Google is hitting the headlines once again with a new scheme which could dramatically alter the way people carry out safe shopping online from their smartphones and tablets.

The Register reports that the search giant is apparently going to embed a dedicated button on its results pages when people make a query from a mobile device, which will allow them to purchase products and services without having to visit a third party site.

The rollout of the button could be just a few weeks down the road and there are already industry observers voicing concern over the extent to which it will impact upon the way retailers will cope with even more power being taken away from them by Google.

Of course, there are caveats to how the ‘buy’ button will be used, including the fact that it will only pop up alongside paid search ads rather than the pages that appear naturally based on Google’s algorithmic calculations.

This means retailers which are already splashing out to get their sites to the top of the search rankings will be able to utilise the service directly, circumventing the other processes usually involved in shopping online.

For consumers, it could be a real convenience, since it means even less browsing and clicking, presumably with a unified Google account allowing them to securely pay for items on the fly, with no additional log-ins necessary.

Of course, for the companies that are competing in the natural search results and cannot justify paying for a sponsored ad, the prospect of e-commerce transactions being integrated with Google could be problematic.

Google has yet to make clear the specific parameters of the scheme and until it does, more questions will be asked of its intentions.