<p>Google grows more and more like Amazon with each passing month, transforming itself into an honest-to-goodness online shopping company, and this evolution is increasingly overt. But things got really cool today with the news that the web giant is posed to challenge Amazon with an army of robots.</p><p>In an excellent piece of reporting, The New York Times' John Markoff reveals that, led by the former head of its Android mobile operating system, Google is quietly buying up robotics startups for a project that appears more than just experimental.</p><p>"If Amazon can imagine delivering books by drones," Markoff writes, "is it too much to think that Google might be planning to one day have one of the robots hop off an automated Google Car and race to your doorstep to deliver a package?"</p><p>The difference between Amazon's drone stunt and Google's retail robot skunkworks, run by Andy Rubin, is that it seems far more serious. While Amazon released an unrealistic marketing video that had little to do with how its operations really work, Markoff's sources say that Google is taking incremental steps to automate steps all along the consumer-product supply chain, from manufacturing to shipping.</p><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/business/2013/12/google-retail-robot-army/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/04/all-hail-the-googlebots-heres-a-look-at-the-7-robot-companies-google-just-acquired/">All hail the GoogleBots: Here&#039;s a look at the 7 robot companies Google just ...</a> (VentureBeat)</p><p><a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/12/04/why_does_google_keep_buying_robot_startups_newscred/">Why does Google keep buying robot startups?</a> (Salon)</p><p><a href="http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/210707/why-is-google-assembling-a-robot-army/">Why is Google assembling a robot army?</a> (Death and Taxes)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dpHR6QRFTUGufjMiAJIIGa-3_J57M&ned=us">155 additional articles.</a></p>