After rumours earlier this week that the search giant was going after PayPal's personal payment service Google's chief executive has confirmed that the firm is looking at online payments but it would not be competing directly with PayPal.

PayPal parent eBay saw its share price dip sharply on rumours that Google was waiting in the wings.

Eric Schmidt, chief exec at Google, told Reuters: "The payment services we are working on are a natural evolution of Google's existing online products and advertising programs, which today connect millions of consumers and advertisers."

He said the firm was not creating: "a person-to-person stored-value payments system" - which is PayPal's model. PayPal attracted the attention of regulators when it launched because by storing individuals money it was acting as a bank.

Schmidt would not be drawn on further details beyond: ""We believe that e-commerce can be improved and we are working on ways to improve the user experience."

Some more details on Reuters here. ®

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