Google wants to make it easier to send money, or pay bills online using their platform. However, instead of bundling the feature with a new service Google wants to incorporate it into something people have already grown to love, and use religiously. Google’s Gmail is now reportedly poised to become the next platform on the Internet that will add bill pay functionality that will allow them to send money, or pay bills directly from their inbox.
The company is simply calling it “Pony Express,” and right now it isn’t much more than a talking point within the company. However, if the rumors are true and Google really is working toward this type of functionality within Gmail, it would be a massive game changer. Gmail is already one of the biggest names in email on the Internet, and this would be another feature that would make Google’s Gmail a hub for virtually everything. That was clearly the aim when the company introduced Inbox, and now adding a feature like this – Google clearly knows that the future is through integration.
The project, according to the reports, would allow third-party services to ultimately wrangle the information that the user would deem appropriate to pay the bills that they need to pay. For example, if your cable bill was due at the end of the month, and you regularly received emails, or electronic statements from your cable provider – then it would be relatively easy for Google to incorporate a feature which would allow the user to pay that bill.
The project itself really wouldn’t require too much outside attention, or outside sourcing. In fact, many of the pieces of technology or apps that would be necssary to make such a platform function within Gmail, are already running under the Google umbrella. Google already runs various types of wallet features, and they already have the technology to distribute bills – since they do so with their Play Store. Furthermore, they even have many users credit card, or bank account information on file through Wallet, and other features.
Pony Express sounds more like a code name than it does a legitimate name, but no one from Google is commenting on the matter, so it really still is up in the air. That being said, this entire project is one that is quite interesting given the fact that Google would do well to have this type of product at their disposal. They would benefit even more from having this program incorporated into another one of their services, like Gmail.
