Is Google Wallet or Some Other Google Payment System Getting Closer?

Since so much of the blogosphere revolves around speculation I thought I would join in. Is Google Wallet or whatever they call their payment systems getting closer to reality? I have no idea but some recent changes on a Google page makes me think that something MIGHT, I repeat, MIGHT be up. Of course, it could also be NOTHING, just some simple changes at the Googleplex.

In the past week, Google has made a few chages/additions/adjustments to their Robots.txt file disallowing specific directories (content they don’t want others to crawl) from being crawled.

Let’s Review

• Last week Google disallowed the crawling of a directory named /purchases.
• In the past day, Google disallowed the crawling of the /gwt/ directory. GWT sounds sort of like Google Wallet.

So, what does this all mean?

• Google is getting closer to launch Google Wallet or some other payment service?
• They are in the early stages of testing something in the payment arena?
• Some another new service coming?

Who knows? I don’t. But like I said earlier, given that this is the blogosphere, I thought it might be interesting to toss it out and see what comes back.

Btw, just last week Google placed a disallow on the Robots.txt /reader directory file launching Google Reader.

Finally, I’ve requested a comment from Google. If they have one, I’ll make sure to add it to this post.

Postscript: The always timely Dirson points out that heading to the url: http://purchases.google.com redirects to: https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=sierra. Dirson calls “Sierra” the “service name.” I also noted that purchase.google.com redirects to the Google home page.

Postscript 2: Google Rumors took our post and did some more digging and has a bit more.

Postscript 3: Remember, I said all of this was speculation. I knew when I posted the item I would hear from a bunch of you. I was right. One reader shares that the “/gwt/” directory has existed for some time and involves Google’s mobile services. Any page that’s reformatted for a mobile device eminates from the /gwt/directory. What must have happened today is that Google added /gwt/ to its do not crawl list. Oh well, there goes that idea. Thanks to B.O.B for the tip.

Postscript 4: News.com has info from Google saying the Google Purchases screenshot just reflects a new interface for purchases of Google Earth.

Want to discuss? Visit our forum thread, Google Wallet Coming Soon?.