Google looks out to include Paypal payments for Android Apps

If you want to pick up a new app on an Android-based smartphone, you have one option with which to pay for your new purchase: Google Checkout. At least, for now—sources indicate that Google is chatting with eBay's PayPal business to bring the latter as a secondary option for smartphone-based payments.

While that doesn't necessarily help the speed of the transaction—Google Checkout is, after all, is still a fairly convenient method for purchasing applications—it does help Google attract users who, for whatever reason, have simply opted not to use Google's single payment service for their purchases.

Integrating Paypal would open up Android phones to the service's 87 million active accounts, which would surely go a long way toward increasing the propensity of a user to pick up a new application on a whim—especially if the Paypal service is integrated into the mobile operating system in a similar style to how purchases work on Apple's App Store.

"As an Android user, I'd certainly be more inclined to buy apps from the Android Market if PayPal was a payment option," writes Intomobile's Marc Flores. "Make it a one-click feature and perhaps I'll even go nuts loading my EVO 4G with new applications."

Neither Paypal nor Google are discussing the alleged talks, which may or may not lead to a finalized deal between the two companies, reports Bloomberg.

According to the research firm Gartner, Google's Android operating system is now the most popular piece of smartphone software in the United States. Sales of Android-based devices rank third of any smartphone in the world in 2010 thus far, nestled behind RIM and Symbian's respective sales of 11.2 million and 22.3 million units. Apple's iPhone sales rank fourth at 8.7 million, or a market share of 14.2 percent to Android's 17.2 percent.

It's quite a turnaround from this same time period one year ago, when Apple commanded 13 percent of the market to Android's 1.8, and Symbian carried the majority market share at 51 percent. Microsoft's Windows mobile phones continue to lag with only 3 million units sold in 2010, a market share of a paltry 5 percent (itself, a decrease from 2009's 9.3 percent)

I think that if such a move is true from Google's side, it could make the Android a popular one!

Google opens Checkout for all websites: Now Online Shoping Made Easy!!!

Google has added a new widget into its Labs library that makes opening up your very own online store incredibly easy.

Users simply have to sign up for Google Checkout merchant account, put the details of what they want to sell in a spreadsheet, and then choose from a range of widgets to embed in their site.

Google is offering tiny, small and large widgets to display your stuff, which essentially takes the hassle out of selling stuff online by letting you have your own little shop.

Size options

You can embed the gadget in a variety of ways, with it being easiest in Google branded sites (ie Blogger or iGoogle) but also any site built using HTML (which is fairly wide ranging...)

Google states that using this method means "a fast, secure checkout process [that] helps Google Checkout users convert 40% more than shoppers who have not used Checkout before."

It's subject to Google's transaction fees of course, which if you sell less than £1500-worth of stuff a month you'll incur 3.4 per cent of the fee plus 20p for each thing you sell (with the costs coming down the more stuff you shift).

If you're a wannabe entrepreneur, a web lover but too lazy to actually set up an online presence, then head on over to http://storegadget.googlelabs.com/ and get creating.