Google goes after Amazon, expands same-day delivery service
Culture
Google takes on Amazon, and Skype takes on Snapchat.
I'm Bridget Carey and this is your c|net Update.
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Google is growing its same-day delivery shopping service.
Google Express is expanding beyond California and New York to three new cities, Chicago, Boston and Washington D.C..
Customers can shop from a total of 37 retailers including Walgreens and Target.
But with the Google is now charging a fee to use it.
Membership to get same day delivery is 95 dollars a year or 10 dollars a month.
And if you don't want to commit to a membership you could pay as you go with a five dollar shipping charge per order.
Google is offering a free three month trial membership.
Google same day shopping serviced launched a year ago and it's competing directly with Ebay now and amazon prime.
Which, also offers same day delivery on some items.
Google service though, is cheaper than what Amazon prime promises and the expansion comes right in time for the busy holiday shopping season.
And speaking of tech challengers, Microsoft Skype is taking on Snapchat with a new kind of video messaging mobile app.
It's called Skype Qik.
The app lets you send 42 second videos to your friends.
You can also prerecord 12 short videos as quick replies for expressing your mood.
We're starting to see this shift in services that let you send short video clips to send to your friends.
Skype is trying something new since it's not as popular on mobile compared to using Apple's FaceTime or Google's Hangouts.
When you use Skype Quick, you sign up with a phone number, not a user name, which is a similar approach to WhatsApp.
The video messages are square in shape like Instagram videos.
And they disappear after two weeks.
It's available on iOS, Android and of course Windows Phone.
Now if you're looking for new ways to communicate with your friends but you don't wanna take a video you could say it with a sticker.
Facebook is expanding those oh so cute cartoon stickers into comments.
Until now they've only been in private messages.
So now you can actually send someone a thumbs down comment when you dislike something.
There are tons of choices to express yourself with drawings.
There's even this singing egg creature thing.
Looking ahead, this month will bring a few new Android phones and Verizon says that its next Motorola Droid phone will be shown off on October 28th.
CNet was first to report that this month Verizon's gonna come out with a new fast charging Droid this is rumored to be called the Droid Turbo, and a leaked user manual says it has a 5.2 inch ultra high def display, a 21 megapixel rear camera, and three gigs of RAM.
Not only will it charge fast, but it'll have a large battery to last longer than most phones.
That your tech news update.
You can always get more at cnet.com and be sure to follow along on Twitter.
From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
