Google Inc. is enabling merchants that use its Checkout payment system to provide order tracking information.
The Mountain View, Calif., search engine company announced on its Checkout blog Friday its Order Processing API software, which lets merchants assign tracking numbers to items or groups of items. Merchants can also mark individual items as back-ordered, canceled, or returned. They can also correct information, for example, when an item has been mistakenly associated with the wrong shipment.
The information is sent to customers' Checkout order history.
Google may also be considering expanding its payments offerings. The company published a patent application last month for a person-to-person payment system that would operate through mobile phone text messages. A spokesman said, however, that it may not choose to commercialize such a system.
