Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

I am staying a bit off the technology news recently, so I don’t know how widely these two news have been pushed around. But I discovered both of them only today, so I thought maybe I am not the only one out there.

Google has recently released two new tools that are really worth mentioning - Google Account Authentication (discovered via O’Reilly Radar post) and Checkout (discovered via Slashdot article), which is a competitor to PayPal.

I gladly welcome both of them.

Google Account Authentication will help people build websites that won’t require registration and Yet Another Login ™. Users will be able to use their Google accounts. Of course, I understand those who worry about their privacy. Google will know about all the websites you are visiting, how often, from where, and so on. But I personally don’t care.

Checkout service also gives me hopes. PayPal does a good job, but it doesn’t scale very well beyond the USA. There are all sorts of limits both paying and getting paid. Google is a very global company. It understand the needs and wants of the global community and has great potention for problem solving.

With all the privacy worries in the air, I am glad that Google are pushing themselves and the technology arena forward. I respect the company and like most of their products. Keep it up guys!