The new ‘Google Purchases’ service (purchases.google.com) will be launched in a few days, and is to allow users to make micropayments within ‘Google Base’ (buy and sell all kinds of items), to acquire licences of ‘Google Earth’, non-free videos from ‘Google Video’, and to pay products of the Google Store.
Users only need their ‘Google Account’ (it’s free and your Gmail account is your pass), and they have to add their credit or debit card information (only Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover are allowed). For security reasons, it’s not allowed to use the same credit card for more than one Google Account.
Credit card information is housed in a single location on Google secure servers, and data are encrypted during transmission with SSL technology.
With this payment information, each time users want to buy an article, they must click ‘Buy’ button (view image) and Google knows which card to charge (with no extra fees) and which address to deliver items (view image). In addition, users are to receive a confirmation email reporting the buy and the amount charged.
At any time users can review their order’s status (view image), along with a link to cancel or have refunded (if sellers’s refund or cancellation policies allow it).
