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Google trialling same-day delivery service in San Francisco, says The New York Times

Google trialling same-day delivery service in San Francisco, says The New York Times

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Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (STOCK)
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (STOCK)

Same-day delivery. It's likely the closest online retailers will get to closing the delay between in-store and online shopping, and more than a few are taking notice: eBay, the United States Postal Service, Walmart, and Shutl are all testing such services, and now mighty Google is joining the fray. As rumored last year, Google is currently trialling a same-day delivery service in San Francisco, The New York Times confirms. Crucially, Google is not getting involved in stocking warehouses or shipping products itself: instead, it's simply faciltating the transaction between retailers (like Macy's, Gap, and OfficeMax), consumers, and shipping companies.

The service is still tightly under wraps, and the Times reports that it is only open to Google employees and friends in San Francisco. Still, it's not hard to imagine where Google could be going with such an offering. The search company has faced fierce competition from Amazon in product search, with some users eschewing Google's shopping tools and going directly to the Seattle-based juggernaut. To improve the quality of its product search results, Google recently revamped and relaunched Google Shopping, which charges retailers. The new same-day delivery service, meanwhile, can be seen as Google's way of offering consistent, easy, quick, and (hopefully) inexpensive shipping to the mix. All of it would allow the search company to regain clicks from Amazon by matching — or beating — its selection and Prime services without having to dirty itself with the logistics of stocking warehouses and shipping boxes. Google has yet to confirm that it's working on a same-day service, but if the rumors are true it looks like the search company is taking the fight to Amazon.