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This week we're reviewing 5 trends that have helped define 2011. So far we've covered online privacy, group messaging, HTML5 and second screen apps. In this final installment we're looking at mobile payments. This has been a very busy market in 2011, as credit card companies, banks, carriers, Google, eBay and a number of startups jostle for position.

One of the defining features of the next generation of smartphones - which are starting to come out now - will be a technology called NFC (Near Field Communication). Instead of whipping out your wallet at a store, via NFC you'll simply tap or wave your phone to make a payment. This has major implications for banking institutions and the four main payment networks in the U.S.: Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. All have been actively preparing for this sea change in how we pay for things.

Visa announced today it will launch a next-generation digital wallet service which aims to revolutionize electronic payments, including those made online, on a mobile phone, or offline at the point-of-sale. The platform allows consumers to create a digitized version of their actual wallet, in which they load all their cards, whether Visa or not. Even merchant loyalty cards will be supported.

When making a purchase on the Web, this new system offers a click-to-purchase functionality that does away with the long, tedious form filling currently necessary on the websites belonging to online merchants. Instead, a username and password will be all that's required to complete a purchase. Offline at retailers' locations, the mobile wallet will support the use of promo codes sent via SMS, barcode scanning and NFC technology, the latter which allows a customer to pay with a wave of their phone instead of with a swipe of a plastic card.

In the startup world, with new money comes new obligations. The leaders at mobile payment startup Square, being well-establish entrepreneurs, know this well. Yet, they cannot be excited about requirements coming from Visa after the credit card giant made a strategic investment in the company earlier this week.

Visa released a new "best practices" for mobile payments April 27 and a stipulation of those practices are that credit card information be encrypted from the source of the transaction. Square does not currently encrypt credit card information coming from the dongle it uses to make transactions through smartphones. Yet, when billion-dollar behemoths that have just invested in your company strongly suggest that you do something, it is probably best that you do it. Hence, Square will issue new dongles later this year with the ability to encrypt data transmissions from the source.

Note: Updated with analysis from security expert Robert Vamosi of Mocana.

Visa is launching its own version of the location-based discount, in a move that rivals Facebook Places Deals, Foursquare and other mobile social networks hoping to capitalize on a shopper's physical presence in order to offer them bargains. But in Visa's case, no "checkin" is required. In fact, neither is a smartphone.

Instead, the credit card company is experimenting with SMS text messages containing offers which are sent users who opt-in to the new program. In its initial phase, clothing retailer The Gap is Visa's only partner. Discounts are sent to consumers in predefined zip codes and demographics after qualifying transactions are made with their Visa cards.

U.S. Bank has been testing an NFC-enabled mobile payments service in 20 different markets, spanning several U.S. states, according to Dominic Venturo, Chief Innovation Officer for U.S. Bank Payment Services. The program was being trialed by bank employees who were also bank customers. However, the company won't disclose the exact number of personnel involved.

Like similar services from Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase, U.S. Bank's payment solution lets customers make purchases with their mobile phone simply by waving their phone at select payment terminals at the point-of-sale. The service debuted in November 2010 in partnership with Visa, whose payWave technology is being used in the new solution. Using hardware made by DeviceFidelity, customers can NFC-enable their smartphones either by inserting a microSD card into their device, or by using a specially designed iPhone case which also includes a microSD card slot.

Less than two weeks after Visa's announcement that it was launching its own peer-to-peer digital payment system, American Express is getting in on the game as well. The credit card company today unveiled Serve, its new digital payment and commerce platform.

Users will be able to send or receive money from their Serve accounts, which can be funded by a bank account, debit or credit card, or by money from another Serve account. With the new AmEx digital payment system, consumers will be able to make payments via the Serve website, via their mobile phones, and with merchants who accept American Express cards. Accounts will be accessible via Android and iPhone apps and through Facebook.

Credit card giant Visa announced a new peer-to-peer payment service today that will soon give its U.S. customers the ability to receive and send money from their Visa accounts. The new personal payments service moves Visa's focus away from being just a handler for point-of-sale transactions and takes aim at an area that has long been dominated by PayPal.

Visa's announcement includes a partnership with CashEdge and Fiserv, two person-to-person financial transactions companies, which will now have access to VisaNet, the company's payment processing network.

4chan, the infamously crude message board, is currently down due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack and has been since the early morning hours according to the site's Twitter account. The attack comes just a day after similar attacks slowed down Bank of America's Web services.

Today, Visa and Visa Europe have announced the commercial availability of In2Pay, a microSD solution for mobile payments. The service, enabled by Texas-based DeviceFidelity, has been in testing for the past 18 months with financial institutions across the U.S., Europe and Asia.

The new service works with several smartphone models, says Visa, including the Blackberry Bold 9650, the iPhone 4/3GS/3G and the Android-based Samsung Vibrant Galaxy 5.

Beginning this week, New Yorkers won't have to pull out cash or credit to pay for their bus, subway, train or taxi fares. Instead, they'll be able to pay using their iPhones as part of a pilot program for Visa's payWave program, which allows users to make contactless payments.

The system makes it as easy as waving your payWave-enabled phone in front of a sensor, which then securely completes the transaction.