Google hasn’t said when additional brands would begin appearing, however they have said ZAGAT, Hello Kitty, Art.com, NOOK and Adafruit Industries are in the initial group. Basically, once you begin following any of these users on Google+ you should begin seeing offers in your stream. As with Google Offers, the actual offer will vary from brand to brand. Once something attracts your attention, you can then get to sharing and saving.

You will be able to save the offers directly from the Google+ post and once they are saved, they can be redeemed from your email confirmation or from the Google Offers app. At present, there is a Google Offers app available for Android and iOS users. Ultimately though, this appears to be another way for Google to not only attract, but keep users within the Google+ world.

Aside from this Google Offers integration, Google I/O also brought talk of additional features for Google+ Photos. Moving forward Google+ Photos users have additional space for storing images. Or alternatively, as opposed to simply saving more images, you can save those images at a higher resolution.

The storage is increasing to 15GB, however it is important to know that will be shared across Gmail, Google+ Photos and Drive. Otherwise, Photos also picked up a feature called Auto Awesome, which is a mashup of Collage, HDR, Smile, Motion and Panorama. Bottom line here, Google Offers is just one on many Google+ additions that we are expecting to see rolling out.

VIA: TNW

SOURCE: Google+

The new Google Shopper adds two new tabs at the bottom of the screen called Offers and My Offers. The Offers tab shows a list or map view of all the nearby businesses that have submitted deals via Google Places. If you come across a deal that you like but don’t plan on using just yet, you can save it for later. After it’s been saved, to view it, you simply go to the My Offers tab.

You can also view and redeem your purchased offers from the My Offers tab. However, currently this is available only in select cities, which include Portland, Oregon, the San Francisco Bay Area, and New York. The Google Shopper 1.5 update is available to iPhone users in the US as well as the UK and is compatible with iOS 4.0 and above.

[via Google Mobile Blog]

The Android app will launch later today and is called Google Shopper 2.0. The app is interesting and supports the service on Android phones. Using the app the subscriber can view, purchase, and redeem the offer of the day right from their smartphone. There are a number of offers right now in the Bay Area and New York for food and drinks.

The app will also allow the user to view Offers for areas near them. That Nearby Offers tab should also be cool when you are traveling and looking for a special deal to enjoy. Google has also tipped the next cities that will see Google Offers support. The cities include Austin, Boston, Denver, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

[via Android Community]

In order for Google to become successful in changing the entire business ecosystem in the United States and abroad, they will certainly have to think about getting manufacturers to work with the other mobile platforms they produce phones with in order to attain a wide enough audience. This system of using cell-phones and other handsets for payment on a day-to-day basis has been a long time coming – the most basic difference between NFC and the system we use right now is the amount of metal and plastic we’re using to carry around out account numbers. Of course there’s a lot more going on with Google Wallet, but as soon as Google, Citi, Mastercard, and First Data get the population to agree to that idea, they’re sold.

But when will Apple and Microsoft get on board? Will they get on board? Are they late to the party, or is NFC payment via mobile device a bad idea?

How it will be done at the beginning

Google Wallet will be represented by an app that users can download on their Android phone at the outset. It will connect to Google Offers, a system where people can access coupons and discounts from their web browser, (be it on their desktop, laptop, mobile device, wherever,) that they can transfer to their Google Wallet account, that “Offer” then instantly showing up wherever the user has the Google Wallet app open. They can then use that offer at the corresponding store.

When a person gets to a store and wants to pay for the product or service they desire or require, they simply touch their mobile device to the payment panel that the store has installed. This panel, in whatever form it takes, reads instantly everything you’ve got that corresponds to the store or particular product or service. This could be a coupon, it could be a rewards card, it could be anything.

Inside your Google Wallet you’ll have at least one card, that being your Google Card – aka GCard, which will act as a sort of re-chargeable payment system that you can add money to and take money out of via the NFC system. In addition to this, you’ll be able to add one or more credit cards, each of them then sitting in your wallet available for you to use or de-activate at any time.

There will also be Google Wallet Objects which will include your credit cards but will also include coupons, customer rewards cards, “puzzle pieces,” and other special scannable items.

How it will be done in the future

Like all apps in the future, the concept of an “app” will have changed from platform-based to cloud-based, meaning that if you’re able to access the internet, you’re able to access the app. A good example of where this change has already happened is in Google Maps. Very recently Google Maps changed from where if you were using a mobile device and navigated to Google Maps in your web browser, you’d be re-directed to a download point where you were able to grab the app, which was separate from the web browser. Now they’ve re-worked their mobile functionality, allowing anyone with access to a web browser to utilize Google Maps from the web. Simple, and now universal, very simply.

Before this though, Google will rally to have the Google Wallet app available on other platforms such as Apple’s iOS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 (soon to be Windows Phone 7.1 Mango.) They will not risk this ecosystem to fail simply because people are unwilling to use an Android phone. Once we figure out the technology to get this system working via web browser (or some sort of other method that allows every device to have Google Wallet, regardless of platform,) Google will move forward with it.

All this is assuming that Google can grab enough momentum here at the beginning to keep the ball rolling on into the future. If they can, we’ll be Japan in no time.

First Data Worldwide noted their excitement at the idea that we as a society have reached this point in commerce – it wasn’t if, it was when. First Data processes 40 billion transactions a year, Ed their representative at the NYC Google event on May 26 noting that even if you’ve never heard of First Data Worldwide, you’ve more than likely used them before. Over 1,000 locations inside New York, Ed noted, have already been enabled by First Data to work with Nexus S’s NFC chip.

Sprint’s Farid Habib stepped on stage to note that the Nexus S 4G was being used on all of the demoes thus far today. This is the newest version of the Nexus S and the only one working on Sprint’s 4G network.

Additional retail partners were shown via a pre-recorded video including American Eagle, Subway, Walgreens, The Container Store, Macy’s and more. Have a look at that video here:

In the same vein, receipts will be passed electronically, loyalty cards will be included in your Google Wallet, and additional fun item will be included in the wallet in the future. This is all what Google is calling Single Tap. The next fantastical product of this event via NFC was a tap-to-grab item via a poster. All they had to do was project an image to the wall with the correct symbol, and poof! You’ve got your brand new coupon. This of course will fall more under the Google Offers category.

Very exciting things going on with Google and their new NFC system.

[VIDEO PROCESSING]

Security

Of course with this entire system involving your money, security is paramount. To keep your wallet secure, Google is working with the industry standard with smartcard-based payments and SecurePay, plus an NXP which is NFC + security element. This NXP chip is already installed on your Nexus S device. This chip makes your device safe via locks and save from outside elements like the example Google has given: laser pen attacks.

Does this seem like it’s going to make you confident enough to use the system? This is of course a pre-pre-release question, but what do you think thus far of Google Offers and Google Wallet?

BONUS until we get video of this process, check out these cats:

Google Wallet

There will be a Google Pre-payed card, multiple credit card support, and a locked system that will work from your phone. Your credit card will never be revealed, this secure system working with MasterCard’s PayPass system. This system will be released in major cities first (most notably Portland, San Francisco, and New York City, as is standard,) and this system, again, will be released in the near future, rolling out to the whole world in the next few years. This is only the beginning. You can check out more info on NFC as it stands in the world right this moment via our [NFC Portal] and you can check out more info on [Google Wallet] by simply hitting the portal marked Google Wallet.

Google Offers

This is a system that works with coupons, right next to Google Wallet you’ll be able to work with Google Offers in both offered coupons via search, OTA offers, check-in offers, and much more through the next few years of advancement in this tech. Find out more about [Google Offers] by, again, hitting the portal.

Stick with us here on SlashGear as we continue to cover this program through the future!

Every retail brand, they’ve noted, has come online, where in 1998 70% of consumers wouldn’t think of buying things online, 70% do it all the time now. Regardless of this, Google’s found that 92% of shopping is still offline, therefor a new era of commerce is coming up. Where before we were using cards to swipe, now we’re using cards to tap.

Almost a decade ago was the first point at which a chip was inserted in a device to enable electronic payment, now this NFC program will make that a bigtime reality. This system is ready to work around the world, Google just needs to make it official. Stick with us here on SlashGear as we continue to investigate through the future.

Also note, this is not the introduction of Google Offers, but the announcement that it will work with Google Wallet, a new NFC concept. Take a peek at a Google Offers teaser video from late April 2011 here:

Following Google’s unsuccessful attempt to buy Groupon back in 2010 for $6bn, it seems the search giant has been devising its own deal a day offering, enlisting small businesses to provide deeply discounted coupons if enough buyers opt in. Google has already shored up 42,000 offers and is waiting to get 100,000 to 500,000 offers before publicly launching the service.

However, Google Offers doesn’t seem to be a direct Groupon clone, as Google will not be collecting or distributing any payments but instead offers a format much like a direct advertising service that does not require a minimum number of people to buy in–a feature which has been critical to Groupon’s success and the main incentive for small businesses to offer such insane discounts.

[Via Business Insider]