Google has launched a new feature for Google Checkout, which allows merchants based in the US to create and run their own Checkout promotions at any time.

Users simply need to sign in to their Checkout merchant account, go to the "Tools" tab, and click the "Promotions" link to create a promotion. Google says the process takes less than a minute. Users can specify the date and time they’d like the promotion to run, and choose from different dollar-off discounts to offer their buyers.

When you run a Google Checkout promotion, the standard Checkout button on your site will automatically update to display the discount amount and cart minimum. AdWords advertisers will also have their standard Checkout badge that appears on their ads change to show the same information.

"These promotional badges have been introduced to enable shoppers who search on Google.com to easily identify and take advantage of promotional offers," says Google Checkout Specialist Gina Del Vecchio.

"Checkout promotions are a great way to attract new buyers, and we’re excited to make this functionality more widely available," she adds.

Google recently made changes to its content restrictions for Google Checkout. The service now allows the sale of real estate rentals, timeshares, and day sight-seeing tours. Google has just announced a couple of other things that people in real estate might find particularly useful. For one, they have expanded upon their real estate features on Google Maps. Secondly, they are now offering a new type of ad to allow for comparisons between offers.

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Google has made a change to its content restrictions for Google Checkout. Google Checkout now allows the sale of real estate rentals, timeshares, and day sight-seeing tours.

"Google Checkout sellers of real estate rentals, timeshares, and day sight-seeing tours must have a valid public business URL," says Sammer Abdul of Google Checkout Operations. "The sellers may, however, choose to use either Checkout buttons or Checkout invoices to process transactions for the above allowable services based on their business requirements."

The Google Checkout merchant help center provides a list of product categories (as well as examples), which are still considered unacceptable. Some of these are obvious (illegal goods), and some not so obvious (Travel packages and offers).

The competition is heating up among payment services, with Facebook now widely considered a potential big-player, and possibly Apple too. By not offering real estate rentals, timeshares, etc. Google is missing out on a fair amount of business. This is likely the driving factor behind Google’s decision to allow these.

On a semi-related note, Google recently announced it has made it easier to link Google Checkout with Google Base accounts. There’s a new page in the "settings" tab called "Checkout," where you can add accounts to Checkout by entering a Checkout Merchant ID.

Google Labs has launched an interesting new gadget that allows users to create a Google Checkout store in gadget form to use on their blog or web site. According to Google the process is as simple as three easy steps:

1. Sign up for a Google Checkout account

2. Fill out a Google Docs Spreadsheet

3. Set up and insert you gadget

Sounds easy enough. Easily create an online store using a Google Docs spreadsheet. Interesting indeed. "No complicated coding or technical tasks are required," says Google on the gadget’s homepage. "You can get your first online store up-and-running in under five minutes."

As business owners and non-business owners alike look to sell stuff online to make some extra money in a less than ideal economy, a simple way of setting up a store can be just the ticket. With this gadget, once users sign up for Google Checkout, they can list their products in the spreadsheet and manage their inventory right in Google Docs.

The gadget itself can be embedded anywhere, which could be incredibly useful, particularly to those sellers who operate more than one site. In fact, online business owners are often encouraged to blog. Wouldn’t it make sense to have the store embedded right on the blog, for easy access? I think it would in many cases.

The gadget comes in three different sizes – large, small, and tiny. Here is how they look in comparison to one another:

 

When it comes to making the spreadsheet available to customers, you can do this by clicking "share" in the upper right-hand corner in Google Docs Spreadsheets. Then you choose "publish as a web page" from the drop down menu, and make sure that the "automatically re-publish when changes are made" option is checked. Then just click "start publishing".

If you have any trouble using it, Google runs down the whole process here. They have also set up a Google Checkout store gadget forum.

It should be noted that this gadget being a project of Google Labs means that it is still in the experimental stage. Does that mean you can’t use it? Of course not. Let’s not forget that Gmail just left its "beta" status this year. But with the gadget being a lab, just know that it could have bugs.