Very possibly the coolest new feature of Google Checkout are the magical badges that appear on the AdWords ads on Google.com. These are icons that, when youve set everything up correctly and the starts line up, tell the world that you are a Google Checkout merchant.

You can see what the Google Checkout badges look like by watching the demo, Why Google Checkout? on Google's site: http://checkout.google.com/seller/demo.html

Why is this important? Googles reasoning seems to be that by leveraging its brand, consumers will begin to trust Google more than the actual merchant. And by controlling the user experience on merchant websites, combined with an extremely easy checkout process (not quite one click, but darn close) consumers will begin to feel good about buying through Google which will, in turn, directly drive more sales through participating websites.

Consumers will begin to look for and trust that little Google Checkout icon. And that means, for you: more qualified clicks, a higher conversion (customers know that there is something to buy on your website) and, ultimately, more sales.

I believe that, in the long run, this strategy will work. Merchants that advertise with AdWords (as a majority of the marketing strategies suggest, i.e. Google Cash ) that dont use Google Checkout will end up paying more per sale: higher CPCs, lower conversions, and higher processing fees will combine to drive those companies to Google Checkout or out of AdWords entirely.

Will this strategy succeed? Only time will tell. However today I'm betting that, to be a viable adwords competitor, Google Checkout will be mandatory. Are you ready for the challenge?