AP's latest report on the unconfirmed story that Google is starting a PayPal killer quotes a number of informed sources who think it's a real thing and some good thinking on where this takes Google next. Google used to be thought of as a search engine; now you just have to look at their balance sheet to change your conception to "advertising company." Google's advertising is a "beautiful thing," as Larry Page once said, but Google's vision is far bigger.

It is, I think, really to make every online experience as good as possible, and to make a LOT of money doing it. Pick up the paper any day. There's almost always a story about identity theft, stolen credit cards, online fraud, etc. If Google can get control of the online transaction, and in the process track who's a scammer, how money is being spent, what the trends are, that could be as interesting as getting a piece of every transaction, which of course would also be a "beautiful thing."

As the AP article notes: "A payment service also might give Google more insights into accountholder buying habits - an advantage that theoretically could be used to do a better job of delivering relevant ad links that would be more likely to be clicked upon to generate more profits."

American Technology Research analyst David Edwards believes what I'll call GooPay would be tied to Froogle initially but the AP writer also notes:

... The service might process the money that's exchanged between the millions of merchants and Web sites participating in its online advertising network. A payment service also could make it easier for Google to sell content through its search engine.

Google already has indicated it will charge visitors to view certain videos that will be indexed in its search engine. Some analysts also think a payment service would enable Google to charge a fee on behalf of publishers looking to cash in on copyrighted or subscription-only news articles.

GOOG closed Tuesday at 287.84, well above Monday's open of 276.09. eBay, owner of PayPal, which would be hurt by GooPay, closed at 36.90, down from Friday's close of 38.05.