Google Checkout Offers Rebates for Holiday Shopping Season

If there's one thing that Google can do well (and let's be serious -- there's certainly more than one thing), it's creating extremely useful applications for average computer users.

Google Checkout, a service that centralizes online shopping by eliminating the need to maintain separate user names and passwords for different shopping sites, was launched back in June. However, Google has recently developed a promotional offer just in time for the busy holiday shopping season.

Shopping malls are always crammed with shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving, which has come to be known as "Black Friday." In an attempt to lure more sales to the online realm, Google has created "Cyber Monday" on November 27th, a day during which shoppers using the Google Checkout service will be offered rebates by participating merchants. Instant discounts of $10 off purchases of $30 or more and $20 off purchases of $50 or more will be offered until December 26th. (Source: betanews.com)

Like most Google announcements -- and there sure has been plenty this year -- the decision did not come without prior research. Google had commissioned a survey which was conducted by Harris Interactive to reveal holiday shopping information. The survey found that 40% of employed U.S. adults expect to do at least some of their online holiday shopping from work this year. Furthermore, a quarter of those people anticipate dropping down some cash for holiday gifts on Monday, November 27th. (Source: businesswire.com)

Google hopes that the rebates will entice more consumers to use Google Checkout. The company claims that the service drastically reduces online shopping time by eliminating as many as 15 steps from the sometimes draining process. (Source: betanews.com)

So far, thousands of merchants have added Google Checkout to their websites. Buy.com, The Starbucks Store, Ace Hardware, Toys "R" Us and Zales are a few of the companies that offer the service. (Source: google.com)

More information on the rebate will be available at checkout.google.com/holiday beginning November 27th. If receiving a brown box at your doorstep is just as good as arriving home with shopping bags (or if you simply want to avoid spending 15 minutes circling the parking lot for a parking spot), this may be a deal worth checking out.

Happy shopping!