The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google is getting ready to launch an electronic payment system to go head to head with eBay's PayPal. "It could be a pretty big negative for eBay if it happens," Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy, who follows Google and eBay, said. The AP story notes:

Expanding into online payments might make Google less dependent on advertising, which accounted for nearly all of its first-quarter revenue of $1.26 billion. The merchants who run auctions on eBay are major buyers of Google's ads, which appear alongside search results.