Google is talking with big retailers about creating a new service to provide fast, cheap shipping of items found through its product search engine, in competition with the free shipping feature of Amazon’s Prime subscription service, according to a Wall Street Journal report this morning.

The search giant has approached such retailers as Macy’s, Gap and Office Max about the project, which could involve shippers such as UPS and courier companies to make deliveries, the WSJ reports.

It’s an example of the rising competition between the companies, with Amazon and Google increasingly encroaching on each other’s territory, and squaring off in new areas such as digital music and books.

Amazon is putting large amounts of energy into its $79/year Amazon Prime subscription service, which also includes access to a library of streaming movies and TV shows at no additional cost, plus the rental of one electronic book a month for Kindle users, from a limited library.

Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet come with a free Amazon Prime trial.

 

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