Headlines:
Google Base Payment Test Under Way CUNA to Offer Perimeter's Security Services Alogent Predicts 44% Sales Growth Rate Corillian Offers StrikeForce 2-Factor System
Google Base Payment Test Under Way
Google Inc. is testing a payment system for its Google Base classified ad service.
It has provided few details about the project. Chetan Patel, an engineering manager with the Internet search engine operator, wrote last week on a company bulletin board that a handful of Google Base sellers were accepting payments through Google accounts, "and we expect to include more over the next several months."
People can create accounts to enroll in various Google information services and can make Google Base purchases using a credit card.
The Mountain View, Calif., company said it has been expanding its payments capability by doing more direct selling of items ranging from baseball caps to online search services for businesses.
Observers say Google's payments strategy may allow it to take business away from PayPal Inc., which processed $27.5 billion of payments in 2005, mostly through auctions by its parent company, eBay Inc.
Dan Schatt, a senior analyst for the Boston market research firm Celent Communications LLC, said Google is "tiptoeing their way into a marketplace by starting with … material that does not compete directly with eBay."
Google Base is more like Craigslist Inc., a classified ad service that focuses on connecting buyers and sellers who live in the same area. Indeed, he noted that Google Base has the option to connect with Google's map tool to show local buyers where to go to pick up merchandise. Craigslist does not have a payment system.
In handling credit card transactions itself, Google may expose itself to more risk than eBay, Mr. Schatt said. But processing purchases would give Google additional information about its users, which it could use to offer advertisers more targeted, and more expensive, services, he said.
Chris Musto, an analyst with Keynote WebExcellence, a division of Keynote Systems Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., said Google probably hand-picked the first sellers to use the payments system.
With a small and trusted test group and its ample cash on hand, Mr. Musto said, Google is minimizing its risk. "If it does run into a damaging situation, it can easily weather it," he said.
Software companies often test new products this way, and it has proven successful. Google is "competing against PayPal, and that's something that got started really without banks," Mr. Musto said.
CUNA to Offer Perimeter's Security Services
A unit of the Credit Union National Association Inc. will offer its members IT security services from Perimeter Internetworking Corp.
CUNA Strategic Services will offer Perimeter's Gateway 4.0 network security service and the security and regulatory compliance services of a company Perimeter bought in February, Red Cliff Solutions of West Jordan, Utah.
Perimeter, of Milford, Conn., announced the arrangement Wednesday. In its press release, Wes Millar, the senior vice president of strategic services at the Madison, Wis., trade group, said the deal "is in keeping with CUNA's plans to increase its focus on four main security areas of concern for credit unions: physical security, network security, fraud prevention, and business continuity."
Alogent Predicts 44% Sales Growth Rate
Alogent Corp. predicts that sales of its desktop check-imaging software will grow at a compound annual rate of nearly 44% through 2008.
The software is used to convert paper checks into digital images that can be sent across image exchange networks for settlement.
The Atlanta company said Wednesday that it had sold about 32,000 such packages and expects the total to reach 100,000 by the end of 2008.
"This expansion is in line with banks' rapid adoption of point of capture at multiple points of presentment, both pre- and post-Check 21," said Paul J. Citarella, an executive vice president, in a press release.
Corillian Offers StrikeForce 2-Factor System
The online banking vendor Corillian Corp. of Hillsboro, Ore., has begun offering its customers a two-factor authentication system from StrikeForce Technologies Inc. of Edison, N.J.
The StrikeForce system lets banks issue one-time passwords over the phone for logging on to a Web site.
Alex Hart, Corillian's president and chief executive, said it would offer to integrate the system into his company's online banking software for customers. The deal was announced last week.
