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Google already offer a variety of services that gleans personal information from its loyal users, including its Google+ social network, Chrome internet browser, Gmail cloud services, search engine and Android mobile phones. Currently Google can track online spending, and now with the new Wallet application, they can now monitor people's spending patterns offline.
"In the past few thousand years, the way we pay has changed just three times—from coins, to paper money, to plastic cards. Now we're on the brink of the next big shift," says Google on its Wallet website.
NFC technology consists of a small chip, similar to the one featured on credit cards, built into new mobile phones. It enables payments to be made my tapping your mobile phone, such as Google's Nexus S, against a MasterCard PayPass system. Google claim the technology "has been designed for an open commerce ecosystem," putting thousands of merchants in the palm of your hand.
Currently the service has just been launched in the US, and only works with Citi MasterCards and Google's own prepaid card.
"Google Wallet enables you to pay with your Citi MasterCard credit card and the Google Prepaid Card, which can be funded with any of your existing plastic credit cards," it reads on Google's blog.
"As a thanks to early adopters, we're adding a $10 free bonus to the Google Prepaid Card if you set it up in Google Wallet before the end of the year."
