The new Google Checkout site created for holidays is now live and includes a small selection of colorful, popular gifts. Google says thousands of merchants accept Google Checkout and, using this payment system, you'll eliminate 15 steps, on average. Another incentive is that you'll get $10 off purchases of $30, or $20 off purchases of $50 and more. You can also go to that site to make donations to charities: for the first donation of $30 or more, Google adds $10.
These days, Google Checkout is almost everywhere. Let's recap a list of places where you might see Checkout's shopping cart:
* searching for products, you'll see a Froogle OneBox and a link to products that can be bought using Checkout.
* you may see Google ads that have a small shopping cart.
* stores that accept Checkout and search results that can be bought from these stores are clearly marked at Froogle.
* many stores show a "Google Checkout" option.
Update: John Battelle had a bad experience with Google Checkout and took a closer look at the privacy policy.