January 04, 2006 | What Google Should Announce at CES

Two words: Google Points.

While there's much talk of a low-priced Google Box being announced at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, I'm thinking that Google should and may announce a way for people to pay for and get paid for video content uploaded to Google Video.

There's already been much speculation that Google would introduce a Google Wallet, which would be an online payment system that would compete with PayPal.

Certainly there's no reason that sites couldn't support more than one online payment service (think Visa, MasterCard and AmEx), but Google has said it isn't interested in competing with PayPal.

And moreover, the hassles of dealing with micro-payments, banking fraud and federal regulations may not be worth it.

But here's what Google will announce, if not on Friday, sometime soon.

Let's call it Google Points.

Google users who search when logged in, Gmail users, Blogspot bloggers etc. will get points based on their usage.

And what will the points buy them?

Google AdWords.

Say 10,000 Google points will get you $10 worth of Google AdWords.

Think frequent flier program, not PayPal.

Now, I hear you saying, "But, most people don't want to buy Google AdWords! These points would be useless."

Well, think of a frequent flier program that would let you transfer your miles to anyone, not just to licensed partners, such as hotels.

So, maybe someone like, say, eBay would let you pay for listing fees with Google points, or you could watch a documentary downloaded from Google Video or Skype would let you buy telephone minutes or Flickr would let you buy a premium account with those surfing points.

Google could take a small percentage to transfer the points, and those companies could use the points to buy ads. Google could also offer to pay sites in the AdSense program with Google points that would be worth more in AdWords cash-value than a straight cash payout.

If companies like Flickr don't want to buy ads, they could find a way -- outside of Google -- to sell the points. On say, eBay.

Google would gain more market share and would likely see more companies buy ads. But even if they don't the cost of the ads (and therefore, the points) to Google is minuscule.

I'm no economist, but this seems to me to be the best way to drive a payment system without actually having to deal with dirty pennies.

And BTW, if you like this post, feel free to drop me a couple thousand Google points using the Google Tip Jar button to the left.

(Oddly this idea came to me in a dream just before leaving for X-mas visits. Google should feel free to give me just a 0.0001 percent cut after they announce the program)

Posted by Ryan Singel at January 4, 2006 05:44 PM

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» Google Point from rMen's weblog, the blog of a french cyberworker
Ryan Singel imagine le futur programme de fidélisation de Google, à moins que ce ne soit déjà en cours de développement. [Read More]

Tracked on January 6, 2006 12:34 AM

» Google Points from Marketingplaner in Ausbildung
Hach wie schön wär das denn. Ryan Singel träumt auf seinem Blog Secondary Screening von den Google Points. Die Benutzung von verschiedensten Diensten von Google wie zum Beispiel dem Hochladen von Videos, einer einfachen Suche oder dem Benutzen vo... [Read More]

Tracked on January 6, 2006 01:05 AM

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Posted by: The Newsroom Ninja at January 12, 2006 12:26 PM