Google announced on Tuesday that it is rolling out a new version of the Google Wallet app for Android devices (2.3+), which comes with new loyalty programs featuring a handful of merchants, with more to come.
The loyalty programs make use of the Google Wallet Objects API launched earlier this year.
“As a merchant, you can now showcase your loyalty program within the app, and have Google Wallet users sign up for your program instantly from their phone,” explains Google Wallet group product manager Pali Bhat. “You can also engage your customers in real time no matter where they are, with messaging, loyalty status and rewards balance. And customers can easily redeem their loyalty programs in your stores by simply scanning their phone at checkout. In the coming days, saved programs will show up as a Google Now card when the customer is near one of your stores.”
“In addition, if you are a merchant or couponing site, you can connect offers directly from your properties to Google Wallet,” adds Bhat. “For example, starting later this week, visitors on Valpak.com can browse offers, save their favorite ones directly to their Google Account and easily redeem in store using the Google Wallet app at checkout. With the Google Wallet Objects API, you also get richer analytical insights to inform your marketing campaigns.”
The first set of merchant loyalty programs that are immediately live are from Alaska Airlines, Belly and Red Mango, but the roster will soon include Avis Car Rental, BJ’s Restaurants, Cosi, Hard Rock International, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Raley’s, The Body Shop, SnipSnap, RetailMeNot, Thinaire and Koupon Media.
To add loyalty cards to the new app, users can just scan the barcode or input the card number into the app, and the next time they’re in the store, they will earn points by scanning the app at the checkout. Within the app, users can view loyalty status and rewards points.
Another new feature in the app is the ability to send money to friends within the US by email. This follows the recently announced Google Wallet integration into Gmail.
“It’s free to send money directly from your bank account or Google Wallet Balance, and low fees apply when using your linked credit or debit card,” says Google Wallet Director of Product Management, Peter Hazlehurst. “And as an added bonus, once you send money with the Google Wallet app, you’ll also get early access to sending money in Gmail from your desktop while we continue to roll out the feature broadly to Gmail users. ”
“In addition to your loyalty cards, you can easily carry and use your offers with the Google Wallet app,” says Hazlehurst. “No matter where you’ve found your offer – in the Google Maps app, Google Search, Google+ or Google Offers, they’re visible and redeemable in your Wallet app at checkout. And later this week, you’ll also be able to save offers on select merchant and couponing sites such as Valpak. Just show the offer on your app at checkout to redeem it. We’re working with many partners to bring you great offers, and will be adding more soon. It’s saving made simple.”
Users of the new app will also be able to see all their purchases made with Google Wallet, including in-store purchases and online mobile purchases.
Chrome is about to support In app payments for Chrome Packaged Apps thanks to the newly embed Chrome Wallet App also available in the Chrome WebStore at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-wallet-service/nmmhkkegccagdldgiimedpiccmgmieda.
If you want to give it a try, make sure to run Google Chrome Canary and install the Chrome Sample App plainly named “In App Payments” at https://github.com/GoogleChrome/chrome-app-samples/tree/master/in-app-payments.
At Google I/O earlier this month, Google announced a new way to send money via Gmail using Google Wallet, as the company continues its “one wallet’ approach, which also involves the phasing out of Google Checkout. Google Checkout for Merchants will be retired in six months as Google Wallet takes over. More discussion about that from Google here.
Google announced that it would shut down Google Checkout in favor of Google Wallet back in 2011. This week, the company announced that in six months Google checkout will be officially dead to merchants.
With that, the company has shared an “office hours” video dealing with the change, so if you had any questions about it, give it a watch, and see if they get answered:
Developers for Google Play the Chrome Web Store and Offers Marketplace will continue to be supported, and will automatically transition to the Google Wallet Merchant Center in the coming weeks. Shoppers will simply be able to use Google Wallet to make purchases on merchant apps and sites, as well as on Google properties.
Google announced all the way back in November of 2011 that it would be shutting down Google Checkout in favor of a transition to Google Wallet.
This week, Google announced that in six months, Google Checkout will officially be dead to merchants. They will no longer be able to accept payments using Google Checkout starting November 20th.
“If you don’t have your own payment processing, you will need to transition to a different solution within six months,” says Google Wallet senior product manager Justin Lawyer. “To make things easier, we’ve partnered with Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks to offer you discounted migration options.”
“If you are a U.S. merchant that does have payment processing, you can apply for Google Wallet Instant Buy, which offers a fast buying experience to Google Wallet shoppers,” adds Lawyer.
Developers for Google Play the Chrome Web Store and Offers Marketplace will continue to be supported, and will automatically transition to the Google Wallet Merchant Center in the coming weeks. Shoppers will simply be able to use Google Wallet to make purchases on merchant apps and sites, as well as on Google properties.
Google kicked off its annual developers conference, Google I/O, on Wednesday, with a keynote lasting nearly four hours. It’s always expected that Google will make a bunch of announcements at these events, and they certainly did. This year’s hasn’t been the sexiest Google I/O full of new gadgets and big new services, but it has focused a great deal on developers, and isn’t that supposed to be the point anyway?
We’re not going to get into all the announcements here. You can follow this page to see all of that. I do, however, want to draw attention to some of the things Google has announced that have implications specifically for businesses. It’s worth noting that a lot of Google’s announcements came in blog posts, rather than in the keynote.
Maps
One of the biggest announcements to come out the event was a complete overhaul of Google Maps. This was expected thanks to a leak last week, and then another one earlier this week, but it is still a huge deal, as Google Maps is one of the company’s most popular products. It also plays a major role in how people find businesses using Google from the desktop, tablets, and from mobile devices. Google actually announced revamps for each of these devices as well.
The new Google Maps for Android smartphones and iPhones is coming this summer, and will include a new Zagat experience, with Zagat badges appearing in the interface, as well as Google Offers integration. If you find Starbucks, for example, you can see an offer from them, and save it for later or use it.
There is also a new five point rating scale across Google Maps for mobile and desktop.
With the new tablet interface, Google will point users to businesses and destinations by categories with a new discovery feature called “Explore”.
With the new desktop Maps experience, Google highlights things it thinks matter to users. “And the more you interact with the map, the better it gets,” says Google. “When you set your Home and Work locations, star favorite places, write reviews and share with friends, Google Maps will build even more useful maps with recommendations for places you might enjoy.”
“In addition to a customized map, we’ve also made it easier to uncover the best local gems,” the company says. “Search results are labeled directly on the map with brief place descriptions and icons that highlight business categories and other useful information – like restaurants that are recommended by your Google+ friends. Info cards provide helpful information such as business hours, and ratings and reviews so you can quickly decide where to eat, drink and play.”
The interface also allows people to zoom in right into indoor imagery, where available.
Changes to how Google does search are always of interest to businesses, because it’s the top way people find them. There’s not necessarily a lot in the way of SEO news coming out of Google I/O (though there was certainly plenty from Matt Cutts earlier this week), but you should still be aware of the search announcements that were made.
The biggest thing is that Google is bringing the conversational search that Android and iOS users have been enjoying to the desktop via Chrome. Soon, users will simply be able to talk to Google when they want to know something, and Google will talk back. Google SVP Amit Singhal discusses this on the Inside Search Blog:
People communicate with each other by conversation, not by typing keywords — and we’ve been hard at work to make Google understand and answer your questions more like people do. Already, you can tap a mic, talk to Google in a more natural way and get responses spoken back to you on Android, iPhone, and iPad devices.
Today, we previewed what this conversational experience will look like in Chrome on your desktops and laptops. Soon, you’ll be able to just say, hands-free, “OK Google, will it be sunny in Santa Cruz this weekend?” and get a spoken answer. Then, you’ll be able to continue the conversation and just follow up with “how far is it from here?” if you care about the drive or “how about Monterey?” if you want to check weather somewhere else, and get Google to tell you the answer.
He also announced improvements to Google’s Knowledge Graph, including newly supported languages, and the ability to provide answers to what it thinks will be your next questions.
Singhal explains, “You’ll also get smarter answers to questions like ‘what’s the population of Canada?’ Not only will Google answer that question, but you also get an answer to the next few follow-up questions people often ask. In a single card, you’ll see how Canada’s population changed over time — and a comparison with California and Australia.”
Finally, Google Now got some new cards, and the ability for users to set reminders. More on all of this here.
While not part of the Google I/O announcements, Matt Cutts also made another announcement via Twitter. He said, “It’s safe to assume webspam will continue to tackle link networks that violate” Google’s quality guidelines, and that they just took action on thousands of linkselers in a “paid-link-that-passes-PageRank” network.
YouTube Gets New Ecommerce Feature
Also not part of the keynote announcements, Google announced a feature for YouTube, which could prove to be a pretty big deal in ecommerce. They’re now letting businesses include “Buy Now” buttons on their YouTube channels, so users can purchase products through various retailers.
“Every day, millions of people turn to YouTube for advice, from learning how to do the perfect smokey eye to trying out a new recipe for mashed potatoes,” says Danielle Tomassini from the Google Shopper team. “People are using YouTube not just for entertainment, but to learn a new skill, find more information, and shop for products. This presents a unique opportunity for consumer goods brands to reach shoppers in the moment and provide them with an easy way to go from watching a video to purchasing the product.”
The new offering comes in the form of a new channel gadget, and lets users shop for products from various retailers from the comfort of the YouTube channel they’re already browsing.
“This new channel gadget will enable shoppers to seamlessly move from browsing how-to videos and featured products to finding which retailers carry them, check availability, compare prices and make a purchase, all with fewer clicks than today,” says Tomassini.
Google has launched the gadget with Unilever to highlight hair products from TRESemmé.
Curiously, the offering is not part of the Google Shopping ecosystem Google has created, but rather utilizes GloTo.
There are a lot of interesting things happening with Google Wallet.
For one, there’s a new API that could have a huge impact on converting mobile sales. According to Google, 97% of mobile shoppers abandon their shopping carts. This is mostly due to all of the hoops they have to go through to complete the process (like filling out big forms). The Instant Buy API makes the process much faster and easier.
“The Instant Buy API is designed for merchants and developers selling physical goods and services, who already have a payment processor and are looking to simplify the checkout experience for their customers,” says Prakash Hariramani, Senior Product Manager for Google Wallet. “Developers selling digital goods within their apps will continue to use Google Play In-app Billing, which offers full payment processing capability, including support for carrier billing and gift cards.”
And speaking of Gmail, Google is adding quick actions to let people RSVP, check-in and leave reviews right from their inboxes. Buttons will appear next to certain types of messages, and people can take actions without even having to open the email. Businesses can add custom actions to their emails.
Google announced the Google Wallet Objects API to let businesses connect loyalty programs, offers, etc. to Google Wallet.
“Consumers want access to all of their loyalty cards, offers, and more on their smartphone,” says Group Product Manager Pali Bhat. “An average household has 18 loyalty cards but use less than half of these cards regularly because of the inconvenience. And the same goes for tickets, membership cards and other items.”
Users will be able to save loyalty programs, offers, etc. directly to their Google Wallet, and businesses will be able to showcase their brands, acquire users and engage them through instant loyalty sign-up, real time updates and offers.
“With Google’s location services, your users get timely notifications about their saved Wallet objects,” notes Bhat. “Additionally, with a simple upgrade path to Google Offers, you can distribute your offers across Google properties — including Adwords, the Google Display Network and Google Maps for Mobile — and benefit from Google’s targeting capabilities.”
They also announced that more phones – Samsung Galaxy S4 (Sprint), HTC One (Sprint) & Samsung Galaxy Note II (Sprint & US Cellular) – get the Google Wallet app.
Google+
Google+ has received a total of 41 new features, and a general redesign, and it could present some new opportunities and challenges in getting your content seen in Google’s growing social network. Included is a multi-column layout, bigger media, new animations, and a “related hashtags” feature:
“Suppose, for example, that you’re reading about your favorite sports team,” says Google SVP Vic Gundotra. “We’ll look at the post, determine what it’s about, and tag it accordingly. Behind the scenes, we’ll also identify and rank relevant conversations across the network. When you click on the related hashtag, we’ll flip the card, and let you browse related content inline.”
It looks like Google+ optimization could get more complex (as it certainly has with rival Facebook, not to mention Google’s crown jewel – search). More on the rest of the features here.
Google Cloud Platform
Google made some announcements about its Cloud Platform, including making Google Compute Engine available to all businesses and developers. It comes with sub-hour billing charges for instances in one-minute increments with a ten-minute minimum, so you don’t pay for minutes you don’t use.
“Shared-core instances provide smaller instance shapes for low-intensity workloads,” says Google’s Urs Hölzle. “Shared-core instances provide smaller instance shapes for low-intensity workloads. Advanced Routing features help you create gateways and VPN servers, and enable you to build applications that span your local network and Google’s cloud. Large persistent disks support up to 10 terabytes per volume, which translates to 10X the industry standard.”
This is really all just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to new stuff Google has in store, but these are some of the things businesses should be paying attention to. Of course, it really depends on what type of business you run. Android developers have a ton of new stuff to dig into that we didn’t even mention here, for example.
Which new Google offering (if any) do you think will have the greatest impact on your business? Tell us in the comments.
Google announced a lot of things today, but some it didn’t all make into the Google I/O keynote.
On the Gmail blog, Google announced new Google Wallet integration for Gmail, which comes in the form of an “Attach Money” button. Yep, you can send money as an attachment. A pretty good idea, as long as it doesn’t land in the spam folder.
The feature lets you send money by email even if the recipient does not have a Gmail address.
“It’s free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet Balance, and low fees apply to send money using your linked credit or debit card,” says Google Wallet product manager Travis Green. “To send money in Gmail, hover over the attachment paperclip, click the $ icon to attach money to your message, enter the amount you wish to send, and press send.”
The feature will only be available for desktop at first, but will likely come to mobile Gmail in the future. In the meantime, you can still use the Google Wallet app or wallet.google.com.
The feature is rolling out over the coming months to U.S. Gmail users who are 18 and over.
According to Google, the abandonment rate of shopping carts on mobile is a whopping 97%. With that, they’re providing an HTML5 autocomplete function in mobile Chrome, and a new Google Wallet “Instant Buy” API to fill out info in three steps: checkout button, review billing and shipping, and submit. That’s down from these 21 steps, as outlined during today’s Google I/O keynote:
1. Checkout Button
2. Sign in or Guest
3. Billing name
4. Credit Card Type
5. Cred Card Number
6. Expiration – MM
7. Expiration – YY
8. Credit Card CSC
9. Billing Address
10. Billing City
11. Billing State
12. Billing Zip
13. Billing Country
14. Shipping Address
15. Shipping City
16. Shipping State
17. Shipping Zip
18. Shipping Country
19. Shipping telephone
20. Contact Email
21. Submit
So yeah, it’s easy to see where Google’s model could be a bit more helpful.
The Verge, liveblogging the event, says, “BIg play from Google to take its payment service to mobile in a subtle way.”
New web platform payment feature will make it easier to fill out forms and shop on mobile.#io13#keynote#io13chrome
Update: Google has put a blog post out shedding more light on this announcement, which is an invitation to developers in the U.S. to sign up for the Google Wallet Instant Buy Android API.
Google’s Prakash Hariramani explains, “The Instant Buy API is designed for merchants and developers selling physical goods and services, who already have a payment processor and are looking to simplify the checkout experience for their customers. Developers selling digital goods within their apps will continue to use Google Play In-app Billing, which offers full payment processing capability, including support for carrier billing and gift cards.”
It was revealed back in February that Google Play sent your personal details to developers whenever you bought their apps on the Play store. It caused a small outcry among the Android community, and Congress even got involved. Google is now finally starting to address these concerns.
Droid Life reports that Google will be updating the Google Wallet commerce site in the coming weeks that will remove any personally identifiable information from transactions. Before the update, all transactions would return a customer’s name, email address and other information. The new Google Wallet only returns the general location of the customer at time of purchase for tax purposes.
So, why did it take Google this long to implement these changes? Google could have just removed the personal information and called it a day, but it seems that the company is completely rebuilding the Google Wallet commerce site to be more developer friendly as well. There’s been a number of UI changes that clean up the site.
Here’s what the new Google Wallet commerce site looks like compared to the old, courtesy of Droid Life:
The Google Wallet fiasco was just one of many privacy challenges that Google is facing. It’s nice to see the company working quickly to address this particular problem, but it has many more to go. In fact, it only just recently settled a years-old Wi-Fi snooping case in Germany. It also has to contend with European regulators as they question Google’s new privacy policy.
The mobile ATM device easily attaches to most smartphones and dispenses money instantly and effortlessly– forever ending your search for the nearest bank or ATM. Just type in your personal pin code on your cell phone and access all your cash from the palm of your hand.
The Google Wallet Mobile ATM technology allows you to enter the amount of money you want to withdraw directly in your phone or use voice-activated dispenser.
Google notes that the product does some things that even traditional ATMs can’t do, such as dispensing rare two and fifty dollar bills, and even “more practical” one dollar bills.
One huge bonus of using Google Wallet Mobile ATM over a traditional ATM is that when your device is low on funds, a self-driving, armored, hybrid vehicle will be alerted and dispatched to your location.
Wow, Google is really making our lives easier these days. First Google Now, and now this.
Google announced a real-time new digital coupon offering today called Zavers by Google, which the company says enables retailers and manufacturers to reward loyal customers with relevant coupons.
Retailers can use the product to extend their existing incentive programs.
“Unlike traditional media, Zavers’ real-time data gives manufacturers new ways to measure coupon redemptions and analyze consumer preferences so they can manage distribution, tailor campaigns, and optimize budgets for maximum ROI,” says Google Commerce Director of Emerging Platforms, Spencer Spinnell. “Zavers also offers access to an extensive network of manufacturer coupons, opening up new retail revenue streams.
“With Zavers, shoppers find manufacturer discounts on their favorite retailer websites, and save the digital coupons to their accounts,” he explains. “Then they simply shop for those products and check out as usual. Redemption occurs in real time, with savings automatically deducted at checkout when shoppers provide their rewards cards or phone numbers—no scanning or sorting necessary. Manufacturers only pay when a product is moved off the shelf.”
The coupons are applied to purchases without the need to show and scan paper or digital goods. Customers using Google Wallet can redeem coupons instantly by tapping their phones at the checkout.
Google has New York grocer D’Agostino on as a partner, as well as A&P, Bi-Lo, The Food Emporium, Harris Teeter, PathMark, Price Chopper, SuperFresh and Waldbums. The company says it will be announcing new partnerships with major retailers in the coming months.
Earlier this year, Google launched some new Google Wallet APIs. Since then, the company has been trying to educate developers on how to best take advantage of them.
That continues with this recent Office Hours hangout Google uploaded to its Developers YouTube channel:
Google CEO Larry Page recently talked a bit about Wallet (among many other things) in an interview with Fortune. Here’s what he had to say about it:
I think that’s an area where we’ve made really rapid progress actually. If you talk to the users, they rave about it. We’d obviously like to get it to more people if we are allowed to. I’d like to see more cooperation in that area and in many parts of the industry.
Besides Wallet, we’re very good at accepting worldwide payments. We have very many small advertisers. We’re also getting very good with Play on Android at accepting payments from users in many, many different countries, wireless, carrier billing and all sorts of other forms of payment. We have probably a non-understood set of capabilities there.
Google put out a new Office Hours video for developers about Google Wallet APIs. Among other things, Peng Ying talks about Google Wallet for Online Commerce.
“The idea is that right now, purchasing something on the mobile web is something that’s very time consuming and difficult…what we set out to do is to make this process more frictionless,” he says.
More on what Google is doing for mobile payments here.
Google announced that starting today, users will no longer have to enter their credit/debit card numbers, billing addresses or other payment-related information on certain sites that accept Google Wallet for payments.
Google is quick to cite the “97% of mobile shoppers abandon their mobile shopping carts” stat from a recent SeeWhy report.
“Typically, on mobile websites, you need to key in 17-20 fields of information on a small screen while having to click and scroll through multiple pages to provide shipping and billing information,” says Google Wallet’s head of mobile commerce, Barak Turovsky. “It’s no wonder up to 97% of mobile shoppers abandon their mobile shopping carts. Google Wallet makes it easy and secure for you. Simply click the Buy with Google Wallet button, log into Google Wallet and click to complete your order. That’s it — you’re done in 3 steps.”
The functionality is currently live at 1-800-Flowers.com, Rockport.com and FiveGuys.com (at select locations). Google says it is currently working with other retailers to get it integrated into their mobile sites. These include Finish Line, MovieTickets.com, Seamless, SwimOutlet.com and others.
Presumably this will be expanded on a much larger scale in the future.
Update: Google has officially launched this product now. You can check it out here.
It looks like Google has again let some news slip a little earlier than intended. A blog post on Google’s Commerce blog came through the RSS feeds, titled, “Bring New Content to the Web with Google Wallet”. The post, however, is not on the blog now.
The post announces Google Wallet for Web Content, which Google describes as an experiment designed to help content creators “bring more high quality content to the web.” Google says that while it expects advertising to remain the most effective monetization model for most web content, it knows there is more content that creators could bring to the web if they had an effective way to sell individual articles that users can find with search.
According to the post from Google’s Rob Ennals and Pali Bhat, Google Wallet for Web Content comes with the following features:
Buy web pages individually. Your users can buy exactly what they want, with typical prices ranging from 25¢ to 99¢.
Instant Refund if they don’t like the content. Help users feel comfortable buying your web content by offering them an “Instant Refund” within 30 minutes if they aren’t happy with it. There are checks in place to prevent excessive refunding.
Long preview content. Provide free preview content to give users a feel for what the rest of the content will be like. Search engines rank articles based on the free preview content (not the paid content), so you should make the preview reasonably long in order to rank well.
Rich obfuscated content. Let your users know what they can buy, by showing them a rich obfuscated version of the rest of the page.
Single secure payment method. Let users buy web content using the same Google Wallet account they already use to pay for content across all Google properties.
Provide perpetual access. Once your users buy content, they own it forever. Google provides an archive service help you provide perpetual access, even if your web site ceases to exist.
Compatible with ads. By running ads alongside the preview content, you can get an ad impression even if a user doesn’t buy the content.
In the post, Google reveals that Pearson (DK and Peachpit) and Oxford University Press are already selling web content with Google Wallet, and that “hopefully” GigaOm and Motley Fool “may be ready for launch”.
For a while now, Google has been bribing people into installing Google Wallet on their smartphones, giving out a free $10 to some who activate the app. Now, it seems customers might want to go ahead and spend that money quickly.
Google announced today that it will be ending the Google Prepaid Card within the Google Wallet app. The company stated that the reason for the change is that customers can now add any credit or debit card to Google Wallet.
Starting on September 17, users will no longer be able to add funds to the prepaid card or add new prepaid cards to the app. In addition, resetting the Wallet app will cause the prepaid card to be removed. On October 17, the prepaid card will disappear from Wallet and users will not be able to spend any money they had stored on it. Google has also changed the terms and conditions for the prepaid card. Where a $2 fee was applied monthly after 180 days of inactivity, now that time period has shrunk to 30 days.
Users who don’t spend their prepaid card balance by the cut-off date, or who are unaware of the impending deactivation can receive refunds. Google states that it will add information on how to receive a refund to this page on October 17. In the meantime, Google encourages those whose prepaid card disappears after an app reset to contact Money Network, the servicer of Google Prepaid Cards, to receive a refund.
Today, Google discussed a new way to save cards to Google Wallet, beginning with Discover, the first card issuer to launch an implementation of its new Save To Wallet API for Payment Cards. Google says it is working with other card issuers.
“Discover securely transmits all required information directly to Google Wallet,” says Google Payments Commerce Business Development Manager Frank Young. “You can then select your Discover Card to be the primary method the Google Wallet app will use for in-store purchases, or when shopping online from Google Play or other merchants that accept Google Wallet.”
“You’ll continue to earn rewards on every purchase you make,” he adds. “Discover has also provided Google Wallet with card imagery for the Discover More Card, so you can easily identify your virtual Discover card in your mobile wallet.”
To save a Discover Card to Google Wallet, simply go to discover.com/googlewallet, sign into your Discover account, click “Add Your Card,” sign into your Google account, and you’ll be all set.
Google announced today that it is releasing a new, cloud-based Google Wallet app that supports credit and debit cards from Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.
“To support all credit and debit cards, we changed our technical approach to storing payment cards,” says Google Wallet’s Head of Product Management, Robin Dua. “The Google Wallet app now stores your payment cards on highly secure Google servers, instead of in the secure storage area on your phone.”
“A wallet ID (virtual card number) is stored in the secure storage area of the phone, and this is used to facilitate transactions at the point of sale,” Dua explains. “Google instantly charges your selected credit or debit card. This new approach speeds up the integration process for banks so they can add their cards to the Wallet app in just a few weeks. Banks that want to help their customers save cards to Google Wallet, including their custom card art, can apply here — there is no cost.”
The product comes with a Google Wallet PIN for security, as well as a feature that lets you disable the mobile wallet on a lost phone. To do this, you can go to the “devices” section in the online wallet, and select the device you want to disable.
Google has made some changes to the Google Wallet for Digital Goods API (formerly known as the In-App Payments API): new pricing and subscriptions.
“First, we’ve heard feedback from developers that 5% transaction fees are great for microtransactions but not as attractive for larger transactions with higher order value,” says Google Wallet product manager Pali Bhat. “To improve your experience selling higher priced items, we’re introducing 1.9% + $0.30 (or local equivalent) pricing in addition to the current 5%. Google will apply the option that charges you the lower of the two possible transaction fees for that order.”
“We also know that many orders happen on a recurring basis rather than just once,” says Bhat. “At Google I/O we demonstrated how to integrate with the new Google Wallet for digital goods subscriptions feature, which is now available in sandbox.”
In case you missed the Monetizing Digital Goods With Google Wallet session from Google I/O, here’s the entire thing:
Google says there will be a forthcoming announcement, alerting developers when subscriptions will be available for external use. You can sign up here.
At Google I/O, Google aso launched new Google Wallet Save To Wallet APIs. More on those here.
At Google I/O, Google demonstrated the new Save to Wallet Google Wallet APIs. We posted about it here, but here’s the video of the session again, in case you haven’t seen it:
Google has put out a blog post about the APIs talking about them a bit more.
The company is testing the Save To Wallet API for Payment Cards and a few other bank partners.
“The Save to Wallet API for Payment Cards enables banks to integrate any credit or signature debit card into Google Wallet in a relatively simple manner,” says Google’s head of product management for consumer payments and Wallet. “We’re providing issuing banks with two options: 1) a ‘no integration’ option that allows banks to provide us card art, and co-market Google Wallet, or 2) a light integration option, which enables banks to push cards directly from their websites into Google Wallet, with user consent. At Google I/O we demonstrated how Discover is working with Google on a concept that would enable Discover cardmembers to save their cards to Google Wallet from the Account Center at discover.com.”
Then there’s the API for Offers.
“The Save to Wallet API for Offers enables merchants to publish offers that can be saved to Google Wallet from your desktop or mobile website,” explains Dua. “These offers can then be redeemed by consumers using a mobile device either via SingleTap NFC at the point of sale, or by showing and scanning the offer during checkout. Note that these offers are actually not created by Google, but are instead created by 3rd parties, e.g. merchants or developers.”
Banks can request access to the Payment Cards API here. Developers and merchants can learn more about the Offers API here.
Google has been uploading lots of Google I/O session videos to YouTube. In one of those sessions (below), Google introduced new Google Wallet Cloud APIs.
“There have been exciting developments in the world of Payments at Google as we move forward with our digital wallet, and we have new APIs to share with you,” the description explains. “Come and join us as we kick off the Commerce track at Google I/O 2012 with Peter Hazlehurst, Global Head of Product Management, Payments.”
In the video, Google introduces the Save To Wallet APIs.
The session is just over a half hour long, so it’s not too long, and if you’re planning on using Google Wallet from the developer standpoint, you should probably give it a shot:
Google has big plans for local businesses, and making billions for itself in the process.
Google announced a major Google+ push into local search last week, when it revealed Google+ Local, which effectively turns Google+ business pages into the new local business hub across Google Search, Google Maps and Google+.
“Much of the information from a business owners’ Google Place page – such as the business address, phone number, description, and Google reviews, and photos submitted by business owners and users – will automatically be ported over to the upgraded local Google+ page,” a Google spokesperson told WebProNews.
“People used to be able to find information about a business on the Google Places page, but now, they’ll find much of that same information on the local Google+ page and enjoy the added ability to share that information with the people in their Google+ Circles,” they said. “This means that a business listing that could previously be found across Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile is still available in all those places, but is now also more easily discoverable to the millions of users on Google+ as well.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is readying a new “local ad assault,” led by executives Jeff Huber and Marissa Mayer, which should surface next month, and combines a variety of local-geared services “under a single banner,” once called Business Builder internally. According to the publication, it will include services powered by recent acquisitions Punchd and TalkBin, as well as AdWords Express, and of course a heavy Google+ push.
AdWords Express (formerly known as Boost) launched last July in the U.S. It targeted businesses who weren’t already using AdWords. The company considered it a “fast/simple way for local businesses to start advertising online in less than 5 minutes”.
“AdWords Express helps potential customers find your website or Place page, and gives you a quick and straightforward way to connect with them and grow your business,” AdWords Express Product Mangager Kiley McEvoy said at the time. “You simply provide some basic business information, create your ad, and your campaign is ready to go.”
Punchd was a mobile loyalty card startup Google acquired (also last July). It was described as “the replacement for your buy-10-get-1-free cards at your favorite shops.”
Google acquired TalkBin the April before that. It was described as a way for your business to deliver better customer experience by letting customers use their mobile phones to communicate to your business in real time. Customers could send businesses feedback, suggestions, and questions through short messages, which allowed the businesses to quickly respond (“immediately,” according to TalkBin’s site).
“Central to the effort is Google+, the company’s social network, which it hopes consumers will use to interact with local businesses that now have special Web pages on the network,” reports the WSJ’s Amir Efrati. “Those Google+ pages will draw traffic from the company’s Web-search engine. When shoppers visit these businesses, Google wants them to use their Internet-connected phones like a digital wallet, earning loyalty points and making payments at stores that sign up for Google’s new services. In turn, Google is hoping stores and other businesses will use their new Google+ pages to communicate with customers, such as by showing them special offers. And it hopes to persuade them to sign up for other Google products.”
According to Efrati’s report, Google hopes its new offering, which combines all of this, will bring in “billions of dollars a year in new revenue,” and gets “more merchants to spend money on digital advertising, including on Google’s search engine”.
It’s no secret that Google’s average cost-per-click has suffered in recent quarters, largely due to increased mobile queries, where CPCs just haven’t matched their desktop counterparts. During the company’s Q1 earnings call in April, CEO Larry Page said advertisers always spend most of their money on the major source of traffic, which is desktop, but that over time, that will reverse. Over time, CPCs may actually get better,” he said. “We’re very bullish.” He added that Google is making lots of investments in that area, such as Google Offers and Google Wallet. Those combined with the suite described in the WSJ report could have a significant impact.
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