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Google fastens buy buttons to paid mobile search results – report

All your happy shoppers BELONG TO the retailer US

Google is reportedly planning to imminently add "buy" buttons to its mobile search results in an apparent move to compete with online retail giants eBay and Amazon.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which appeared to have been briefed by Google, the buttons will pop up on search result pages in a matter of weeks.

The newspaper reported that the buttons will appear under a "Shop on Google" option at the top of a search page.

The buttons – which when clicked on will take netizens to a Google product page where they can purchase items from retailers – will apparently only be served alongside the ad giant's paid search results.

Google will not be adding the buy buttons to natural search results, the WSJ added.

For now, the buttons are expected to only appear on mobile results for a select amount of search traffic, presumably to allow Google to test out its latest land grab strategy.

Google will apparently be paid by retailers via its current ad biz, rather than taking a slice of the proceeds from the items sold through its buy buttons.

The apparent plans come after a tough time for Google in Europe, where it was slapped last month with a Statement of Objections in the long-running EU anti-trust case against the multinational's abuse of dominance in the search market.

In response to the SO, Google claimed that its shopping results had "not harmed competition" because of the likes of strong players such as Amazon and eBay.

Not long after, Mountain View appeared to have been given a surprise endorsement from one of its rivals in the online shopping game, after eBay's chief John Donahoe was quoted as saying: "We are a strong commerce competitor".

However, Donahoe's remarks were later labelled by eBay has having been "misconstrued".

eBay, no doubt, must be really pumped by the added, er, competition it can expect from Google's buy button game plan. ®

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