Hot on the heels of Apple's subscription service announcement, Google has lifted the curtain on its own offering that will allow publishers to set a price for recurring content delivered via your Google login. The payment system is called "One Pass," and it allows publishers to offer not only subscriptions, but also metered access, "freemium" content, and even individual articles. So far, One Pass seems more flexible than Apple's offering, and the company will likely take a much smaller cut from publishers than Apple will.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt presented One Pass on Wednesday in Berlin with a number of publishers that will be on board for the launch, including Axel Springer AG, Focus Online, Stern.de, Popular Science, Media General, NouvelObs, Prisa, and Rust Communications. The service is already available to publishers in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain—those who want to sign up to be part of One Pass can already do so on the website, while Google welcomes input from publishers in other countries.

Google didn't specifically mention Android in its blog post about One Pass, but said that users would be able to access content on tablets, smartphones, and websites via a single sign-on. From there, publishers can choose from a variety of subscription lengths that auto renew, or they can try other options such as one-day passes, individual article purchases, multiple-issue packages, and more.

Google's page for One Pass extols the virtues of its "business model flexibility," allowing publishers to try out a number of strategies to discover what best works for them. The system is powered by Google Checkout, and publishers will be able to authenticate users against their own records so that it will be easy to offer extras or freebies via One Pass to existing subscribers. And, if publishers want, they don't have to use One Pass at all; Google makes it seem like just another option for publishers who want to leverage an easy-to-use payment system via Google.

"Our goal is to provide an open and flexible platform that furthers our commitment to support publishers, journalism and access to quality content," Google Commerce business product management director Lee Shirani wrote on Google's blog.

Google's attitude with One Pass seems starkly different from Apple's when it introduced a new in-app subscription model on Tuesday. Apple is also offering recurring subscriptions to publishers that will work through users' already-existing iTunes accounts, but Apple's stance seems to place many more limitations on publishers, including price-matching requirements and Apple CEO Steve Jobs' statement implying that Apple deserves a cut of subscription revenue from new users.

"Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing," Jobs said. "All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app."

Google didn't specify on its blog how much of a cut it would take from publishers using One Pass, but an unnamed publisher told mocoNews said that Google planned to keep 10 percent of subscription sales. If true, it would undercut Apple's 30 percent cut by a pretty wide margin, making One Pass look even more attractive to those having second thoughts about iOS.