Google makes sending cash to a friend as easy as sending an email

As if today's other announcements weren't enough, Google is also bringing Google Wallet support to Gmail, making it incredibly easy to send friends and family payments by just sending an email.

The 21 ways Google makes money from mobile (infographic)

Google had its first $50 billion year in 2012. With its massive investments in mobile, someday it might make that much just on the little plastic and metal devices we carry in our pockets. Here's how.

PayPal destroys Google Wallet, MasterCard, Square, and Visa in digital wallet study

The good news, if you're PayPal, is that almost three quarters of Americans know about you and your digital wallet solution. The bad news is that under half of them really understand what a digital wallet is.

Back to the future: Google Wallet is actually … a funky morphing credit card

Google Wallet, which just recently made big changes to support Visa, American Express, and Discover cards, is now apparently making even bigger changes. As in, back to the future changes.

NFC’s ongoing user interface problem: some readers don’t work

I haven't had a lot of kind words for NFC, the mobile payments mechanism that some have touted as the Next Big Thing in payments. I've knocked it for being a kludgy experience that doesn't deliver any meaningful consumer value over swiping a credit card. But NFC has another big problem: Even when you think it might work, it doesn't.

As Isis launch nears, NFC mobile payments still feel like a pipe dream

It's tough to muster much excitement for Isis, as NFC almost seems more like a fantasy today than when it was a hot buzzword for mobile payments years ago.

Google Wallet’s not just for credit cards; here’s what it might hold in the future

Your wallet holds a lot more than just the "fun" plastic that lets you buy stuff. It also holds IDs, loyalty cards, public transportation passes -- and Google Wallet may soon hold all the same things.

Discover gives its blessing to Google Wallet and rewards users with cash back

Discover has officially partnered with Google to support Google Wallet, an NFC pay-by-phone application.

Top retailers band to form MCX, a potential dark horse in mobile payments

Brand name retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target have formed a new company called Merchant Customer Exchange to release a mobile wallet application for customers.

Google Wallet: Leave home without it

Sometimes companies do something just to feel like they’re making progress, even if that something makes no sense. That’s the only way I can rationalize what Google is doing with the latest twist on its Wallet initiative.

Wallet previously allowed …

Google Wallet is reborn with support for all major credit cards

Looking to lower the barrier of entry to mobile payments, Google is making a bunch of big changes to its Google Wallet app.

The biggest shift is that the app is making a move to the cloud. Now, instead of …

As Square nabs Google Wallet co-founder, Google acquires payments firm TxVia

How is Square taking on the threat of PayPal, Google, and an increasing roster of mobile payments competitors? Judging from the news today, it’s hiring a bunch of smart folks.

The credit card reader company has brought on board the …

Get ready: NFC is nearing its tipping point

The mobile experience is in a renaissance period, from phones to tablets to autos and more. We’re seeing multi-core processors come to mobile devices to enable new applications like intense gaming and HD video playback, and we’re seeing advanced user …

Relax, nothing has changed with Android’s Google Wallet in-app payments

Shockingly (note the sarcasm), Google seems hell-bent on making its Google Wallets platform the de facto standard for Android in-app payments.

A blistering Reuters report from yesterday claimed that Google was forcing developers to adopt its payments platform, in lieu …

Google says problem with Wallet prepaid card is “fixed”

Google has reopened its Google Wallet prepaid card option, after shutting it down due to two security vulnerabilities that let someone in possession of your phone access your prepaid funds even if you’d cleared all of your data from the …

Google Wallet flaw takes the lock off your mobile money (updated)

Updated with comment from Google at 5:14pm PT.

A new vulnerability in Google Wallet gives thieves access to your funds, even if the application data has been erased.

Google Wallet lets you digitize your credit cards and pay for things …

Mobile payments wunderkind Square hits 1M merchant milestone

Mobile payments startup Square now has more than 1 million merchants charging credit cards with the service, the company announced today.

“Just as small businesses are growing with Square, we’re growing with them: Over 1 million merchants now accept credit …