We had been hearing about Google Wallet for quite some time and the service has now been made official by the internet search
behemoth. Initially, the service is available only in the US, so the users on this side of the pond have to wait for some time. However, if it is any consolation, then even in the US, the service is going to be pretty limited in its scope. Currently, only Sprint users in the US will get to use the service, but only if they are using Google Nexus S 4G phone, and that's not all, they are eligible for this service only if they are using a particular card from Citi bank. Phew, quite a few catches there.
For this service Google has collaborated with Citi, Sprint, First Data and MasterCard. Google Wallet is based on NFC technology and you will just have to tap your phone and the payment will be made. Google clearly stated in its blog, "Our goal is to make it possible for you to add all of your payment cards to Google Wallet, so you can say goodbye to even the biggest traditional wallets."
The service may be launched in Europe sometime soon, as Visa has bestowed its global Visa PayWave license to Google. The license will ensure that as and when Google service is launched in Europe, Visa partner bank will be able to add their cards to the Wallet repository. Visa is confident that such services would become mainstream in Europe by 2012. Visa has already signed a deal with Orange and Samsung for launching NFC payment services.
The service will give Google yet another chance to snoop on users’ activities. And this time over, you do not even need to be on your computer. With this wallet service, Google will be able to collect and analyze users’ spending pattern. Given that Google has shady reputation when it comes to protecting users’ information, how comfortable would you be letting Google peek into your financial data.