Google's looking to put an end to the annoying task of having to carry around your wallet and your cellphone with you wherever you go. The search engine giant plans on testing mobile-payment service at various stores in New York City and San Francisco in the next four months, so that consumers can happily give their money away without the added inconvenience of pulling out a wallet and swiping a plastic card.
Google plans on installing thousands of special cash-register systems, developed in part with VeriFone, at various retailers in the two cities. The registers accept mobile phone payments via what's called "near field communication technology." NFC technology previously let you swipe a device with a chip across a register to instantly pay, and this time it would do so with your mobile phone. Google may also have plans in the future to include a customer's bank account information, how much they have on a gift-card and store coupon and loyalty cards within an account on a mobile payment service.
It's unclear whether or not they'll be offering this service with the iPhone, but for now they're testing it on Android devices with the hopes that it will catch on and add a bit of competition to the mobile advertising market.
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