A new and easy way to offer Google Checkout promotions to buyers

Thursday, October 29, 2009

We're pleased to announce a new feature that will allow Google Checkout merchants based in the U.S. to create and to run their own Checkout promotions at any time.

Starting today, you can sign in to your Checkout merchant account, go to the 'Tools' tab, and click the 'Promotions' link to create a Checkout promotion in less than a minute. You'll be able to specify the date and time you'd like the promotion to run, as well as choose from a variety of dollar-off discounts to offer your buyers.

Whenever you run a Google Checkout promotion, the standard Checkout button on your website will be automatically updated to display the discount amount and cart minimum. Additionally, for AdWords advertisers, we'll change the standard Checkout badge appearing on your AdWords ads to a Checkout badge that includes the discount amount as shown below. These promotional badges have been introduced to enable shoppers who search on Google.com to easily identify and take advantage of promotional offers.

Checkout promotions are a great way to attract new buyers, and we're excited to make this functionality more widely available. Please visit our Help Center for detailed instructions on setting up your own Checkout promotion. Thanks for using Google Checkout!

Posted by Gina Del Vecchio, Google Checkout Specialist

Google Checkout Security Tips for National Cyber Security Awareness Month

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

In the spirit of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, we'd like to take a moment to provide some tips for keeping your financial information secure across the web.

At Google Checkout, the confidentiality of the personal information stored within your account, including your credit card and bank account numbers, is our highest priority. This information is stored on our servers with extensive safeguards in place, and we won't share it with anyone except under the limited circumstances described in our Privacy Policy.

In addition, here are a few tips to help keep your information safe as you browse the web and conduct business online:

• When shopping online, investigate the seller before you buy. A legitimate business or individual seller should give you a physical address and a working telephone number at which they can be contacted in case you have problems.
• Check for a secure (https) connection when transmitting any sensitive information such as credit card numbers.
• Don't reuse passwords across multiple accounts, and make sure your passwords are strong.
• Always navigate to your online banking account directly (by entering the URL in your browser or using a bookmark), not by clicking on links in emails.
• Whenever possible, avoid logging in to your online banking account or entering any other sensitive information onto websites while using a public computer.
• Always log out completely after using online accounts, and never save your passwords on public computers.
• Beware of money scams.

Although National Cyber Security Awareness Month only comes around in October, remember to visit the Google Checkout Security Center for valuable cyber security information year-round.

Posted by Jessica Smallman, Checkout Risk Operations

Improvements to developer documentation

Monday, October 19, 2009

We've improved and reorganized the Google Checkout Developer Guide in several ways to make it easier for developers to choose and implement one of Checkout's integration options.

First, we've updated the left-hand menu and improved navigation throughout the documentation. We've also expanded the documentation to include all integration options, including email invoices, Buy Now buttons, and the store gadget. You can now either read more about which integration option is best for you or you can use the new recommender to guide you through a step-by-step questionnaire to help you decide.

In addition, we've reorganized the documentation into three main sections that are shown in the left-hand menu: 'How To', 'Developer Guide', and 'API Reference'. Two of the sections have been further divided into 'Part I: Setting up Checkout orders' and 'Part II: Processing orders'. In Part I, each integration option has a detailed 'How To' page that describes how to modify your website so that buyers can purchase your product or service through Google Checkout. In Part II, you can find details about the different ways to process those Checkout orders. In-depth descriptions of the HTML API and XML API for both Parts I and II can be found in the 'Developer Guide' section.

Please submit any comments or suggestions about these changes to the Developer Guide documentation category of the Checkout Merchant Forum.

Posted by Doug Kramer, Technical Writer