It seems that ’s lab is putting the finishing touches to it’s Paypal-competing service called Google Purchases. You have to admit, if you’ve been following Google for a while, that this was inevitable. There is no way that Paypal could remain king of the hill with Google in the playground.

Last week they announced in their blog that they will be facilitating payments on Google services (i.e., everything they do). It would seem silly for them to offer Paypal, so its just a hop skip and a jump to Google Purchases…

TechCrunch has some screenshots of this new service, check them out, they’re quite neat and straightforward. They talk about Google’s service being much quicker than Paypal, but honestly I’ve never had a speed problem with Paypal. One thing they highlight is the lack of a reputation system, a way to “rate” other Google Purchases users, which is a very good point. I know from using and Paypal that I shy away from those accounts which are “new” and have no rep.