In addition to simplifying online shopping, such information cards will reduce the number of phishing incidents — that is, the fraudulent use of someone's identity to gain access to financial records, according to Robert Blakeley, a research director at the Burton Group, a consulting firm that is participating in the effort.
He argued that Amazon.com was a technology company whose business was simplifying online transactions for consumers.
Square technology, he hopes, will one day kill the cash register, simplifying commerce the way Twitter simplifies online communication.
Users can make purchases using credit card information stored in an "eWallet" -- technology that Launchpad developed to simplify online purchases.
He said that while his Google team's original goal was to simplify online purchases, it quickly realized that nudging mobile e-commerce forward seemed more urgent.
PlayStation 2, Ms. Smith said, has greatly simplified online gaming by permitting players to use their existing Internet service providers as well as use either broadband or narrow-band connections.
To try to bring down the cost of living, it has simplified online payments and introduced a system in which the customs service authenticates copies of those products imported by other distributors, undermining the exclusivity agreements.
On Wednesday, the company unveiled its latest addition: Clearly, a browser extension that aims to simplify online reading by stripping away links, advertisements and other clutter from Web articles.
Orchard, a Canaan portfolio company, launched last year to simplify online direct lending at scale, and currently powers seven investment platforms, including Lending Club, Prosper, and OnDeck.
Enter Beatrobo, a new social music community, which tries to simplify online group listening by automating the process and making the experience asynchronous, not real-time.
More broadly, the government has pressed ahead with controversial plans to implement a single internet gateway that would simplify online censorship.
