Couldn't it just be for their internal merchant accounts? I am sure with the amount of money that google brings in, they have their fare share of theifs. I am not saying a PayPal killer isn't due, and who better than Google right? :) Just a thought.

P.S. Ther is a type on the Google jobs page.
"We're looking for ... to join our for our merchant ..."

• Posted by: Matthew R. Miller
• September 6, 2005 11:13 AM

That's funny, there is a typo in my P.S. That will teach me to eat while typing.

• Posted by: Matthew R. Miller
• September 6, 2005 11:14 AM

Yawn:
http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/search.py?hl=en&lr=lang_en&type=f&query=merchant+payment

• Posted by: JD
• September 6, 2005 11:25 AM

They could do the payment system and then follow the same model as Miva... utilising a shopping cart and/or auction platform for SME's and individuals. Rolling this platform into AdSense/AdWords will then make perfect sense in terms of functionality.

Also look out for a few regional Directory acquisitions. Yell in the UK is rumoured to be the first in the space.

• Posted by: Rob
• September 6, 2005 3:00 PM

Google has thousands of advertisers, sells search appliances, has a store, sells Google Earth licenses, and doubtless countless other ventures. I see no reason to think that a "Fraud Operations Director" would be for something new - no doubt they already have an entire department, including legal staff, dedicated to fighting fraud.

• Posted by: Brian
• September 6, 2005 4:34 PM

I think there's far more to come from Google in this realm. With the amount of data they collect it is only natural for them to move into banking, because when you think about it all a bank sells is trust and at this point we already trust Google with a data trail far more valuable than money. I would not be at all surprised (but probably quite frightened) to see Google evolve over time into a significant financial institution that stores both my data and my money. There's more here (warning: shameless self-promotion of my blog.)

• Posted by: Usher Lieberman
• September 7, 2005 2:28 AM

It will be interesting to see how soon Google Wallet comes out. Reading this has only increased my curiosity.

• Posted by: danithew
• September 7, 2005 7:39 AM

I have been looking forward to Google's entry into Paypal's market for quite a while. In fact I am surprised it took them so long! Just as about any consumer retail business has its own credit arm nowadays, it makes a lot of sense to do so for Google, who handles a huge amount of transactions, just as Ebay. And I do hope this will provide an opportunity to come up with some revolutionary charity idea that leverage the power of the internet and of Google's traffic and simplicity. I hope google.org moves in that direction!

• Posted by: Anna
• November 13, 2005 8:31 PM

Yes! Google has thousands of advertisers, sells search appliances, has a store, sells Google Earth licenses, and doubtless countless other ventures. I see no reason to think that a "Fraud Operations Director" would be for something new - no doubt they already have an entire department, including legal staff, dedicated to fighting fraud.

• Posted by: britney
• December 10, 2005 10:28 AM

I came across some reloadable debit cards e.g. mygcard.com which claim that you use money in your Google adsense account to load the debit card. If this is really possible it will be a good idea for people who do not live in USA; they don't have to pay heavy bank commissions for cheques from Google.

• Posted by: Top Affiliates
• October 14, 2006 9:49 AM