On May 26th, 2011 Google announced Google Wallet; you might ask yourself why Google would want to be our wallet? Google Wallet allows you to store all your credit cards and gift cards on your phone. That means that all your credit cards and gift cards can be left at home because they will all be stored on your phone. Your phone becomes your wallet. Google wants to evolve the way we pay at retailers.
The technology that Google is using for Google Wallet is called Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC allows for simplified transactions between two devices that are close to each other. The biggest problem with NFC is that a majority of the phones do not have NFC built into them. As of now only one smartphone has Google Wallet enabled to run and that is the Nexus S 4g. The way Google Wallet works is that you go to the register pull out your Google Wallet enabled phone and you swipe your phone on a Mastercard Paypass terminal. Another negative for Google Wallet at this point is that some stores do not have a Mastercard Paypass terminal.
Asking students around campus, one word came up: security. Edgar Manthis, a freshman and chemistry major, has stated that “[Google Wallet] could replace credit cards if the security was good enough, just not now”, but he does say that once Google Wallet is perfected it could replace credit cards. From a security perspective Google is saying that your phone will be “a card that you can lock”. Meaning that your phone will have multiple levels of security from phone lock, required pin, encrypted data on the phone itself, and the card is never fully displayed. Also if the phone is ever lost you can remote wipe the information on the phone. In other words you can delete all sensitive information including credit card information.
With the invention of Google announced Google Wallet an interesting question comes to one’s mind: what if the battery of your phone dies? Google answered that one must use plastic at that point. That contradicts other statements made by Google like Google Wallet is supposed to be your wallet. Well if Google Wallet was your wallet why should you carry your actual wallet? At this point there are too many questions about Google Wallet and not enough clear answers. Maybe in the future Google Wallet could become the new standard we use to pay for merchandise but not now.