Google isn’t just paying lip service to mobile and apps, it is quietly and cleverly taking steps to ensure it occupies a central position in the emerging mobile search/mobile advertising/mobile commerce continuum. To this end it has made its Checkout available on mobile. According to Google’s official blog, buyers will now be able to make purchases on their mobile phones from any WAP-enabled Checkout merchant. Google ads that the Checkout experience is slightly different from what users experience on the desktop. “For example, buyers verify their identity with a PIN rather than with their full Google login.”

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On the seller side, merchants in the U.S. and U.K who have a WAP-enabled site can “now use Google Checkout for mobile with no changes, and when new merchants perform a standard Google Checkout merchant integration, the mobile functionality will be implemented automatically.”

Combine this reach with Google’s other mobile assets and it appears Google has the mobile content supply chain sewn up – except for the content, of course. But who needs that? Google’s mobile search can direct users to goods and services, its ad network can monetize the eyeballs and Checkout on mobile can rope in merchants and help collect the cash. One has to wonder what operators and D2C providers will conclude when they think this through…