On Monday, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s mobile payment service Square released a Register app for merchants to use an iPad at the point of purchase. With the software merchants can complete transactions with absolutely no plastic as long as the customer has Square’s mobile app. Square has built a wallet into its app called Card Case, which stores payment details, sharing your name when checking out, processing the transaction and sending a text message confirmation.

On Tuesday, Ad Age reported that Square’s Card Case system marked the first major mobile payments launch in a category that has everyone from Visa to AT&T in a tizzy. And while Square nabbed Visa as a strategic investor in April, Visa is also launching its own mobile wallet competitor based on near field communication (NFC) technology, which will enable users to touch or wave their phone at the register to pay, rather than give their name to a salesperson.

Then, today, Google announced Google Wallet, an app that the company says will make your phone your wallet. You’ll be able to tap, pay and save using your phone and near field communication. Google is field testing Google Wallet now and plans to release it soon. Users will be able to store credit cards, offers, loyalty cards and gift cards. When you tap to pay, your phone will redeem offers and earn loyalty points. Google also plans to store things like boarding passes, tickets, IDs and even keys.

We used Social Radar to measure buzz.

Google Wallet chatter online

Google Wallet, which had been nearly unmentioned before today, experienced a 116,483% spike in chatter.

Google vs. Square vs. Visa vs. MasterCard vs. AT&T vs. Verizon mentions within “mobile payment” conversations

Visa and Square generated the most overall chatter within “mobile payment” conversations over the past month. However, Google spiked above all others today, being mentioned in 90% of all “mobile payment” conversations.

Did Google Wallet just change the game? How will Google Wallet affect plans and offerings for Square and Visa moving forward?

Samsung turned heads this summer with its launch of the Galaxy S line of Android smart phones. Samsung even accomplished the rare feat of coordinating the launch across all four major U.S. carriers – T-Mobile (as the Vibrant), AT&T (as the Captivate), Sprint (as the Epic 4G) and Verizon (as the Fascinate).

With competition in the mobile market heating up, we decided to breakdown the buzz on the Galaxy S.

Chatter trend: iPhone vs. HTC Evo vs. Droid X vs. BlackBerry Torch vs. Galaxy S

Measuring chatter: iPhone vs. HTC Evo vs. Droid X vs. BlackBerry Torch vs. Galaxy S

As expected, iPhone 4 generated the most online chatter in the last month against the HTC Evo, Droid X, BlackBerry Torch and Galaxy S.

However, chatter around Galaxy S specifically has been steadily rising over the past several months.

Galaxy S chatter trend

Galaxy S sentiment

Sentiment around Galaxy S has been very positive, with 85% of conversations being positive and only 7% negative.

Galaxy S sentiment trend

Galaxy S Negative Words

The word ‘problem’ was among the most frequently used negative words.

By drilling into individual posts for further analysis, we found the words ‘slow’ and ‘lag’ among those used most often with the word ‘problem’.

We also looked at the overall topic cloud to reveal some of the key words used in Galaxy S posts, sized by relevance and colored by sentiment.

Galaxy S Conversation Topics

The word iPhone appeared in 22% of Galaxy S posts.

Galaxy S Most Influential Sites

Analysis of the Top Sources using the Social Radar visualization tool reveals Engadget blog as the top source based on links in, links out and relevant posts.

Galaxy S chatter: Captivate vs. Epic 4G vs. Fascinate vs. Vibrant

We also analyzed chatter around each of the four Galaxy S phones: the T-Mobile Vibrant, AT&T Captivate, Sprint Epic 4G and Verizon Fascinate. At the moment, the Vibrant is generating the most chatter, followed by the Captivate, the Epic 4G and then the Fascinate.

Galaxy S content breakdown

Further breaking down the percentage of content contributed by various sources reveals 67% of chatter around Galaxy S was generated by microblogs, 22% by blogs and 11% by forums.

So how does the Galaxy S chatter compare among Android enthusiasts vs. iPhone enthusiasts?

We created a watch list consisting of blogs and news feeds specifically focused on Android products, and compared which of the Android phones were generating the most chatter. We included Galaxy S, Galaxy A, Evo, Nexus One, Hero, Droid Incredible, Droid X, Droid 2 and myTouch on the chart below:

Android phone chatter among influential Android bloggers:

Conversely, we thought it would be interesting to run the same query among top iPhone focused blogs and news feeds to see which of the Android phones were generating the most chatter among iPhone enthusiasts:

Android phone chatter among influential iPhone bloggers

Nexus One dominated chatter among both Android and iPhone sources. Although the Nexus One has been on the market much longer than the Galaxy S and has been generating chatter for a longer period of time. Interestingly, the Galaxy S is not generating as much chatter among iPhone blogs and news feeds, though it is one of the most discussed among Android sources.  We will check back with an update and further analysis once the Galaxy S line has been on the market longer.