u're not my pal, paypal

I was going through a PayPal transaction the other day, mentally preparing myself for some kind of a disappointment. It has long seemed to me that PayPal and eBay were created by two warring siblings that have been forced by their parents to collaborate – but secretly hated each other’s guts. So, any time PayPal’s interaction scheme takes me down a mineshaft, I make sure to let my buddy at eBay know all about it.

This time, though, I was pleasantly surprised. I needed to add a credit card number, and found that the entry form was designed in a very sleek way: accepted credit cards were listed below the card number textbox; as I typed in my number, the other options faded away, indicating that the system knew I was using an AmEx card.

For the first time ever, I was ready to give kudos to PayPal’s designers – I even logged back in to take a screenshot. Guess what – this time, I wasn’t going through a transaction, so the form looked completely different – even though purpose of it was exactly the same.

I still hate you, PayPal.