buggy Posted December 17, 2002 Posted December 17, 2002 I have an Oscommerce powered site (thanks guys...and Linda!) and now use the Paypal IPN contribution since 2Checkout.com changed their TOS. I recently emailed Google requesting to be included in their new Froogle SE via a datafeed. This would have been the ideal solution to SE friendly URL's. This is their reply: Thank you for your interest in having your products included in Froogle's product search results. At this time, however, we are not able to include you in Froogle, as your site does not conform to one or more of our criteria for inclusion, as below: *It must be possible to complete a purchase through your web site with a major credit card, and at this time, we are not accepting sites that use paypal only for transaction processing. Here is a link to our FAQ about this: http://froogle.google.com/froogle/merchants.html#feed If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email us back. Also, if you accept credit cards in your own format that we missed (or decide to do this in the future), let us know! Thanks again for your interest. The Google Team I have read and reread their FAQ's but see nothing about this. How are we supposed to score if they keep moving the goalposts? :roll:
Ian Posted December 17, 2002 Posted December 17, 2002 Intesting, first time I've heard of this. Does that mean sites will now be spidered twice, once by googlebot then by frooglebot. What worries me most is those coloured balls at the bottom of the faq. Only needs a little bit of gravitational involvement and we have a copyright war on our hands :D Trust me, I'm an Accountant.
Ian Posted December 17, 2002 Posted December 17, 2002 Ok, read some more docs and googlebot does all the hard work. Phew. Is anybody out there working on an automated data-feed maker. I typed oscommerce into the froogle search engine. Over 500,000 hits. :shock: Trust me, I'm an Accountant.
mattice Posted December 17, 2002 Posted December 17, 2002 Ok, read some more docs and googlebot does all the hard work. Phew. Is anybody out there working on an automated data-feed maker. I typed oscommerce into the froogle search engine. Over 500,000 hits. :shock: There's been some talk before that might be interesting if you missed it: http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29344 "Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them"
buggy Posted December 17, 2002 Author Posted December 17, 2002 Checking into it. Cheers Patrick. That's the best news I've heard all day!
buggy Posted January 2, 2003 Author Posted January 2, 2003 I know it's still the holiday period but is there any progress with Google, Patrick?
dreamscape Posted January 2, 2003 Posted January 2, 2003 google/froogle aren't the only ones who do not like paypal... ECHO questions the validity of what Paypal is doing: http://www.echoinc.com/faqs/index.php?ba=v...=The%20Internet The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke
pbreit Posted January 2, 2003 Posted January 2, 2003 Uhmm...ECHO is a competitor. "Real" merchant accounts have their own headaches which is why there has been such massive adoption of PayPal. On the Froogle front, the holidays have slowed progress. Should have a better idea next week. Patrick Breitenbach
dreamscape Posted January 2, 2003 Posted January 2, 2003 Uhmm...ECHO is a competitor. "Real" merchant accounts have their own headaches which is why there has been such massive adoption of PayPal. umm... I don't really see how ECHO is a competitor... paypal and ECHO are not even close to offering the same things... ECHO offers merchant accounts, paypal does not (the buyer must sign up with paypal and payments are processed through paypal's merchant account)... now don't get me wrong, paypal has its place (I use it all the time for auctions and such)... it is a great 3rd party payment processor... it is not a great merchant account (it is not one at all). The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke
wizardsandwars Posted January 2, 2003 Posted January 2, 2003 I'd have to agree with Joshua here. It seem to me that PayPal's competition would be other 3rd Party "Merchant Services" companies, such as 2checkout, and Yahoo Wallet. Of these, PayPal is by far the best. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit. If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.
pbreit Posted January 3, 2003 Posted January 3, 2003 If you don't think PayPal competes with merchant account providers for customers then I just don't know what to tell you. But, yes, there are quite a few differences between the offerings: PayPal is less expensive, has no set up fees, no monthly fees, no statement fees, lower fraud rates, no extra charges for Amex and Discover, offers bank account and ecash payments, provides instant access to funds, is multi-currency, etc., etc. Patrick Breitenbach
dreamscape Posted January 3, 2003 Posted January 3, 2003 ok we get it.. "Paypal is God"... no need to keep repeating it everytime a nuetral party has something else to say. The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke
wizardsandwars Posted January 3, 2003 Posted January 3, 2003 Well, since we're listing all of the pro's , it's only fair to mention the cons, as comnpared to a merchant account. The customer is redirected to PayPal's website, they have to create an account with paypal, you cannot place an authorization/hold funds for an order that may be backordered, there is no virtual terminal, the checkout page is not fully customizable, You cannot process an order for a customer. PayPal is a great service for small or startup businesses. In order for PayPal to be able to compare themselves to a merchant account and payment gateway, they need to offer ALL of the same services that a merchant account/payment gateway offer. If you don't need/want all of those services, then PayPal is a great payment method to offer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit. If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.
pbreit Posted January 3, 2003 Posted January 3, 2003 no need to keep repeating it everytime a nuetral party has something else to say. I think it's appropriate given the amount of misinformation. Patrick Breitenbach
wizardsandwars Posted January 3, 2003 Posted January 3, 2003 Patrick, That's odd. I didn't see it. Care to point our where there was misinformation given regarding PayPal. Looks to me like PayPal has been represented fairly. While I agree with you that PayPal competes with Mechant accounts/gateways, the competition is more like the way I, a PC Game retailer, compete with a Video Console Game retailer for customers. Besides, PayPal shouldn't be competing with Merchant Account/Gateways anyway. To maximize sales, PayPal should be used IN ADDITION to a Merchant Account/Gateway to offer the CUSTOMER the freedom of choice. I use PayPal in ADDITION to an alternative (currently 2checkout, but soon to be a merchant account/gateway). Froogle has NO PROBLEM whatsoever listing me. Some of my listings on Froogle are VERY well placed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit. If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.
pbreit Posted January 4, 2003 Posted January 4, 2003 paypal and ECHO are not even close to offering the same things This statement is significantly misinformed. For a variety of reasons, most merchants prefer working with one online payment processor. Patrick Breitenbach
rseigel Posted January 4, 2003 Posted January 4, 2003 For a variety of reasons, most merchants prefer working with one online payment processor. I agree with that statement 100%. Of course, for me at least, that one online payment processor will never be Paypal for a variety of reasons (the biggest of which is that it makes you look like a rank amateur - is this a business or a hobby?). :wink:
wizardsandwars Posted January 4, 2003 Posted January 4, 2003 paypal and ECHO are not even close to offering the same things This statement is significantly misinformed. You pointed out a half dozen ways that you are different. I pointed out another half dozen. I believe that this indicates enough differences to warrent that statement. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit. If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.
wizardsandwars Posted January 4, 2003 Posted January 4, 2003 For a variety of reasons, most merchants prefer working with one online payment processor. I would agree that most merchants OVERALL prefer working with one online payment processor. Howerver, I would like to point out that a very significant portion of the vendors that use PayPal, offer more than one payment processor. Most successfull merchants will only offer PayPal to accomodate those customers that already have PayPal accounts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit. If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.
pbreit Posted January 8, 2003 Posted January 8, 2003 Google has assured us that they are accepting PayPal merchants into Froogle. Please let me know if this is not the case. Patrick Breitenbach
wizardsandwars Posted January 8, 2003 Posted January 8, 2003 Thanks for researching this Patrick. Do you have a statement of some sort from them, as this seems to conflict with public statements that they have released previously. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit. If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.
pbreit Posted January 8, 2003 Posted January 8, 2003 The conversation was by phone. We have not seen any public statements to the contrary (e.g., no mention in FAQs) so we cannot presume differently from what Google has told us. If PayPal merchants find differently, please let us know. Patrick Breitenbach
Guest Posted January 9, 2003 Posted January 9, 2003 Echo does consider Paypal competition. If you want a merchant account with Echo and you have been using paypal they ask for copies of your paypal history. The rep says that they want to give a competitive processing price.
buggy Posted January 10, 2003 Author Posted January 10, 2003 Thanks Patrick, I'll submit to Froogle again.
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