Few people would argue that within the next few years, offline classified ads will be all but extinct. There are lots of obvious reasons why online classifieds are much better. Posting an add to sell a swan statue on Craigslist provides instantaneous publishing, exposure to a potentially limitless number of buyers, and it’s completely free. […]

We’ve been on the fence lately, considering which type of web statistics package to buy for Coinbridge and our new web application. I’ve always considered buying Click Tracks. Their UI looked much better than similar products, and their functionality seemed competitive. So, when I discovered that Google bought Urchin (which I never thought we […]

You probably heard about PayPal’s move to purchase Verisign for $370 million a few weeks ago. Here are a few quick thoughts on this topic:
Deployment strategy is still unclear to me
It’s easy to imagine how PayPal will deploy itself to the Payflow Link crowd, but it’s harder for me to see a clear strategy […]

Following up from my earlier post on Yahoo Payments, here’s an interesting story that just bubbled up the other day. Could this be a first step?

I visited Pay By Touch’s offices in San Francisco yesterday, and spent time with some of the team there. I am fast becoming a fan of the services that Pay by Touch and iPay (their division that handles online payments) provides. In addition to credit card and ACH processing, iPay plans to deliver an […]

I’m conducting usability sessions this afternoon and I debated whether I should spare the time to post a quick note, considering all the preperation I still have to do. Our office is a mess, I haven’t completed the task sheet or even gone to the bank yet to get the cash I’ll need to pay […]

Everyone is talking about Google’s upcoming payment product. Will it squash PayPal or will it just sell widgets on Google Base? I wouldnt’ know. With all the hype about Google’s payment strategy, no one seems to be talking much about Yahoo anymore. Paydirect was buried a couple years back, and since then, I haven’t heard […]

Every designer I know, has a unique design process. Paper prototyping is an important part of my design process, and if you don’t use it, I recommend you start. I love this methodology because it has tons of benefits at almost no cost.
My paper prototyping process is as follows:
Sketch out key screens
I start by […]

Have you heard? Dell now accepts PayPal as a payment option on their website. Considering that Dell is one of the largest online retailers in the United States, this could bring PayPal some strong volume and healthy margins. If you’re interested in learning more about how PayPal makes money, than read on. Otherwise, you […]

I counted how many steps it takes (pages you have fill out) to signup for a new PayPal account and get approved for PayPal’s Website Payments Pro. Thirty. If you work for a payment processor and consider PayPal merchant services as a competitor, I’ll give you an easy way to differeniate yourself and […]