Y’know what the smart thing about Google’s corporate policy of allowing employees to work on their own projects? Any time information leaks out about something top-secret, the company can say ‘well, people work on lots of personal projects…’ and sidestep the speculation.

That’s what appears to be happening following reports of a patent filed by Google for Gpay, a potential text-message based payments system. In part, it’s the age-old ‘buy a can of coke from a vending machine using your phone’ idea, with added person-to-person payments to tip the greengrocer. I’m loving the accompanying illustrations on that score.