Is Google planning to take the e-com fight to Amazon?

BANGALORE, INDIA: If all goes well, search giant Google might venture into E-commerce, and give a tough fight to the reign of Amazon, according to Wired.

"For the past several months, Google has danced coyly around the question of exactly how deep it wants to dip into the world of shopping. But the official confirmation this week of its long-rumored same-day retail delivery service signals a crystal-clear intention: Google wants to be Amazon," a Wired article states.

It quoted analysts at Baird Equity Research describing the new service, which would be beta-tested in coming months by select San Francisco Bay Area residents, as "consistent with Google's ambitions to create a larger commerce platform".

The service, Shopping Express, is also expected to "bring more local product inventory into search" and "counter competition from Amazon and eBay".

"We still see Google over time expanding toward a more traditional e-commerce marketplace model," analysts Colin Sebastian and Gregor Schauer were quoted writing.

Google has all the technological infrastructure it could ever need to run an e-commerce service. Already, its paid product listings have helped turn search results into an online storefront missing only a "buy" button, reckons Wired.

The only other piece Google would still need, it further adds, is the inventory. "For now, that will come from local retailers such as Target and Staples. But it's hard to imagine the same minds behind Google Glass and self-driving cars aren't itching to take a harder run at hacking a systems problem as seductive as the global distribution of consumer goods... Still, they'd have to hurry," the article concludes.