I recently sent a note to the folks at Google PR. It went something like this:
So, in the last week, it’s been
1. Google is starting a Paypal killer.
2. Google is starting a craigslist killer.
3. Google is starting an iTunes killer.
So, any thoughts about all of this?
Steve Langdon, who works with Google PR, got back to me yesterday. He sent me comments from Eric Schmidt regarding the PayPal rumours. They go as follows:
“We do not intend to offer a person-to-person stored-value payments system.”
“We believe that ecommerce can be improved and we are working on ways to improve the user experience. We are working on things in ecommerce.”
“The payment services we are working on are a natural evolution of Google’s existing online products and advertising programs which today connect millions of consumers and advertisers.”
“We are building products in the area to solve new problems in ecommerce.”
These sound a lot like “We are not planning to introduce a browser” comments. In other words, why do what’s already been done, when we can do better!?
As for the craigslist and itunes whisperings, Steve had this to say: “rumor and speculation.”