The concept of a Store in a Widget, is something i started talking about 2 years ago when i did a post about Widgets you could use to sell your stuff. Some months after that came the Paypal Storefront Widget. Something that Google is directly responding with this new Google Checkout Store Gadget.
So they are responding to something that Paypal already did almost year and a half ago. But as i said back then, The things needed to be resolved are around how to use the widget, and that is what Google is bringing to the table here. You use Google Docs as your Store Management Dashboard. Google Gives you a Landing Page you can use as a Store Website. You can use a Blogger Powered Blog and quickly add this Gadget thanks to Blogger’s Page Elements foundation. This also means that if you got several blogs you can add the Gadget in all of them. If you got Friends that use Blogger and don’t mind displaying your little store. They can add it with a single click and help you out.
So those are the powerful additions that Paypal don’t gives you and the fact that Google Checkout is now also a recognizable enough brand that carries along one of the most recognizable brands that is Google itself turns it appealing . So maybe is time for Paypal to revisit the Storefront Widget and make it better.
The instructions to use the Gadget are pretty self explanatory in its page and now the only thing for google is to come with more versions and different ways to use this so it can be even more tempting for people to use over a Paypal branded solution. But for a first version it is actually a very good E-Store Gadget.
via RWW
