Google has officially announced that it intends to integrate Web Monetization into Chrome. This will give website owners a another revenue stream by enabling them to accept micropayments in the form of tips or rewards for their content.
In a paper that BleepingComputer discovered, Google defined “web monetization” as “a web technology that allows website owners to receive micro payments from users as they interact with their content.”
“It provides a way for content creators and website owners to be compensated for their work without relying solely on ads or subscriptions.”
Any online page can have web monetization capabilities added to it by using the rel=”monetization” HTML element, as demonstrated below.
<link rel=”monetization” href=”https://example.com/pay”>
This tag identifies the preferred payment processor and notifies the browser that the website allows web monetization.
“Notably, Web Monetization offers two unique features—small payments and no user interaction—users are paying/tipping for the content while they consume it. It extends the HTML element by introducing rel=”monetization”, Google added.
Website owners can indicate their willingness in being paid through online monetization, but visitors always have the last say over how much and when to pay.
Those who want to support a website can do so seamlessly while viewing their content thanks to this feature, which enables payments to occur automatically without requiring user input.
The Web Platform Incubator Community Group is working on web monetization, which is still a work in progress and not yet a W3C Standard.
After gathering input from the online community, the plan is to eventually adhere to the W3C standards track.
