Google's GBuy program could challenge eBay's PayPal

Google seems to be trying to enter just about every internet playing field these days. Much of the industry has been waiting to see when the giant of search would launch an electronic payment system to challenge the dominance of eBay's PayPal division. Well, that day may be upon all of us very soon.

Google's GBuy program is set to launch June 28th according to reports, and it will apparently allow Google to capture just about every datapoint imaginable about electronic transactions that happen through the service. In turn, Google's massive customer profiling database (which spans quite a few hard drives, probably) will be able to precisely target ads and other offers from Google partners to "customers" of the GBuy program. eBay's PayPal lacks much of this capability at this time, although to eBay power sellers, PayPal is an invaluable resource for allowing paying eBay customers to complete auction payments.

Will GBuy "revolutionize" the electronic payment industry, as Forbes predicts? It certainly has that capability -- but first, Google will have to convince people to use the service. Google can launch as many cutting-edge products and services as possible, but without the traditional or viral marketing to get people using and re-using the service, it won't be able to take off with more than a whimper.