Web search giant Google announced on Wednesday to unveil its much-anticipated online payment processing system, which will offer online shoppers with an account for quick pay.

The service named "Google Checkout" was set to launch for the United States on Friday, according to Salar Kamangar, the vice president of product management at Google.

Web sites and merchants can integrate Google Checkout into their sites as an alternative payment method to existing billing systems, he said.

Consumers with a Google account can type their billing information into Google Checkout once, and then pay for purchases thereafter with one click on any web site featuring the system. They can also track their orders through the system.

By now, online shoppers have to fill in different billing forms when they purchase on different web sites, and wait minutes before these forms are validated and accepted.

Merchants using Google Checkout will be charged a processing fee of 20 U.S. cents per transaction, plus 2.2 percent of the relevant purchase price.

Kamangar said the regular transaction fees are less than those charged by credit card companies, which can be about 1 percent higher.

The back-end system is the same as what Google has been using for at least a year to allow customers to pay for premium services on its Google Earth, Google Video and Picasa Web services. Now the system is being expanded to allow any merchant to use it as an alternative payment processing system.

The Google Checkout service could also be extended for use on mobile devices, but Google is not working on that right now, Kamangar said.

Any website can add Google Checkout as a payment processing method by cutting and pasting its web code into the site. Large companies, e-commerce and shopping integration providers can also integrate it as an option within new or existing shopping cart systems, as retailers Timberland and Levi's are doing, he said.

Google is also partnering with financial services companies. For example, Google and Citibank will offer customers a co-branded Checkout option that will provide users 5 dollars and 1,000 "thank-you" points for signing up, Kamangar said.

Like other payment processing services, Google Checkout hides credit card numbers and reimburses consumers for unauthorized transactions. It also lets users choose whether to keep their e-mail addresses confidential, and users can opt out of unwanted e-mails from merchants.

Analysts had been expecting the announcement for more than a year, and some speculated that it would be the first piece in a larger infrastructure to enable payments across the web.

However, according to Greg Sterling, the head of the research firm Sterling Market Intelligence, consumers' reaction may not be so optimistic. "The question is, will consumers feel this is secure and trustworthy?" he told the CNET News.

Source: Xinhua