Google Wallet is a nifty idea that hasn't really taken off yet, but that's only because the company's giant tentacles haven't fully unfurled yet. Among the many adventures that Google announced during its annual developer conference Wednesday afternoon was a multi-pronged plan to integrate Google Wallet into every aspect of your shopping life. The most intriguing new feature is Google's plan to add dollar "attachments" to your Gmail messages. Need to pay a buddy for those concert tickets? You simply attach a payment to your email, just like you would attach a photo or a document, and send it off. The money comes out of your Google Wallet account, and you didn't even have to leave your computer or talk to your friend again. The person receiving the money has to have Google Wallet, too, of course, but that was the same hurdle PayPal had to overcome at the turn of the century. And with so many people already having Gmail accounts-about four times more than the number of active PayPal accounts-it shouldn't be too difficult to convert the masses. (Although they don't have to use their Gmail address to use Wallet.)

But the final piece of the puzzle is Android and NFC, the technology that allows you to make point-of-sale purchases by simply tapping your phone against a cash register. If you've ever done that, it makes you feel remarkably futuristic, but you probably haven't yet, because only a handful of phones have the technology built into them right now and even fewer stores are set up to accept NFC transactions. Making Google Wallet more popular online will only make NFC more popular in the real world, increasing interest in Google Wallet, and so on.