RUMOR: GOOGLE TO LAUNCH GOOGLE WALLET TOMORROW

Google Wallet was first officially announced back in May along with partners Citi, First Data, Sprint, and MasterCard. Using a compatible phone and payment point (MasterCard PayPass) it allows you to pay for things using just your phone–no need to get your card or cash out. Tomorrow, it looks like Google Wallet gets an official launch.

You will be able to take advantage of Google Wallet on Sprint if you own a Nexus S 4G and shop where there’s a compatible MasterCard PayPass point. However, a limited public launch isn’t a bad thing as it will allow for a low level of use to be monitored and tested. If everything goes to plan, we can expect the availability of Wallet across more networks and NFC-enabled phones to increase fairly rapidly.

For the moment this hasn’t been confirmed by Google, but as has been rightly pointed out, it’s the NFC World Congress today and the Nexus Prime is expected next month which will also offer NFC as standard. It does sound like the perfect time to roll this out.

RUMOR: GOOGLE BUILDING ITS OWN NFC PAYMENT SYSTEM

Can't say we're surprised to hear this at all, but Bloomberg BusinessWeek says Google's working on its own NFC-based mobile payments system. That makes perfect sense, given that Eric Schmidt has been enthusiastically extolling the virtues of NFC since just before Google launched the Nexus S -- which, of course, features an NFC chip. BusinessWeek says the system might launch as early as this year, although we think Google's got plenty of infrastructure work to do first -- and it's facing plenty of competition from the likes of Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, who are launching their own Isis payment system, as well as direct device competition from RIM and Apple. Should get interesting -- we'll see if we hear anything at CES this week. [Engadget]

GOOGLE ACQUIRES MOBILE PAYMENT DEVELOPER ZETAWIRE

Ever since Google CEO Eric Schmidt first touted Android 2.3′s NFC capabilities at a recent conference, Google has made it clear that it plans to make a big play in the mobile payment space. Google’s play will star NFC, of course, and it certainly isn’t the only major player in the cell phone space looking to capitalize on the coming mobile payment boom — Nokia has already released NFC-equipped cell phones, RIM is known to be eying NFC and Apple is rumored to be testing the technology for future iPhone models. Today, The 451 Group revealed that Google recently acquired stealth mobile payment startup Zetawire. The Toronto-based company has less than five employees and no website, but it does have a patent application filed for “a payment system, an advertising system, and an identity management system” combined into a single offering. It’s hard to say exactly what Google has in mind with this acquisition, but it is probably safe to assume the company’s plans involve Android, NFC, ads and making money. [BGR]