On the web:

• Apple Advances their Future Shopping App Again & More - Patently Apple - "Today's patent application adds at least five major aspects to the "Shopping" apps patent claims."
• Half of Visa’s payments will be via mobile by 2020, says Visa Europe VP - The Drum - "...Hawkett said that Visa views mobile as the opportunity to “redefine” payments."
• How to build trust in the Bitcoin ecosystem - Jeremy Liew - "So what is needed to create trusted Bitcoin companies?"
• Can Google Be The Amazon.com For The Rest Of The Web? - ReadWrite - "Virtually every other payment provider lacks the social integration that Google includes."
• New Cash Registers Are Sexy, But What’s Beneath the Counter Matters More - Wired - "Payments are really the only online connection into every retail store that matters..."
• mPOS: Our Latest Disruptive Device For QSRs - GoPago Blog - "Our new mPOS will debut on the Nexus 4 with a card reader, rugged case and with our POS software already loaded for $49 a month."
• Safeway CEO has big plans for payment program that avoids bank debit card fees - San Francisco Business Times - "...Safeway is already hearing from other retailers eager to avoid fees associated with accepting debit cards carrying the MasterCard and Visa logos."
• The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Udayan Goyal (commenting on Google Wallet) - "In terms of wider industry impact, I think that incumbents will have to completely rethink how they make money around payments."
• Blimpie expands mobile repertoire with gift cards - Mobile Commerce Daily - "…40 percent of Blimpie’s traffic comes from mobile devices."
• The Road Ahead for Mobile Payments - Mobile Future Institute - "Overall, I came away with the impression there’s still quite a ways to go for mobile payments…"
• PayPal, Groupon, Square focus on traditional POS to boost mobile strategies - "In order for consumers to ditch their physical wallets in favor of digital wallets, merchants need to get rid of their old cash registers…"
• The mobile money paradox – if everyone wants it, why is it doing so badly? - Tomorrow's Transactions - "There are in excess of 160 live MM services being operated around the world right now, but despite high expectations created by success in Kenya, only a handful have thus far reached critical mass."

On the wires:

• Marqeta Online-to-Offline Commerce Engine Powering the Multi-Retailer Facebook Card - "We are very proud that Facebook has adopted our technology, and look forward to a lasting partnership with them…"
• Marqeta Raises $14 Million Series B to Accelerate Wide Adoption of its +M Platform - "Instead of receiving points and product rewards, Marqeta merchants simply give consumers more money to spend in grocery, restaurants, dry cleaning and beyond."
• BitPay Raises $2 Million led by Founders Fund - "Businesses selling electronics, precious metals, and other low-margin products over the internet are seeing a large increase in profitability by accepting bitcoin payments."
• Mobile Banking Explodes and Keynote Announces Who Does It Best – One Billion Mobile Banking Consumers Expected by 2017 - "Chase achieved its third consecutive win for Overall Score, while also repeating were Wells Fargo in second place and Bank of America in third."

On the web:

• Connect your loyalty programs, offers and more to Google Wallet with the Wallet Objects API - "Save anything to Google Wallet: Integrate your loyalty programs, offers and more into Google Wallet. Users can save these items directly to their Google Wallet for easy use."
• Fast and easy checkout for Android apps selling physical goods and services - Google Commerce - "...our new Google Wallet Instant Buy Android API … makes buying in native Android apps fast and easy."
• Google Is Rebooting Its Troubled Digital Wallet On The Web - ReadWrite - "Google has long aimed to become a payments player. It knows that many of its searches drive people to e-commerce sites where they conduct transactions. …"
• The Feds Are Cracking Down On Mt. Gox (Not On Bitcoin) - Forbes.com - "…the Department of Homeland Security has some issues with how Mt. Gox is running its American operations."
• Give me that old bitcoin religion - PandoDaily - "To engender this trust, and tamp down the threat of counterfeiting, it relies on an ingenious combination of transparency and anonymity."
• Surprise! Prepaid debit cards actually a good deal for consumers Red Tape Chronicles - "Prepaid debit cards, long synonymous with frustrating or even exploitative fees, are suddenly a pretty good deal."
• Mobile Payments Startup ZooZ Debuts In-Ad Payments (Yes, “Ad” Not “App”) - TechCrunch - "With in-ad payments, mobile users will be able checkout by tapping once on a visible banner ad within a mobile app…"
• Visa concessions on card fees: a step in the right direction - EuroCommerce - "EuroCommerce will continue to campaign for a regulation which removes excessive interchange fees, not only cross-border but also on all domestic markets."
• Payleven and MICROS spawn a cloud-based point-of-sale system with Chip & PIN support - The Next Web - "The cloud-based POS system works via 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi and comes with integrated Chip & PIN card payments functionality, as well as automatic sales and card history transactions reconciliation."
• UK's Faster Payments is five years old - Financial Services Club Blog - "The UK's Faster Payments Service (FPS) celebrated its fifth birthday on 8th May."
• Google Wallet’s high turnover - Mobile World Live - "Google has been losing its payments executives at a surprising rate since its launch in the autumn of 2011."

On the wires:

• Federal Court Reinstates $203 Million Judgment Against Wells Fargo For Misleading Consumers On Posting Of Debit-Card Purchases That Resulted In Unexpected Overdraft Fees - "The case before Judge Alsup was brought on behalf of California Wells Fargo customers who, from November 15, 2004 to June 30, 2008, incurred overdraft fees on debit card transactions as a result of the bank's practice of sequencing transactions from highest to lowest."
• Visa Cuts Europe’s Swipe Fees But Continues to Stiff U.S. Merchants & Consumers - Merchants Payments Coalition - "U.S. merchants and consumers pay the highest fees in the world to credit card companies and banks to swipe their cards because of unfair price-fixing within the industry."
• Monitise Launches MPOS Payment Service - "The new white-labelled mobile payment service helps banks, mobile operators and acquirers offer their business customers the ability to accept card payments on a mobile device..."
• CHARGE Anywhere Launches EMV MPOS Solution at BlackBerry Live - "In integrating a Bluetooth enabled EMV/Chip & PIN smart card reader with a BlackBerry smart phone, CHARGE Anywhere, continues to lead the way in providing secure, innovative payment solutions"
• Vantiv and NCR to Bring Powerful Mobile Point-of-Sale Solutions to Small Businesses - "The multi-year agreement will focus on developing exclusive new solutions and expanding both companies’ innovative technology platforms to deliver personalized customer experiences that help smaller merchants compete more effectively against larger competitors."
• Tyfone Connected Smart Card Solution Fixes Cyber Security and Biometric Vulnerabilities - "Tyfone’s CSC solution operates much like the traditional plastic smart card systems already in widespread use, but has a much smaller physical footprint and uniquely has the ability to connect to any mobile device, tablet or PC."
• New C-SAM Applet Development and Testing Services Enable Rapid Rollouts of NFC-Enabled Mobile Commerce Products and Services
• APWG Report: Mobile Device Crimeware Evolves into Global Criminal Marketplace in Response to Mobile Payment and Banking Expansion - "The sprawling mobile devices marketplace has spawned an industrialized mobile financial fraud plexus that today drives increasingly sophisticated criminal technical innovation to exploit the mobile devices explosion"

On the web:

• Lessons From the New York ATM Heist - Steptoe Cyberblog - "This case should be a wake-up call to anyone who underestimates the sophistication and determination of today’s cyber-criminals."
• QFPay, The Square of China, Is Processing Close To $400M Per Year - TechCrunch - "They have 30,000 merchants all over China and recently picked up funding from Sequoia China…"
• Ahead of I/O, Google Wallet Drops Plans to Introduce a Physical Card - AllThingsD - "The dumping of the physical card plan was certainly abrupt, since it had actually been built into the new update of Google Wallet..."
• Barclaycard takes on Groupon with 'daily deals' - Telegraph - "Barclaycard is aiming to stand above other loyalty and deals offers by offering this personalised service…"
• Cover Raises $1.5M From OATV And Others To Bring Uber-Like Payments To Restaurants - TechCrunch - "Users simply check in to a restaurant at the start of their meal, and when it’s time for them to pay the final bill, it’s immediately charged to their credit card."
• Lessons from the Mcommerce Summit: State of Mobile Commerce 2013 - Mobile Commerce Daily - "Why does engagement matter? Because it drives customer satisfaction, utility and value."
• It’s Official: Foreign Bitcoin Operators Servicing Texas Residents Must Obtain a Texas Money Transmitter License - Contrarian Compliance - "As of May 1, the state of Texas became the second US state to explicitly require foreign-located money transmitters (including Bitcoin exchangers and administrators) to obtain a state money transmitter license if their customers are residents of Texas."
• US Regulator’s Confusion Around Bitcoin Is Exactly Why No One Wants Them Involved - The Genesis Block - "To many people besides Mr. Chilton, bitcoin’s legal color is not as clear: bitcoin still lives in the grey area between a currency and a commodity…"

Google last week made two payment-related announcements at the Google I/O Developers Conference about Google Wallet.

• Google Wallet for Digital Goods. Google has renamed the In-App Payments API to 'Google Wallet for Digital Goods' and added support for recurring subscriptions and small ticket price optimization; merchants will pay the lesser of 5% or 1.9% + $0.30 depending on ticket size. Details are on the Google Commerce blog.

• Save-to-Wallet. Google announced the Save-to-Wallet API with two variations: one to save merchant offers to the wallet and one to save payment cards to the wallet. Google says, "The Save-To-Wallet API is part of the vision for Google Wallet to be the one-stop-shop for holding everything you'd carry in a regular wallet." Specifics on the Save-To-Wallet Offer API are available now. No details were provided on the Save-To-Wallet Payment Cards API.

The Save-to-Wallet APIs are announced in a session called "Introducing Google Wallet Cloud APIs". See this video to see what was said and demonstrated.

On the web:

• Google Wallet Launches Support For Subscriptions - Computerworld
• Wallaby Launches the Cloud Wallet Based on a Smart Universal Payment Card - PandoDaily
• NetSpend To Sell Prepaid PayPal Cards At 7-Eleven Stores - Austin Business Journal
• China Mobile, China UnionPay Join Forces For Mobile Payments - NFCNews
• Facebook Rolls Out Currency Conversion API For App Developers - AllFacebook
• BII to Start JCB Platinum Credit Card Issuing in Indonesia
• The High Cost Of Paying By Phone - Discovery News

On the wires:

• American Express OPEN Enhances the Plum Card for Small Businesses
• Orange Launches Nationwide Deployment of NFC SIM Cards with Gemalto Solution in France
• LightSpeed Launches New iPad Product Enabling Interactive Cross-Selling in Retail Stores
• Scotiabank Connects With Cardtronics to Extend ATM Access Into Canadian 7-Eleven Stores
• MAGIC Card - A Reloadable Prepaid MasterCard(R) From Earvin "Magic" Johnson

Over on Payments Views, our sister blog, Glenbrook's Russ Jones takes a quick look at eBay, Google, and Facebook, comparing what each is doing in the world of online payments. We'll be taking a deep dive into all three -- plus Visa and Square -- at a special Payments 2012 Workshop being held May 15th in Santa Clara, CA. This workshop is designed for Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp Alumni.

On the web:

• Square COO Keith Rabois Explains The Death Of The Web And How Square Will Move Beyond Payments - Business Insider
• Do We Even Need NFC For Mobile Payments? PayPal, Google Weigh In (Video) - TechCrunch
• Wake Up, Google! - Cherian Abraham
• Is Google Wallet over before it began? - Digital Trends
• Digital Currency is the Future - Visa Blog
• Mobile Payments and Android. Are You Ready?
• Google acquires TxVia to improve Google Wallet user experience - Mobile Commerce Daily
• iPad Mobile App Offers Alternative to Traditional POS - The Point of Sale News
• Does this Look like a Valid Credit Card? - Credit Slips

On the wires:

Coming soon!

Google has announced on their blog that they are merging their two wallets (Google Checkout online and Google Wallet in phone) into a single wallet that can be used online from your computer and used in-store with your phone.

On the web:

• Digital Money Facing a Challenging Road - Rethink Wireless
• The Disintermediation of the Point of Sale Industry - Point of Sale News
• A New Payment Instrument for Britain: The Deposit Cheque - Consult Hyperion Blog
• Square No Longer Requires Signatures For Transactions Under $25 - TechCrunch
• VeriFone CEO Bergeron May Deploy $1 Billion Annually for Acquisitions - Bloomberg
• Is Recent EMV Announcement the Catalyst the U.S. Needs to Catch Up? - Portals and Rails
• Google Adds Carrier Billing (via Vodafone) to Android Market in UK - thinq_
• Debit Overdraft Fees, While Voluntary, Are Still Steep - New York Times
• Debit Card Fees Could Signal Trend - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

On the wires:

• Western Union Now Available in Namibia in Collaboration with Magnet Bureau De Change
• Cloud Billing Software Provider MetraTech Collaborates with Scribe for Online Billing Integration
• Failsafe Payments Adds TrustPay To CertoConnect

Google has made all the commerce-related sessions from its recent Google I/O Developers Conference available via YouTube. Topics covered in the Commerce Track included Google Checkout, In-App Payments for the Web, Google Shopping APIs, and Google OnePass. Unfortunately, Google Offers and Google Wallet were announced after the developers conference and are not included.

On the wires:

• Bangkok Airways Chooses Accertify to Provide Online Fraud Prevention
• MoneyGram International Adds Friendly Check and RiteCheck to Global Network
• TGate Announces Mobile Payment Best Practice Solution

On the web:

• Bank Technology News: Real U.S. Action on EMV
• Roll Call Lobbying: Swipe Fees Battle May Move to States
• Hindu Business Line: Soon, Merchant Transactions Too Can Be Paid Via Mobile
• AuctionBytes: Google Removes Checkout Badges from AdWord Ads
• Seeking Alpha: Elephant Talk and Mobile Wallets - The Next Trillion Dollar Revolution
• Business Standard: IndusInd Bank Pact with ECS for Credit Card Program in India
• CRIenglish.com: China UnionPay Cards to Be Accepted in Brazil
• Retail Week: Taking Payment Overseas
• NFC Times: With Launch of Google Wallet, the Wallet War Begins

This is year's Google I/O Developer Conference is the first to feature a track devoted to payments and commerce, including sessions on:

• Introducing In-App Payments for the Web
• Google Checkout: A Foundation For Payments
• Google One Pass: A simple, flexible, Web API for paywalls
• Integrating to eBooks: APIs to Sell and Read eBooks for Affiliates, Retailers and Device Makers

Google has announced Google One Pass, their new digital content service that lets publishers set their own prices and terms for access to premium content.

Readers who purchase from a One Pass publisher can access their content on tablets, smartphones and websites using a single sign-on with an email and password. Importantly, the service helps publishers authenticate existing subscribers so that readers don’t have to re-subscribe in order to access their content on new devices.

Website is here; blog announcement is here.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners:

• Visa Europe Completes €0.5 Billion Investment in European Processing Platform

• CBS News: Canada Delays Chip-and-PIN Rollout
• Google Checkout Blog: Extended Country Support (for Android) and the Latest Growth Stats
• STORES.org: Enabling the Mobile Wallet

In a blog post on the Official Google Checkout Blog earlier today, Google introduced the Android Payment Extension - a way to allow mobile merchants to quickly set up a store and accept payments via Google Checkout and Android.

The post describes the steps involved - as a merchant you signup for Google Checkout, create a webstore, list the items for sale in a Google Spreadsheet, and install the Android Payment Extension.

Once you're setup, at a craft fair, for example, you'd create a cart on your laptop based on what the customer verbally tells you they want to buy. You then click on the Checkout with Android button and the customer scans the QR code on your laptop using their Android phone - which takes them to the buy page where they can complete the purchase on their phone.

Seems to me this is yet another example of using optical (bar codes and mobile phone cameras) to leapfrog the grid lock that seems to exist re: other connectivity solutions.

Some nifty discounts are available - almost any way you want to pay online.

Both PayPal and Google Checkout are serving up discounts for purchases this holiday season. Here's PayPal's Deal page - and here's Google Checkout's Deal page.

Not to be outdone, Amazon Payments is also offering special holiday deals if you shop with Amazon Payments.

American Express also has its Daily Wish specials promotion underway this week while Discover is promoting special discounts along with a 5% cashback offer. And, if you'd prefer to just pay with Visa or MasterCard, they have their discount pages as well.

With just a few extra clicks while shopping online this holiday season, you can find some valuable savings!

Google Checkout has introduced a new feature that allows merchants based in the U.S. to create and to run their own Checkout promotions at any time. From the Google Checkout blog: "Starting today, you can sign in to your Checkout merchant account, go to the 'Tools' tab, and click the 'Promotions' link to create a Checkout promotion in less than a minute. You'll be able to specify the date and time you'd like the promotion to run, as well as choose from a variety of dollar-off discounts to offer your buyers."

In a blog post titled "Google Plans Tools to Help News Media Charge for Content", Miguel Helft writes for the New York Times that "Google is planning to roll out a system of micropayments within the next year and hopes that newspapers will use it as they look for new ways to charge users for their content."

Google Checkout has introduced the Google Checkout store gadget, a new Google Labs-developed feature that allows online sellers to "create an online store that's powered by Google Checkout and has inventory managed in a Google Docs spreadsheet." You can embed your online store anywhere you'd like -- on Google Sites, Blogger, or your personal website. Signup for it here.

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Russ Jones takes a look at Google Checkout's beta version of subscription payments.

Following yesterday's fee change announcement by Google Checkout, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness has just posted a look at pricing across the three major online payment providers over on PaymentsViews.com.

What is PaymentsViews.com? It's our newest online site for payments professionals - devoted to analysis, commentary and opinions beyond just the news of the day we cover here on PaymentsNews.com.

Google has announced a new tiered pricing plan for merchant fees for Google Checkout. Beginning May 5, Google Checkout's fees will vary based upon a merchant's monthly sales processed through Checkout. The new pricing plan removes the credit for Google AdWords advertising that was part of the original fee structure for Google Checkout. Here are the details for US merchants and for UK merchants. An additional 1% fee is charged on all cross-border transactions. Google Checkout continues to not charge any monthly, setup or gateway service fees.

In a post titled "YouTube Goes Offline", Thai Tran writes on the YouTube blog that video content creators can now sell their work - "for a small fee paid through Google Checkout" - in a pilot program.

Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager, Google Checkout writes on the Checkout blog that Google will begin charging processing fees to non-profits using Google Checkout who are no members of Google's Grants program.

Google Checkout has introduced a new shopping cart feature for sellers - saying that: "With the Google Checkout shopping cart, your buyers can add multiple items to their shopping cart, change item quantities, and remove items -- all without leaving your site. When buyers are ready to check out, they can complete their purchases with Google Checkout." Details here.

Google has announced that over 50 Google Checkout stores will be offering savings of $10 off purchases of $60 or more to buyers using Google Checkout through June 23rd.

Glenbrook's Allen Weinberg and Jim Salters are attending this week's Payments 2008 conference in Las Vegas. Here's Allen's second report from today's sessions including his notes on the panel he chaired this afternoon titled “Payments aren’t about Payments Anymore”.

AuctionByte's Ina Steiner interviews Prem Ramaswami, Associate Product Manager for Google Checkout, for an update on Google's payment service. Both a podcast and a transcript of the interview are available. Ramaswami says: "We want to create the fastest, safest and most convenient shopping method for our buyers to use, and we want to increase ecommerce, because we strongly believe that increasing ecommerce increases the size of the pie for everybody out there."

Business Week's Catherine Holahan takes a look at PayPal - and other alternative payment providers including Bill Me Later and Google Checkout. "Experts point to three main drivers for alternative payments: concern over fraud risk, growth in merchant participation, and fear of, or lack of access to, credit cards."

Google has introduced Google Checkout Trends, a tool that allows anyone to get some insight into what Google Checkout merchants are selling - by item - online. According to Google, "Google Checkout Trends aggregates the sales data of Google Checkout merchants and charts it in a matter of seconds. (Of course, all the data is anonymized first.)"