In late January, Google Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra, responding to a question on the social news site Reddit, said that his company was considering implementing bitcoin capabilities, and asked users how they would like to see Google work with bitcoin. Over the next several days suggestions poured into the discussion, hosted by Google. Below are 13 of the 1,395 ideas submitted to Google. Most center around enabling bitcoin payments within Google’s ecosystem, but a few are considerably more ambitious.
Develop a secure user-friendly wallet
Implement bitcoin payments into Google Play Store, Checkout, AdSense/AdWords, etc.
Build point-of-sale payment systems for merchants, online and offline
Add bitcoin market data to Google Now and Google Finance, treating Bitcoin like a stock
Display bitcoin (BTC not XBT) as a currency in Google search like CAD and USD, not like a stock
Integrate bitcoin into Google APIs, and then let developers build solutions and mashups on top of those APIs
Bitcoin/Litecoin/Dogecoin tips on YouTube — content creators can be paid directly by watchers
Integrate blockexplorer (a way to view bitcoin transactions) into search results
Build a general mobile payments system that is user-friendly and based on bitcoin
Expand into money services to grow financial inclusion for the underbanked via bitcoin
Turn bitcoin into Google’s PayPal, allowing for easy payments internet-wide & expand into the real world like a free debit card system, competing with banks
Enable simple peer-to-peer payments within a contact list and facilitate buying bitcoins with dollars
Integrate bitcoins with Gmail to make sending/receiving bitcoin as simple as sending an e-mail