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techPresident reported in "Daily Digest: Google Announces Political Checkout". That service is now in direct competition with ActBlue and other services that facilitate small contributions. And it puts Google right smack into the political ecosystem at perhaps its most important checkpoint. How will the political landscape evolve with Google so active in it?
I have republished this diary at a new entry, because of a glitch in the DKos diary publishing system. Please comment there.
Back on 1/17/08 techPresident reported in "Daily Digest: Google Announces Political Checkout":
Google has announced a their new Google Checkout for Political Contributions. Google charges low transaction fees and lets candidates easily process campaign contributions through embeddable buttons, making it easy for bloggers to fundraise on their site. Could Google do to sites like ActBlue and Slatecard what it does to all its competition, namely, squash them? At this point, it looks like while Google collects FEC data, it doesn't do the filing itself, which is one of ActBlue and Slatecard's main selling points. We’ll have to see if candidates end up using it.
It's now been active for over 2 months, at "Political contributions for federal candidates", through a primary season with the most money raised over the Internet of any year in history. In fact, the money raised over the Internet is probably getting larger than most individual presidential campaigns' entire haul in past years. How has it fared? Is it a threat to other financing orgs, a healthy complement, or a doomed also-ran?
If it's working out, how long before Google's influence over camapign finance is as great as its influence over the Internet, and thereby the world in general?
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Note: I am not affiliated with Google corp, ActBlue, Slatecard, or techPresident in any way, except as a private user of their public services (and their alternatives).
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I have republished this diary at a new entry, because of a glitch in the DKos diary publishing system. Please comment there.