According to breaking news reports that have appeared in the last few hours on Reuters and on the Wall Street Journal, Google is likely planning to become your next PayPal.

PayPal is the most popular digital payment system available online (over 70 million accounts can send money via the Internet in 45 countries), recently acquired by auctions clearinghouse eBay.com.

PayPal allows consumers to pay for purchases directly on Web sites by funding electronic-payment accounts from their credit cards or bank checking accounts.

Google plans may in fact include the creation of an electronic-payment service that could help the company expand and diversify its thriving business, made up for the greatest part by the profit returned by its advertising services (Google AdWords and AdSense).

Here is the full story.