Google Vies for Shoppers

Google is upgrading its shopping site as it steps up efforts to compete in Web comparison shopping, a move to become a key player in a market dominated by sites like Amazon and eBay.

Google, known for its all-purpose Web search engine, is adding features to its separate service for shoppers, Google Product Search, that, among other things, will make it easier for users to look for soft goods like clothes -- a fast-growing area in the $140 billion U.S. e-commerce market. The image-recognition technology used to deliver those features for the Google shopping service comes from Like.com, a comparison-shopping site Google purchased in August that has a "visual search" feature. The search feature helps shoppers look for goods based on color and other physical attributes. The changes could be introduced on the Google shopping service as soon as later this year.