinated within a more global marketing approach using the traditional media.

Meet the Web 2.0 enthusiasts who believe the web, as it’s been presented to us for the last few years, is merely a beta period for even more exciting developments where ideas, capital and a new sense for value define, in part, what the perfect visitor experience should be.

Wether you’re a web developer, a web technologies venture capitalist, a forward thinking manager or simply someone who knows something big is coming, you’re encouraged to consider attending the Web 2.0 Conference, from November 7 to 9, 2006, in beautiful San Francisco as it focuses on emerging business and technology developments that utilize the web as a platform and defines how this global network will drive business in the future.

The event is produced by CMP and O’Reilly. Perhaps you’ll want to join John Battelle as he’ll speak of Federated Media Publishing, a growing network of blogs, based in California. Other noteworthy speakers include the bubbly Jeff Bezos from Amazon, Chad Hurley co-founder of YouTube, Marissa Mayer from Google’s search products, Roger McNamee from Elevation Partners who made private equity funding somewhat e-friendlier, Kevin Rose founder and chief architect of digg, Toni Schneider who is CEO of Automattic and venture partner at True Ventures as well as Mark Zuckerberg serving as CEO at Facebook.

The sponsor list is also impressive, with Hakia, About, Fenwick & West LP, Windows Live, Yahoo!, Foldera, Laszlo, Mayfield Fund, Polaris Venture Partners and Red Herring already listed as media sponsor.

Palace Hotel - San Francisco If you haven’t been on Mars for the last 20 years, you already know the web has become a robust platform with countless innovations driving its ongoing development while widespread disruptions, in traditional business models, are well underway. For those who believe that from a certain level of chaos and disruption, related to the whole Web 2.0 context, can emerge wonderful opportunities, this is a fine time to be building the future, online and off.

Some participants will probably attend the event in order to protect their market positions but surely many of them want to push the envelope on true innovation so if you want to have fun with forward thinkers, this event should deliver contentwise while doing wonders for your social and business networking efforts.

Literally stumbling upon new online friends

To most people, the activity of making new friends is a largely "offline" one. Up to now, the overwhelming majority of relationship web services try their best to match compatible people together.

It’s a process, which you probably know pretty well, where every effort is made to relegate effective selection and screening power to the user.

It was only a matter of time before web developers, somewhere, would think up a system where the selection of a new friend doesn’t happen based on the usual criterias, like revenue, social status, looks, age, gender and nationality.

The new online service dubbed Fo.rtuito.us works for you, as long as you’re ready to put some effort back into it. Technically, as soon as you’re signed up, the services proposes a new randomly selected friendship which you’re invited to pursue by sending an e-mail — this may prove a little awkward, though.

Once the other person gets your message, they can evaluate if they want to be friends with you, largely based on what you’ve sent them. Assuming the recipient of your message accepts your invitation to be a friend, you can continue the relationship from there.

Fortuitous - Fortunate accidents! Because you’ve succeeded in meeting with a new friend, Fo.rtuito.us will reward you with the introduction of a new friend, up to four days after the previous relationship started.

Contrary to other social networking services, you can’t invite other people and they can’t recommend you to anyone else. Fo.rtuito.us is basically generating endless communications channel silos between perfect strangers which, for some people, is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Fo.rtuito.us’ slogan could be something along the line of "Expect the Unexpected"!

If you want to be part of this service’s beta testing, just go ahead and signup. The process takes less than 30 seconds and you can delete your account at any time if you’re unable to meet new friends (or for any other reason).

Posting a picture is part of the choices when signing-up so you can look your best for all those perfect strangers who are blessed enough to e-stumble upon you!