Link: Tech News on ZDNet

Looks like Google has an upcoming online payment system called GBuy that could eventually rip control of online payments from eBay's PayPal system (if you didn't already know, eBay purchased PayPal back in 2002 for 1.5 million dollars).

"Google's payment system, as a result, holds the potential to monitor which paid-search results users click on and of that group, which ones turn into actual sales. With that information, Google may find itself in the enviable position of being able to identify which categories bring in the highest return on investment for advertisers," Rohan stated.

GBuy's biggest strength comes from the combination of Google's search and comparison shopping functionality and it's deep statistical analysis that can track traffic funnelling and goal conversion (this ability is impressively Urchin-like mostly due to the fact that Google bought Urchin last year–but you already knew that, didn't you?). Combine this functionality with the already-established AdSense, and you have a grasp of just how big GBuy could be.

One problem that Google faces in getting people to adopt GBuy would specifically be in eBay, where the only online payment option is eBay's PayPal system, and that isn't likely to change. Google would have a hard time muscling their way into that market, but could at the very least eventually make PayPal an eBay exclusive service, which–if it controls everything else–wouldn't actually be all that bad. Especially when you take into consideration that back in 2002, about 60% of PayPal's business came from eBay. What would that number be now, 70%? 80%? More? Does anyone use PayPal for anything other than eBay auctions? Google could easily lock up all other online transactions within GBuy within two years.