Since its launch in May of 2011, Google (News - Alert) Wallet has gone pretty much nowhere. Carriers aren’t jumping at the idea, and seems like developers are abandoning the project on a regular basis. Even cofounder Rob von Behren ditched the team to join up with Square in January of this year.

Von Behren stated, “When I left the Google Wallet project in January, I fully expected to stop working in payments but to remain at Google. After meeting the team at Square however, I decided to do the opposite. Square is doing some great things in the payment space. They have a strong leadership team and a culture that fosters innovation.”

The primary motive for carrier’s lack of enthusiasm towards Google Wallet is the shortage of NFC chips – which the software is dependent on. Verizon Wireless (News - Alert) is one of the largest providers out there, and beyond simply denying the distribution of the software as a stock app on the Galaxy Nexus, it went as far as completely blocking all downloads of the app from the Play Store.

Some suspect that Square might be considering trying its hand at NFC-based payment, but COO Keith Rabois put rumors to rest last fall stating, “Google has a relationship with most of the top 100 retailers, almost all advertise with Google. Clearly they can add value to those merchants. So can they take advantage of that channel and relationship? Sure. Will consumers interrupt their lives to use it? That remains to be seen.” Additionally, he said, “People don’t wake up and say ‘I want to pay with PayPal (News - Alert).’”

Jonathan Wall, another cofounder of Google Wallet, has also recently abandoned the team along with product lead Marc Freed-Finnegan to form Tappmo – a mobile payment solution of their own. To take it a step further, head of the program Stephanie Tilenius has even given up on Google Wallet and transferred to another position within Google.

For what it is, Google Wallet just doesn’t seem like it will ever really catch on. With so many key members of the team jumping ship, it appears that Google’s new take on payment has ultimately been a flop.