I read about this, I expect very soon, within the next 6 months. They've come under alot of fire recently about promoting their own services in the search results and stuffing it with ads so I expect this is a move to turn it into an advertising platform and escape the ftc.

One thing which should be interesting is whether Google will double serve adverts on this platform. I wouldn't be suprised if they tried their luck, letting customers pay and then send the traffic off through paid advertisments, next thing you know Google places will be paid.

Not a great thing for the internet or the economy as it's their gateway to turning the organic serps paid. These business' should be listed high up in the serps anyway and shouldn't need to pay these extra costs or compete with Google's services.

If I was a small ecommerce store and was told I needed to pay to get listed at the top of Google I think I would feel a little peeved off however it might actually be cheaper than paying an seo to rank you, but that's not the point. The organic serps is supposed to be unbiased.