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September 30, 2026
On the web
Ant International’s Antom Supports Google Gemini in Expanding Access to AI Service in Asia
Business Wire
"Google Gemini and Antom, a leading merchant payment and digitisation services provider under Ant International, announced a strategic partnership to make AI tools for learning, creativity and productivity more accessible to users in Asia. The collaboration will leverage A+Rewards, Antom’s digital marketing solution powered by privacy-preserving computing and AI technologies, and its extensive partner network of digital payment apps, e-commerce platforms and lifestyle service providers, to help expand access to Google AI Plus."
September 28, 2026
Top Post
Google Tests Buying from Walmart-Owned Flipkart Through Gemini and AI Mode in India
TechCrunch
"Google has started testing a way for shoppers in India to buy products from Walmart-owned Flipkart directly through Gemini and AI Mode, as the search giant looks to expand its AI services from product discovery into transactions. Users in the test see a “Buy” button on select Flipkart product listings appearing in Gemini and Google’s AI Mode, which takes them directly to a Flipkart checkout flow without leaving the AI interface, according to people familiar with the matter and an experience seen by TechCrunch."
September 22, 2026
On the web
Google Upgrades Universal Commerce Protocol; Adds Retail AI Tools
Chain Store Age
"Google is expanding the functionality of its open-source agentic commerce standard and giving retailers new artificial intelligence capabilities. Google is updating the Universal Commerce Protocol. UCP, an open standard for agentic AI-based commerce intended to cover the entire shopping journey from discovery and buying to post-purchase support, has already been enabling direct checkout for brands and retailers using it. Now, retailers can also enable capabilities like cart transfer to a retailer site with more coming soon."
UPI Merchant Fees Set To Boost PhonePe And Google Pay
StratNews Global
"India’s decision to introduce merchant fees on UPI payments could create a major new revenue stream for leading digital payment apps. Walmart-backed PhonePe and Google Pay could earn millions of dollars annually. From October 15, merchants will face a 0.4% fee on transactions above 2,000 rupees ($21). According to estimates from Bernstein, the new fee could generate up to $1.1 billion in annual revenue for payment apps by March 2028. Based on market share, PhonePe and Google Pay could receive around $900 million of that amount."
September 15, 2026
On the web
Google Pay to Add Device Biometrics for Mastercard Payments in India
Biometric Update
"Mastercard and Google Pay plan to allow users in India to authenticate eligible card payments with a fingerprint or face scan on their smartphones. The optional biometric authentication feature will be available through participating issuing banks to customers with an eligible Mastercard saved in Google Pay. Mastercard says it is intended for utility bills, mobile recharges, and eligible online merchant checkouts. The companies expect to begin rolling it out by the end of 2026."
September 10, 2026
On the web
Google Warns AI Agents Are Automating Credential Theft at Unprecedented Scale
Biometric Update
"Agentic AI is enabling cybercriminals to coordinate complex infrastructure systems to steal credentials. These tools can manage multiple stages of an operation and reduce the time attackers spend moving between discovery, exploitation, and collection. The Google Threat Intelligence Group says it observed a suspected financially motivated attacker using an AI coding chatbot and a multi-agent framework to plan, build and execute a mass credential harvesting campaign in less than six hours."
August 10, 2026
On the web
Google Play Now Takes Venmo Payments
Engadget
"You can now pay for your Google Play purchases with Venmo. Google has added the service as a payment option in the Play store, letting you purchase apps, subscriptions or in-app content with either your Venmo balance or your linked cards and bank accounts. Google recently opened the Play store to outside billing in the US, the UK and Europe as part of its settlement with Epic Games."
August 7, 2026
On the web
Arriving Now: AI-Powered Toast Ordering on Google Maps
Toast
"Toast, the global technology platform built for restaurant and retail businesses, announced an expanded integration with Google that brings agentic food ordering to Ask Maps, a conversational AI feature within Google Maps. When a diner asks—by voice or text—for a restaurant recommendation or specific food request, Ask Maps can now put a Toast restaurant's menu directly in front of them and carry that request all the way through to a completed order."
August 6, 2026
On the wires
Marqeta Expands Collaboration with Google to Launch New Offering in Wallet for Kids
Business Wire
"Marqeta’s card issuing platform enables Google to expand its Wallet for kids offering, providing a safe, digital-first way for kids to receive and spend allowances without needing a traditional bank account. With Marqeta’s tokenization and spend control functionality, Google enables parents in the U.S. to set daily spending limits, monitor transaction history, and lock or unlock the balance while supervised kids and teens use their Android and Wear OS devices to tap to pay in stores."
August 3, 2026
Top Post
Introducing Ask Google Pay, and Expanding Everyday Credit
"Google launched Ask Google Pay, a new conversational experience built right into the app. Powered by our Gemini models, Ask Google Pay is an opt-in experience that helps you analyze your spending patterns and helps you with information related to managing your money. You can chat with it to understand your spending patterns, get savings tips, explore tailored offers (such as finding the right credit card for your travel expenses), and learn about financial concepts like SIPs or credit scores."
July 23, 2026
On the web
Google Slapped with $1 Billion Fine Under Landmark EU Digital Law
CNBC
"European regulators have fined Google 890 million euros ($1 billion), alleging the company gives preferential treatment to its own services. The fine is Google’s first under the European Union’s sweeping Digital Markets Act (DMA) which aims to scrutinize Big Tech’s operating practices in Europe. European regulators alleged the company gives preferential treatment to its own services."
June 26, 2026
On the web
Google Opens the Play Store to External Billing in the US, UK, and Europe
9 to 5 Google
"Google announced that it will open up the Play Store to external payments starting on June 30 in the US, UK, and Europe. The new policy sees developers paying 10% fees on their first $1,000,000 in annual earnings regardless of billing method, whether that be Google Play Billing, an alternate built-in system, or external links for billing outside of the app. That’s well down from the 30% cut that was standard when this whole dispute first began."
Jack Henry and Google Cloud Expand Collaboration to Deliver AI-Driven Security for Banks and Credit Unions
Jack Henry
Jack Henry® and Google Cloud announced an expanded collaboration to deliver AI-driven security capabilities for banks and credit unions. Building on their strategic relationship established in 2022, Jack Henry will use Google Cloud's suite of agentic defense products to develop a proprietary AI security platform purpose-built for the financial services ecosystem. This initiative will strengthen cyber resilience for financial institutions and help them defend against emerging threats while improving operational efficiency.
May 27, 2026
On the web
Google Is Adding Two New AI Features for Retailers
Retail Brew
"Google is rolling out two new tools in Merchant Center—where retailers upload and manage their product listings so they appear across Google Search, Shopping, and now AI surfaces like Gemini—to help retailers and brands get discovered in AI conversations. “Conversational attributes” let retailers update their product descriptions to match the more natural, conversational way people search in the AI era. The new tool is now available globally."
May 22, 2026
On the web
Google Brings UCP Checkout to YouTube Shopping Ads
The Keyword
"Google has extended its Universal Commerce Protocol checkout into ad campaigns for the first time, putting in-ad purchase inside Shopping ads on YouTube and Direct Offers Demand Gen campaigns. Google will roll the UCP-powered checkout to Canada and Australia in the coming months, with the U.K. to follow. Affirm and Klarna buy-now-pay-later options are now embedded directly into Google Pay for UCP transactions, closing a gap with the BNPL flows already available inside Amazon, Apple Pay, and PayPal checkout."
May 20, 2026
On the web
Google Launches Smart Digital Cart; Upgrades Agentic Commerce Standard
Chain Store Age
"Google continues developing new ways for consumers to leverage Agentic artificial intelligence while shopping. The tech giant is introducing a new intelligent digital shopping cart called Universal Cart and also adding new features to the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard for agentic AI-based commerce intended to cover the entire shopping journey from discovery and buying to post-purchase support, as well as a new agentic payments protocol. Highlights of Google’s new agentic shopping tools follow."
May 19, 2026
On the web
Would You Let Robots Spend Your Money? Google Is Betting on It
The Verge
"Google is going all in on AI-driven shopping even as some competitors back off. At Google I/O, the company unveiled the latest iteration of its AI commerce tools: a “Universal Cart” that works across different retailers and Google products like Gemini — and eventually YouTube and Gmail, too. Users can add products to Google’s universal cart as they browse Search and chat with Gemini and then check out through Google. The cart will also track prices, provide in-stock notifications, suggest potential discounts, and alert shoppers to potential issues with their selections."
May 13, 2026
On the web
Google Teams with Affirm, Klarna for Flex Payments in AI, Search
Chain Store Age
"Google is partnering with two leading flexible payment platforms to provide new options for checkout with Google Pay in its AI and search environments. The tech giant is collaborating with Affirm and Klarna to bring flexible payment opportunities to its Google Gemini agentic AI engine and its search offering, including AI mode, via the Google Pay digital payment tool in the U.S. Following are overviews of Google’s new partnerships with each flexible payment provider:"
May 11, 2026
On the web
PayPal and Google Cloud Say Crypto Rails Are Key to Scaling Agentic Commerce
MEXC
"Executives from both companies argued that traditional payment systems are not designed for AI-driven transactions. Rich Widmann, Global Head of Strategy for Web3 at Google Cloud, stressed that AI agent interaction in the current web environment is poorly designed. “An agent can’t get a bank account. It’s not just hard; it’s impossible, due to both technological and regulatory challenges,” he said. Widmann described crypto as an excellent machine-readable interface for payments."
May 7, 2026
On the web
Google Expands UCP Checkout to Main Search Shopping Results
MSN
"Earlier this year, Google announced Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a protocol to allow AI-agents to buy directly from search. This went live only in Google’s AI Mode interface in February. But now, it seems to be rolling out in the main Google Search results where there are retailers that support UCP."
May 6, 2026
On the web
Solana and Google Cloud Launch Pay.sh for AI Agent Payments Using USDC
Coinpedia Fintech News
"Solana Foundation and Google Cloud launched Pay.sh for AI agent payments using stablecoins. AI agents can access and pay for over 75 APIs using USD Coin on Solana network. Platform removes subscriptions and billing accounts, allowing AI agents to pay directly per API request."
April 28, 2026
Top Post
Google: We’re Donating Agent Payments Protocol to the FIDO Alliance to Support the Future of Secure, Agentic Payments
"Google: We’re donating the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) to the FIDO Alliance, a renowned industry association focused on creating open standards. Transitioning ownership to the FIDO Alliance ensures AP2 remains platform-agnostic and community-led, while accelerating adoption of secure agentic payments. Today on GitHub, we’re also releasing AP2 v.0.2, which introduces critical updates for autonomous transactions, including “Human Not Present” payments, which will allow agents to securely execute payments autonomously, like securing and purchasing limited-run tickets the moment they’re on sale, based on pre-authorized user instructions.
March 25, 2026
On the web
Google Just Launched a New Gemini-Powered Dark Web Monitoring Service
IT Pro
"Google has announced the launch of a new AI-powered dark web monitoring service, allowing enterprise security teams to keep tabs on emerging threats and exposed information. The new dark web intelligence capabilities, offered through Google Threat Intelligence , use Gemini to analyze threat actors activities relevant to particular organizations. The new AI capabilities aim to streamline threat intelligence operations, according to Google, removing the need for enterprises to manually input and update keywords on an as-they-go basis."
March 18, 2026
On the web
Mastercard and Google Team Up to Build Trust for AI-Powered Shopping
The Defiant
"Mastercard has unveiled Verifiable Intent, a new open, standards-based trust framework co-developed with Google, designed specifically for "agentic commerce" — a world where artificial intelligence (AI) systems don't just assist shoppers, but actively plan, decide, and complete purchases autonomously. The core problem Verifiable Intent aims to solve is visibility: when a consumer delegates a purchase to an AI agent, the clear “click buy” or "tap to pay" moment that traditionally signals intent disappears."
March 4, 2026
On the web
Google Requires Structured Product Data for UCP Checkout
The Keyword
"Google has published an official help document explaining the Universal Commerce Protocol and how it supports commerce interactions on Google surfaces. Google’s documentation makes it clear that the Universal Commerce Protocol is an open standard that defines how agents can interact with merchants programmatically. This includes product discovery, comparisons, capability negotiation, checkout initiation, and post-purchase flows."
January 12, 2026
Top Post
Google Announces a New Protocol to Facilitate Commerce Using AI Agents
TechCrunch
"Google announced a new open standard, called the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) for AI agent-based shopping, at the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference. The standard, developed with companies like Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart, lets agents work across different parts of customer buying processes, including discovery and post-purchase support. The core idea is that the standard could facilitate these various parts of the process instead of requiring connections with different agents."
December 18, 2025
On the web
Google Pay: Advancing Payments, Credit, and Commerce in India
"Google announced updates designed to help build financial confidence for everyone. Notable: Reimagining Everyday Credit with ‘Flex’; Pocket Money: Financial Confidence for the Next Generation, and over the last few months, launched new efforts to stay ahead of bad actors by preventing Screen-Sharing Scams; and AI-Powered Fraud Prevention."
October 30, 2025
On the web
Google Finally Opens Up the Play Store’s Gates in the US
Android Authority
"Google is opening up the Play Store in the US, allowing users to download apps and make payments outside it starting October 29, 2025. Developers can now link to external app stores or payment options and offer cheaper deals directly to users. The change follows a court order in Google’s legal battle with Epic Games and currently applies only in the United States."
October 29, 2025
Top Post
Introducing an Agentic Commerce Solution for Merchants From PayPal and Google Cloud
Google Cloud
"Modern consumers demand a seamless, personalized shopping journey, from initial product discovery all the way to final purchase. With the rise of agentic AI, merchants now have an opportunity to deliver a truly assistive and cohesive experience across every touchpoint. PayPal and Google Cloud have announced bringing agentic shopping experiences to life with a new offering that combines Google Cloud’s Conversational Commerce agent with payments powered by PayPal."
September 19, 2025
Top Post
Intro to Google Agent Payments Protocol (AP2): How It Works [Video]
YouTube
"AP2 is an open protocol for the emerging Agent Economy, created by Google. It's designed to enable secure, reliable, and interoperable AI-driven commerce for developers, merchants, and the payments industry. The protocol is available today as an extension for the open-source Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol and relies on Agents implementing tools via the Model Context Protocol (MCP)."
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