Google Checkout on life support?

Google is taking it on the chin today about the Google Checkout service, their supposed “PayPal killer” which has fallen way short of expectations. It began with PiperJaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy (an Important Person) writing about a survey his firm did recently of 30 retailers.

Among the online retailers who are not using Google Checkout, 81% indicated concern about ceding ownership of a customer to Google. Specifically, online retailers were concerned that Google stores all customer information, and Google Checkout limits an online retailer’s ability to directly market to a customer via e-mail.

You can read more of Rashtchy’s comments as reported by Brian Smith on VerticalSearch.net. Meanwhile, over on the ZDNet blog, Donna Bogatin sums up Google’s Checkout struggles.

When Google launched Checkout, I wrote a bit about the pros and cons of Google Checkout, with a quick mention that it’s probably a good idea for small businesses to use it “… if you don’t mind Google knowing even more about you and your customers, like their credit card numbers, for starters.”

Well, six weeks after launch, I’m still yet to hear from a single small business owner who knows about Google Checkout and wants to use it. I am, however, soon to start on a small business web site on which Paypal will be the shopping cart of choice.