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Just wrote a post on your blog and know your readers want to appreciate it with more than a +1? Sharing your new music track on the web rather than on the street with an open guitar case? Get the financial support you deserve with the Google Checkout Support button.

The Support button gives content creators an easy way to gather financial support for their efforts or their service. Bloggers, musicians, authors, developers and more who give away what they create for free may implement the Support button on their websites and enable their users to support their endeavors. If you’re already using Blogger, you can implement the Support button in 5 simple steps:

1. Sign up for a Google Checkout Merchant account at checkout.google.com/sell.
2. Be sure to enable the HTML API by going to the Settings tab, clicking the integration link and unchecking the “My company will only post digitally signed carts” checkbox. Also, copy the Merchant ID for use in step 5. 
3. Back in Blogger, on the Design | Page Elements tab click “add a gadget” where you wish to place the Support gadget. 
4. Add the "Support My Blog" gadget from the gadget gallery. 
5. Customize your support button settings. The Checkout Merchant ID is the one you copied down in step two. Save and you’re done! 

To generate a Support button for use on other sites, please visit the Checkout Developer Guide. For an example of the support button in action, check out http://bloggercheckout.blogspot.com/.

Posted by Peng Ying, Developer Programs Engineer

(Cross-posted on the Google Code Blog)

Kabam was part of the initial launch of Google+ Games with two game titles, Dragons of Atlantis and Edgeworld, and we recently added Global Warfare. For these games, we integrated Google In-App Payments and we’re pleased with our games’ monetization to date. There are a couple things we learned along the way that we’re happy to share with the community.

Integrating In-App Payments

Integrating In-App Payments in our games was very simple, especially when compared to other payment platforms. There is excellent documentation available, complete with examples for each step of the purchase flow. We also used open source libraries such as ruby-jwt to generate the tokens required for each purchase option.

We designed our games and purchase pages around the expectation of instant feedback, making sure to incorporate page loads or refreshes wherever possible. For example, in Edgeworld, a player attacking an enemy base can load the list of Platinum options instantly, without waiting for the list of payment options to load. After their Platinum purchase, the player is immediately brought back to the game, with their new currency and items waiting for them.

Pro Tip: Strive to Reduce Purchaser Friction

One of the keys to maximizing revenue is to remove as much friction as possible from the purchase flow, making sure as many people as possible get from one step of the flow to the next. Many payment platforms send players to their own website and multi-page checkout flow. The Google In-App Payments approach allows us to keep players on our game page for the entire flow, making sure we can manage more of the process and reduce abandonment.

Additionally, the player's credit card information is stored securely, so once a player has made a purchase anywhere using In-App Payments, their information is available for future purchases without additional data entry. Finally, JavaScript callbacks provided by In-App Payments allow us to show the effects of the purchase immediately, improving customer satisfaction.

General Recommendations

For those experienced in this space, the following may seem rudimentary. At the same time, I’d be remiss not to include these recommendations as they are important to developing a successful game payments system:

• Make sure your payment flow is as seamless as possible, never giving the player the opportunity to get bored waiting for something to load. 
• Record and monitor each step of the payment flow in order to identify potential problems. 
• Run A/B tests on your purchase option page to optimize the number of players who make a purchase, as well as the amount of the average purchase. 

We are proud to be among the first companies on Google’s exciting new monetization platform, and we look forward to the continuing growth in features, functionality and developer tools.

Posted by Beau Harrington, Senior Development Director, Kabam

It may be fall here in Mountain View, but the “Summer of Love” lives on with the launch of Google Offers in Dallas!

The AT&T Performing Arts Center is running our first Google Offer in Dallas for tickets to what has been everyone’s favorite “rock musical” for nearly half a century: HAIR! Subscribers who sign up for Google Offers in Dallas can grab a seat at this Tony Award winning show for only $15 (a $40-50 value) for performances between 9/27 - 10/2.



If you would like to receive deals of the day in your email inbox for the cities where Google Offers is currently available, please visit google.com/offers to subscribe. If we aren’t yet available in a city near you, please sign up to receive updates.

Enjoy the show!

Posted by Eric Rosenblum, Director of Product Management, Google Offers

Now that we’ve launched the first version of Google Wallet on Sprint, I thought it might be interesting to share my experiences with Google Wallet as an early tester.

Having worked with a number of our merchant partners on their plans to accept Google Wallet, I was very excited when my Sprint Nexus S 4G phone arrived so I could use Google Wallet in their stores for myself. Over the last few months, I’ve had a lot of fun testing Google Wallet in various locations, and even I’ve been surprised by just how convenient it can be to use your phone as your wallet.

For example, I was running late for work last Friday, so I hailed one of New York’s ubiquitous yellow cabs. Because every one of them accepts Google Wallet, when I reached the office I was able to punch in a tip on the cab’s LCD screen, tap my phone on the terminal to pay, and hop out. I was already checking email on my phone on the way to work, so even with the added security measure of entering my PIN on the phone, this was far easier than using my free hand to fish my wallet out of my pocket to find cash or a card.

Later, at lunchtime, I had a craving for an ice cold Coke. Google may be well-known for free food at our offices, but in the name of science, I decided to use one of the high-tech vending machines we have had on loan from Coca-Cola. Nothing tastes quite so good as the future of commerce. And if you’ve ever tried to feed a crumpled old bill into a vending machine, you can appreciate why this is one of my favorite ways that Google Wallet is more convenient.

Finally, on the way home, I stopped into the CVS across the street from the office to replenish some much-needed household supplies. A bottle of laundry detergent, a tube of toothpaste, and a pack of gum later, I tapped my phone at the checkout counter and completed my third transaction of the day without using my traditional wallet.


Without even putting my phone away after using it to make a purchase, I called my girlfriend to make a plan to meet for dinner, and headed home. I wished I could have used Google Wallet on the subway as well—Google Wallet isn’t everywhere yet—but we are adding new merchants all the time. For example, OfficeMax just upgraded over one hundred of their stores to fully support Google Wallet, including SingleTap™ technology that lets you redeem coupons and apply the MaxPerks Rewards card at the same time you make a purchase.

If you have a Sprint Nexus S 4G phone (the first phone to support Google Wallet), now you too can experience paying with your phone in thousands of locations nationwide. Or you can buy the phone today on the web or at your nearest Sprint store.

As a final note, I did encounter a couple of instances during testing when my Google Wallet was not recognized, and I had to fall back on a plastic card. The team is hard at work fixing any such problems as we discover them. We are eager to hear your feedback to help us continue to improve the experience, so please get in touch once you’ve had a chance to try it out!

Posted by Philippe Dauman Jr., Commerce Strategic Partnerships

(cross-posted on Official Google Blog and Google Mobile Blog)

In May we announced Google Wallet—an app that makes your phone your wallet—with Citi, MasterCard, Sprint and First Data. With Google Wallet, you can tap, pay and save using your phone and near field communication (NFC).

We’ve been testing it extensively, and today we’re releasing the first version of the app to Sprint. That means we’re beginning to roll out Google Wallet to all Sprint Nexus S 4G phones through an over-the-air update—just look for the “Wallet” app. Here’s a demo of Google Wallet in action:


Google Wallet enables you to pay with your Citi MasterCard credit card and the Google Prepaid Card, which can be funded with any of your existing plastic credit cards. As a thanks to early adopters, we’re adding a $10 free bonus to the Google Prepaid Card if you set it up in Google Wallet before the end of the year.

When we announced Google Wallet, we pledged a commitment to an open commerce ecosystem. We appreciate Citi and MasterCard for being our launch partners. And today, Visa, Discover and American Express have made available their NFC specifications that could enable their cards to be added to future versions of Google Wallet.

Our goal is to make it possible for you to add all of your payment cards to Google Wallet, so you can say goodbye to even the biggest traditional wallets. In fact, we’ve got a video of our first customer, someone who is ready to replace his famously over-stuffed wallet. We hope Google Wallet gives him “serenity now.”

This is still just the beginning and while we’re excited about this first step, we look forward to bringing Google Wallet to more phones in the future. You can learn more about Google Wallet at google.com/wallet.


Posted by Osama Bedier, Vice President of Payments

Last year, we announced a Nearby Stores feature to help online shoppers in the U.S. and U.K. find products offline. When a merchant stocks an item in their online store, we make an educated guess that they might also stock it offline - and recommend you “call for availability” to see if they have it in their store nearest you. This week, we will be launching this feature for online shoppers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Australia.

We’re also launching a beta version of our Local Availability feature in Japan, the U.K., France and Germany, together with some top retailers in those countries, including Yodobashi Camera, Argos, Debenhams, HMV, Boulanger, and Hornbach. With Local Availability, we work directly with the retailer to tell you what they have available in their stores, and at what price. Whether you’re shopping for a last-minute gift or simply don’t want to deal with shipping, you can quickly and easily find what you’re looking for.

So head to Google to start shopping locally - and if you're a retailer with store locations in our launched countries, follow the instructions in our Help Center to make sure you’re included in our Nearby Stores feature. Local Availability is currently in limited beta in the U.K., Japan, France and Germany, but we hope to make it more widely available in the future.

Posted by Jens Münch, Strategic Partner Developer, Google Shopping

Since the launch of Google Offers in San Francisco and the East Bay in July, we’ve partnered with some great Bay Area businesses to provide people with relevant deals for the places they love to eat, shop and play. This week, we’re delighted to engage with the East Bay community even further by sponsoring the 9th annual North Shattuck Association’s Spice of Life Festival on Saturday, September 17th.



The Spice of Life festival is a celebration of North Berkeley’s ‘Gourmet Ghetto’ area, and will feature live music, cooking demos, food and wine tastings, and more! Stop by our Google Offers booth at the festival to meet a few members of our team and learn more about our upcoming Google Offers ‘Gourmet Ghetto’ week--a week of great deals from local favorites such as Kitchen on Fire, Edible Excursions and Soop.

Visit www.google.com/offers to sign up ahead of time so you don’t miss these awesome deals from local East Bay businesses.

It should be a great event and we hope to see you there!

Posted by Teresa Jung, Product Marketing Manager, Google Offers

We are happy to announce that the Google Content API for Shopping, which is used to upload product data to Google, now exposes performance (click) data. This data informs merchants how often their products have been clicked on Google Shopping within any given time period.

The data is easy to grab by adding URL parameters to product retrieval requests, specifying the start and end dates for which performance data is required. The returned product data contains new elements with the number of clicks per day for each product, for example:

This summer we’ve brought you some amazing deals from fantastic businesses in Portland, the Bay Area and New York City with Google Offers beta. Now, we’re expanding to five more areas: Austin, Boston, D.C., Denver and Seattle.

Here’s more on Wednesday’s offers from our five new Google Offers zones:

• In Austin, the first Google Offer is from Juan in a Million with $5 for $10 worth of food and drink. The menu at this locally-adored Mexican restaurant includes the legendary “Don Juan”-- El Taco Grande of the Breakfast Taco Challenge that defeated Adam Richman on the Travel Channel’s Man vs. Food series. Visit the Google booth at the ACL pre-party Thursday night to learn more. 
• Toscanini’s Ice Cream in Cambridge down the street from MIT, is running our day-one Google Offer in Boston. Spend $5 for $10 worth of gourmet ice cream, choosing from delectable flavors like Burnt Caramel, Ginger Snap Molasses and Grape Nut.
• Falafel is on the menu in our nation’s capital, with today’s Google Offer of $3 for $6 of food and beverage from the fun and funky Amsterdam Falafelshop in D.C. Redeem it for their world-famous falafel and make room for creative toppings like crunchy onions, garlic cream sauce and house-made pickled veggies. 
• In Denver, get $20 of merchandise for $5 at all three locations of Tattered Cover Book Store, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Meet your new favorite author, cozy up with a latte and a magazine or browse through thousands of books and unique gift items in antique filled stores, each with its own indie ambiance. 
• The Seattle Aquarium has a Google Offer you “otter” buy today with $9.50 for one day’s admission worth up to $19, that can also be applied toward an individual or family annual membership. See sand crabs, harbor seals, sea urchins and jellyfish frolic in the waves at this beloved Seattle institution. Check the calendar for upcoming events like underwater pumpkin carving.

Note: each of Wednesday’s offers will be redeemable starting on Thursday, September 8.

You can subscribe to receive deals of the day in your email inbox from as many places as you like at google.com/offers. You can also find and buy Google Offers from all eight regions that are currently part of this trial in the Google Shopper app for Android in the “Today’s Offer” tab, and don’t have to subscribe to buy. If Google Offers aren’t yet available near you, please sign up to receive a notification and we’ll let you know when we launch in your area.  

Posted by Eric Rosenblum, Product Management Director Google Offers

We launched Google Offers to give our users access to amazing deals for great places to eat, shop and play in their city. Tomorrow we bring New Yorkers a special opportunity through Google Offers to attend the upcoming Andrea Bocelli's Live in Central Park concert in New York City.


Internationally acclaimed tenor Andrea Bocelli will perform on Central Park’s Great Lawn, Thursday, September 15 with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by its music director Alan Gilbert, as a special gift to New York City.

While all the complimentary tickets have been distributed, tomorrow on Wednesday, September 7 at 6:00 AM ET, we will offer vouchers through Google Offers for exclusive packages of two general admission tickets and two t-shirts to this once in a lifetime musical event for $10. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of the packages will be donated to the Central Park Conservancy. This will be a one-day offer with limited quantities available, but you can subscribe to Google Offers now at google.com/offers to receive this spectacular offer in your inbox as soon as it becomes available tomorrow.

For a preview of Andrea Bocelli’s Live in Central Park, you can watch the video here.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Posted by Yaoshiang Ho, Business Development, Google